Tin-Tin Ho sunk a top-100 Hong Kong player in brilliant style to reach the main draw of the WTT Star Contender Goa.

The England No 1 defeated Zhu Chengzhu (WR 85), coming from 1-0 down to win in four against the player ranked fourth highest in the qualifying rounds.

Having lost the first 11-5, Ho led throughout the second and took a 10-6 lead, converting the game point at the third time of asking.

The third saw Ho come back from 5-8 down to win six of ther next seven points, taking the game 11-9.

She opened up a 7-1 lead in the fourth, but saw that whittled back to 7-4, taking her timeout to take some guidance from Liam Pitchford in her corner.

In a tense finale, Ho went 9-6 up and then 10-7, bringing up three match points at the end of a blisteringly quick rally. She saw her opponent save two match points but grabbed the third to get into tomorrow’s main draw.

She will face a tough task against India’s Manika Batra in the last 64 – Batra is world No 34 and was the player who knocked Ho out of the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2021. The match is due on Table 1 at 6.15am UK time on Wednesday.

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Earlier, Ho (WR 152) had another win against a higher-ranked player in the second qualifying round, holding off Diya Parag Chitale (WR 122) of the host nation 11-9 in the fifth.

However, Sam Walker (WR 117) went out of the men’s singles, defeated in three by Bence Majoros of Hungary (WR 110).

Pitchford has a bye through the first round and will enter in the round of 32 against either Simon Gauzy of France or a qualifier.

Walker & Tom Jarvis are in the men’s doubles main draw – they will play Park Ganghyeon & Kang Dongsoo of South Korea in the round of 16.

Results

Women’s Singles
Qualifying round 2
Tin-Tin Ho bt Diya Parag Chitale (IND) 3-2 (11-13, 11-6, 11-13, 11-8, 11-9)

Qualifying round 3
Tin-Tin Ho bt Zhu Chengzhu (HKG) 3-1 (5-11, 11-8, 11-9, 11-9)

Men’s Singles
Qualifying round 2
Bence Majoros (HUN) bt Walker 3-0 (11-6, 11-3, 11-9)