Paul Drinkhall is through to the next round of the WTT Contender Nova Gorica in Slovenia, but Sam Walker, Tom Jarvis and Tin-Tin Ho are out.

Drinkhall fought back from 2-1 down to defeat Li Hon Ming of Hong Kong (WR 208) in a decider in their second qualifying round match.

That victory raised the possibility of an all-England match against Tom Jarvis, with the winner of his clash against Matteo Mutti of Italy due to play Drinkhall.

However, in another match which went the distance, Mutti won 3-2. Jarvis fought back from 2-0 down but could not sustain the momentum of an 11-2 scoreline in the fourth.

In the third qualifying round, Drinkhall will play Mutti at 5.25pm UK time on Table 1 – watch on the WTT YouTube channel.

There was also the possibility of another all-England match in the fourth qualifying round if Sam Walker had won two rounds and either Drinkhall or Jarvis progressed to the same stage. However, Walker was defeated by Germany’s Steffen Mengel (WR 133) in four games in his first match.

Liam Pitchford is seeded into the main draw, where he will face Wang Yang (WR 37) of Slovakia in the last 32.

In the Women’s Singles, Tin-Tin Ho was agonisingly beaten 12-10 in a decider by Irina Ciobanu (WR 202) of Romania in the second qualifying round.

As well as the singles, England athletes are involved in the doubles – Walker & Jarvis face Polish opponents in the qualifying rounds of the Men’s Doubles today, while Pitchford & Drinkhall are seeded into the last 16, where they have already been drawn to face Nandor Ecseki & Adam Szudi of Hungary.

In the women’s doubles, Ho & Karoline Mischeck of Austria go straight into the last 16 to face Tatiana Kukulkova & Ema Labosova of Slovakia, while in the mixed, Pitchford & Ho play second seeds Ovidiu Ionescu & Bernadette Szocs of Romania in the round of 16.

Results

Men’s Singles
Qualifying round 2
Steffen Mengel (GER) bt Sam Walker 3-1 (12-10, 11-6, 8-11, 11-8)
Matteo Mutti (ITA) bt Tom Jarvis 3-2 (11-8, 13-11, 5-11, 2-11, 11-8)
Paul Drinkhall bt Li Hon Ming (HKG) 3-2 (6-11, 11-2, 7-11, 11-9, 11-7)

Women’s Singles
Qualifying round 2
Irina Ciobanu (ROU) bt Tin-Tin Ho 3-2 (9-11, 11-8, 11-8, 7-11, 12-10)