TTT30 Spring 2023

All except Pitchford had to play in the qualifying events and Tom Jarvis set the scene as he had an easy victory
over Jeremey Dey of New Caledonia (WR 110) 2, 6, 5. A surprising score when it is considered Dey was ranked
higher than Jarvis. Sam Walker was next up but he often seems to get unfortunate draws and so it was this
time. His opponent was Lubomir Jancarik of the Czech Republic (WR 115) just slightly higher than Walker and
it was the Czech who won in three very close games 10, 9, 11. Paul Drinkhall had us all on the edge of our seats
when he played Maciej Kubik of Poland (WR 102). Drinkhall won but it took him nine match points to get over
the line. The finals score -10, 6, 8, -12, 9.
Sam Walker and Tin-Tin Ho
Ho met much higher ranked Korea Republic’s Lee Zion and she went out -8, -4, 8, 5 in her one and only match.
The second qualifying round saw the exit of both Drinkhall and Jarvis. Drinkhall lost to Belgian, Martin Allegro
who had also beaten him in Dusseldorf in February Jarvis had the toughest opponent in the qualifying part of
the event meeting the highest ranked player in the qualifiers, An Jaehyun, Korea Republic (WR 59) and it was
the Korean, not unexpectedly, who progressed 8, 5, 9.
Paul Drinkhall and Tom Jarvis
Liam Pitchford’s (WR 23) first match in the main draw, round of 64, saw a very straightforward loss as German,
Dang Qiu (WR 11) won 5, 3, 8. The two had only met the previous week in the Europe Top 16 when Qiu got
the win but in a much tighter match. Nevertheless, it meant Pitchford took home 5,000 US dollars and earned
20 ranking points.
The Men’s Doubles was now the only event left. As Drinkhall and Pitchford were seeded they had a bye in the
first round and so went straight to the round of 16 where Jakub Dyjas, Poland, and Cedric Nuytinck, Belgium,
were their opponents. The English pair started well winning the first two ends but Dyjas and Nuytinck pulled
back to make it 2-2. At the change of ends in the fifth it was 5-5 but Drinkhall and Pitchford only secured one
more point. The final score was 3, 9, -7, -6, -6.
The end of the tournament for the English players.
WTT Feeder Antalya, Turkey: 27 th March-1 st April 2023
Following straight on from the National Championships Tin-Tin Ho (WR 142) flew to Turkey for the WTT Feeder
tournament in Antalya where she won her first round match, round of 64 against Belgium’s Nathalie Marchetti
(WR 327) 16, 4, 8 but went out in the next round to Li Yu-Jhun (WR 91) of Chinese Taipei -9, -5, -11.
TTT: Issue 30: Spring 2023
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