Drinkhall starts strongly at Saudi Smash

Paul Drinkhall picked up a superb 3-0 victory over world No 65 Yang Wang at the Saudi Smash today, but Tin-Tin Ho and Wales’ Anna Hursey are out.

Drinkhall (WR 121) was 9-7 down in the first, but took four points on the trot to win the game, and never looked back against his Slovakian opponent.

He took charge of the second with runs of five and then four points, and led the third 3-0 and 8-1 as he went on to win 3-0 (11-9, 11-7, 11-4).

He plays another Slovakian, Lubomir Pistej (WR 90) in the second qualifying round and the match is scheduled on Table 2 at 11.25am UK time on Friday – follow the event live on the WTT YouTube channel.

Drinkhall needs to win two more matches to join Liam Pitchford in the main draw. England’s No 1, currently No 35 in the world, is seeded through to the last 64, where he has been drawn against Ruwen Filus of Germany (WR 74).

Ho (WR 168) was defeated 3-0 (11-7, 11-5, 13-11) by Serbia’s Izabela Lupulesku (WR 127) in the first qualifying round of the Women’s Singles.

Ho led at the start of the first, before a run of six out of seven points put Lupulesku in charge. Ho saved a match point at 9-10 in the third, and then missed a game point at 11-10 as her opponent took her second match point to progress to the next round.

Wales’ Anna Hursey (WR 96) lost 3-2 (11-8, 11-4, 6-11, 9-11, 11-9) to France’s Audrey Zarif (WR 106).

Drinkhall will again face Pistej in the Men’s Doubles – he and Pitchford have been drawn against the Slovakian and his partner Baldwin Chan of Hong Kong in the last 32.

Pitchford & Hursey will play Alexis Lebrun & Jia Nan Yuan of France in the last 32 of the Mixed Doubles.

Results

Men’s Singles
Qualifying round 1
Paul Drinkhall bt Yang Wang (SVK) 3-0 (11-9, 11-7, 11-4)

Women’s Singles
Qualifying round 1
Audrey Zarif (FRA) bt Anna Hursey 3-2 (11-8, 11-4, 6-11, 9-11, 11-9)
Izabela Lupulesku (SRB) bt Tin-Tin Ho 3-0 (11-7, 11-5, 13-11)

Drinkhall starts strongly at Saudi Smash Table Tennis England.