Paul Drinkhall came back from 2-0 down to reach the last 16 of the WTT Feeder Dusseldorf today.

The England No 2 is the sixth seed at the event and came in at the last 32 stage against Deni Kozul of Slovenia (WR 150).

His opponent, who beat China’s Liang Guodong 3-2 in the last 64 earlier in the day, kept his momentum going by taking the first two games 11-9.

But Drinkhall hit back and took the next two with relative ease to send it into a decider. The Englishman was in front for most of the game and a frustrated Kozul earned a yellow card just before the change of ends, when he trailed 3-5.

Both players held their serves for a while as Drinkhall took a two-point lead and was then pegged back, but it was he who crucially ‘broke serve’ as he went on to win 11-8.

He next plays France’s Jules Rolland (WR 130) in the last 16 tomorrow at 12.10pm UK time on Table 4 – watch on the WTT YouTube channel.

In the mixed doubles, England’s Tin-Tin Ho and partner Edward Ly of Canada were beaten 3-0 in the first round by Luka Mladenovic & Xia Lian Ni of Luxembourg.

Results

Men’s Singles
Round of 32
Paul Drinkhall bt Deni Kozul (SLO) 3-2 (9-11, 9-11, 11-3, 11-6, 11-8)

Mixed Doubles
Round of 16
Luka Mladenovic & Xia Lian Ni (LUX) bt Edward Ly (CAN) & Tin-Tin Ho 3-0 (11-7, 11-8, 11-9)