Liam Pitchford missed out on a quarter-final berth in the men’s doubles at the World Table Tennis Championships to end British involvement in the 2019 edition.
Pitchford and his Danish partner Jonathan Groth lost to seventh seeds Ovidiu Ionescu of Romania and Spain’s Alva Robles 4-1 in the round of 16.
Pitchford and Groth, themselves the 15
seeds, were on the wrong end of a 11-7, 11-6, 11-9, 9-11, 11-8 scoreline.
The pair had progressed into the round of 16 with a 4-1 victory over their own over Robin Devos and Cedric Nuytinck of Belgium.
But after Pitchford and Paul Drinkhall both went out in the round of 64 of the men’s singles, that was the end of British involvement.
Pitchford went out to Slovakia’s Wang Yang while Japanese eighth seed Koki Niwa saw off Drinkhall. Sam Walker and Tom Jarvis went out a round earlier in the men’s singles while Tin-Tin Ho and Maria Tsaptsinos came a cropper in the same round of the women’s singles. Sportsbeat 2019