Connor Green & Tin-Tin Ho produced an incredible comeback to sink German stars Dang Qiu & Annett Kaufmann to make the quarter-finals of the Mixed Doubles at WTT Contender Zagreb where they met Chinese pair Wen Ruibo & Kuai Man.

The English duo overcame their Chinese opponents 3-1 in a little over half an hour and will head into the semi-final on Friday evening against first seeds Wong Chun Ting and Doo Hoi Hem of Hong Kong, China.

Follow the event on the WTT YouTube channel.

Green & Ho raced into a 6-2 lead in the opening game of their quarter-final before being pegged back to 6-6. They once again built a lead to take it to 9-6 before taking the game 11-9.

Their opponents fought back in the second game, winning it decisively 11-3 to even the match up at one game apiece. A tight opening to the third game saw the pairs trading blows through to 6-6 when Green & Ho won a run of points to secure the game 11-6.

The fourth game had a similar back-and-forth feel before the English pair earned match points at 10-7. Not going down easily, Wen & Kuai saved two to make it 10-9 before Green & Ho got the match over the line.

The English pair have had success on the WTT circuit recently, winning the gold at WTT Feeder Dusseldorf in March.

The previous day, when they lost the first two games of their quarter-final against Qiu & Kaufmann, it looked like they were on their way out of this competition.

A run of four successive points from 4-3 down in the third got them moving in the right direction and they went on to win that game to reduce the deficit.

Both sides led in the fourth, but it was the English who won two points from 9-9 to level the match, and they took the momentum into the fifth, which they led 6-2 after a run of five points. The Germans came back, but three points in a row from 8-7 put Green & Ho through to the quarter-finals.

Earlier in the competition, Green & Ho faced Croatian pair Ivan Hencl & Dora Cosic in the qualifying round. They took the first game 12-10, having seen their opponents save four game points, then two runs of four successive points saw them add the second. They completed victory with an 11-9 scoreline in the third.

In the singles, neither Green nor Ho were able to reach the main draw. Green (WR 158) overcame host-nation player Leon Benko (WR 413) in the first qualifying round of the Men’s Singles, and was never behind in any of the three games as he won 11-7, 11-4, 11-8, taking the match on his fourth match point.

He next faced Hungary’s Csaba Andras (WR 75) and, after winning the first two points of the match, found himself 2-0 down (11-5, 11-4).

Green gained some momentum in the third, in which he came from 9-7 down to win 11-9, having led at various stages. By contrast, he was never in front in the fourth – though always in touch – and he saved two match points at 9-10 and 10-11 with unreturnable backhand serves.

Green finally hit the front as he brought up a game point, but Andras saved that one and then took his third match point to ensure his place in the third qualifying round.

Meanwhile, Ho (WR 90) had a bye into the second qualifying round of the Women’s Singles, where she played Slovenia’s Sara Tokic (WR 230).

Tokic won their previous meeting in a deciding game at the 2024 European Championships in Linz and it was destined to be the same outcome in Zagreb.

Ho won the first six points of the match and went on to take the first game 11-6, but Tokic hit back to take the second 11-8.

Ho restored her lead as she came from 9-7 down to win the third 11-9, but again Tokic levelled. The decider never had more than two points in it, and when Ho levelled at 8-8 and then 9-9, it was anyone’s to win. Unfortunately, it was Tokic who got over the line to go through to the next round.

Wales and GB’s Anna Hursey (WR 34) is the 13th seed and made it into the second round with a four-game win over Sreeja Akula of India in the last 32.

Hursey is competing in the Women’s Doubles alongside Austria’s two-time European champion Sofia Polcanova, and they qualified for the main draw with a 3-0 (11-9, 11-1, 13-11) win over Zeng Jian & Ser Lin Qian of Singapore.

They met Chinese third seeds Chen Yi & Kuai Man in the last 16 and it was a 3-0 (11-6, 11-7, 11-4) win for the seeded pair.

Results

Men’s Singles
Qualifying round 1
Connor Green bt Leon Benko (CRO) 3-0 (11-7, 11-4, 11-8)

Qualifying round 2
Csaba Andras (HUN) bt Green 3-1 (11-5, 11-4, 9-11, 14-12)

Women’s Singles
Qualifying round 2
Sara Tokic (SLO) bt Tin-Tin Ho 3-2 (6-11, 11-8, 9-11, 11-7, 11-9)

Mixed Doubles
Qualifying round
Connor Green & Tin-Tin Ho bt Ivan Hencl & Dora Cosic (CRO) 3-0 (12-10, 11-5, 11-9)

Round of 16
Green & Ho bt Dang Qiu & Annett Kaufmann (GER) 3-2 (5-11, 9-11, 11-5, 11-9, 11-7)