Pitchford & Hursey safely through first test

Liam Pitchford & Anna Hursey negotiated their first match at WTT Feeder Manchester to make it through to the Mixed Doubles quarter-finals, where they have been joined by Tom Jarvis & Tin-Tin Ho.

Spectators could have been forgiven for not knowing where to look in the first set of matches on day two as all four courts featured English or British Mixed Doubles pairs.

Pitchford & Hursey (pictured above, photo by Pawel Meryn) had few real issues against Juan Perez & Sofia-Xuan Zhang of Spain, winning in three (8, 1, 7), but it was more of a struggle for the other pairs.

Louis Price & Mari Baldwin came closest, twice leading against the Wales-Jersey combination of Harri Docherty & Hannah Silcock before succumbing 3-2 (9-11, 11-8, 10-12, 11-5, 11-9).

Shayan Siraj & Tianer Yu took the first against the third seeds from Luxembourg, Luka Mladenovic & Xia Lian Ni, before going down 3-1 (6-11, 11-7, 11-4, 12-10), while it was three straight as Ben Piggott & Mollie Patterson were defeated by South Korea’s Park Gyeongtae & Yoo Siwoo (7, 5, 5)

The only other English winners in the Mixed came in the second block of matches, Jarvis & Ho seeing off Niagol Stoyanov & Giorgia Piccolin of Italy 12-10, 11-6, 11-5 – a good win against the fifth-ranked pair, who had won the title at the WTT Feeder in the USA last month.

David McBeath & Emily Bolton were knocked out by the top seeds, Hungary’s Nandor Ecseki & Dora Madarasz, in four. It was also a four-game defeat for Connor Green & Sophie Earley against Serbia’s Dimitrije Levajac & Izabela Lupulesku, the third seeds.

The quarter-finals will be the first matches on Saturday, at 10am. Jarvis & Ho will face top seeds Ecseki & Madarasz, while the next test for Pitchford & Hursey is against third seeds Mladenovic & Ni.

Results

Mixed Doubles
Round of 32
Liam Pitchford & Anna Hursey (WAL) bt Juan Perez & Sofia-Xuan Zhang (ESP) 3-0 (11-8, 11-1, 11-7)
Harri Docherty (WAL) & Hannah Silcock (JEY) bt Louis Price & Mari Baldwin 3-2 (9-11, 11-8, 10-12, 11-5, 11-9)
Luka Mladenovic & Xia Lian Ni (LUX) bt Shayan Siraj & Tianer Yu 3-1 (6-11, 11-7, 11-4, 12-10)
Park Gyeongtae & Yoo Siwoo (KOR) bt Ben Piggott & Mollie Patterson 3-0 (11-7, 11-5, 11-5)
Tom Jarvis & Tin-Tin Ho bt Niagol Stoyanov & Giorgia Piccolin (ITA) 3-0 (12-10, 11-6, 11-5)
Dimitrije Levajac & Izabela Lupulesku (SRB) bt Connor Green & Sophie Earley 3-1 (4-11, 11-8, 11-3, 11-6)
Nandor Ecseki & Dora Madarasz (HUN) bt David McBeath & Emily Bolton 3-1 (9-11, 11-6, 11-6, 11-5)

Pitchford & Hursey safely through first test Table Tennis England.