Pitch in good shape as trio begin Tour season

Liam Pitchford, Paul Drinkhall and David McBeath begin their seasonal ITTF World Tour campaigns in the group stage of the Bulgaria Open, starting in Panagyurishte tomorrow.

England No 1 Pitchford is in Group 1 and will first face Italy’s Leonardo Mutti, ranked at 299 in the world on Tuesday afternoon, followed by a match against Benjamin Brossier of France (#297) at 9.50am UK time on Wednesday – the second match is on Table 1 and is set to be live-streamed by the ITTF.

Pitchford, currently the world No 48, has been working hard at his new training base in Copenhagen and is looking to continue a year which has been characterised by a string of victories against world top-20 players.

He said: “I’ve had a good two weeks’ preparation – a lot of practice and physical – so I’m feeling good. I believe I can beat anybody on my day, I’m in good shape physically and mentally so if I can keep that up hopefully I can string some wins together.

“I also know it’s the first tournament of the season so everybody is hungry, so I need to be focused on every match and every point.”

Drinkhall, who has slipped down to No 90 in the world, begins against the host nation’s Teodor Alexandrov (#332) in Group 8 and follows up against Mehdi Bouloussa (FRA, #234). David McBeath, ranked at 208, is in Group 14 against Zsolt Peto (SRB, #425) and world No 79 Pavel Sirucek of the Czech Republic.

Pitchford & Drinkhall will also compete in the doubles, where they face Dutch pair Ewout Oostwouder & Laurens Tromer on Tuesday evening in the preliminary round.

 

 

Author: via Table Tennis England
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