Liam Pitchford and Tom Jarvis were both beaten in their opening matches at WTT Star Contender Ljubljana.

Pitchford’s campaign ended at the first hurdle as he was defeated in four games by Feng Yi-Hsin of Chinese Taipei, ranked one place below him at No 52 in the world.

Pitchford led for much of the first, though not by much, and it was his opponent who engineered the first game point, which he took to seal the game 11-9.

The second saw Pitchford save five successive game points – three from 10-7 and two on deuce – and then take his second opportunity to gain parity, 15-13 the score.

But the third and fourth followed a similar pattern of being level at mid-game, only for Feng to pull away, including taking five points in a row to close out his four-game victory.

Meanwhile, Jarvis (WR 76) was defeated, also in four, by Park Ganghyeon (WR 93) of South Korea – who ended the hopes of Sam Walker in qualifying.

Jarvis was never ahead in the first game, though at 8-8 it was either player’s to take – but three points in a row saw Park get the game on the board.

The second saw Jarvis come from 8-5 down to lead 9-8 but then saw a game point, before eventually losing 12-10 – but he came back to take the third 11-6, including six points in a row from 3-1 down.

The lead changed hands several times in game four, and was well poised at 9-9, but Park won the next two points to seal his victory.

Wales’ Anna Hursey (WR 71) defeated Minhyung Jee (WR 40) of Australia 3-0 (11-9, 11-2, 11-3) in the Round of 64. She fell at the next hurdle to Zhu Yuling of Macao, the ninth seed and world No 18, going down 3-1 (11-9, 11-8, 4-11, 11-7)

Result

Men’s Singles
Round of 64
Feng Yi-Hsin (TPE) bt Liam Pitchford 3-1 (11-9, 13-15, 11-8, 11-6)
Park Ganghyeon (KOR) bt Tom Jarvis 3-1 (11-8, 12-10, 6-11, 11-9)