Table tennis: Paul Drinkhall bows out of Indian Open in seven-game thriller

Yorkshire table tennis player Paul Drinkhall narrowly missed out on a semi-final place at the India Open after an agonising defeat against home hero Sharath Kamal Achanta.

By The Newsroom

Published 21st Feb 2017, 10:18 BST

Updated 28th Feb 2017, 12:48 BST

Paul Drinkhall was seaded sixth at the Indian Open (Photo: ITTF)

The 27-year-old took the quarter-final to the wire in New Dehli but was edged out 13-11 in a deciding seventh game.

Drinkhall, from Loftus near Whitby, saved one match point and missed one of his own before Achanta won a high-class match 4-3 (11-4, 10-12, 9-11, 11-6, 11-9, 9-11, 13-11).

Drinkhall, seeded sixth for the event, earlier enjoyed a good win over Germany’s Ruwen Filus, who is ranked just above him, in the last 16, going through 4-1 (11-4, 16-14, 11-8, 6-11, 11-5).

Achanta was beaten by 13-year-old Japanese sensation Tomokazu Harimoto in the last four. Harimoto lost to top seed and world No 6 Dimitrij Ovtcharov of Germany in the final.

In the doubles, Drinkhall played alongside fellow Team GB Olympian Sam Walker, but they were beaten in the last 16, going down 3-1 (11-9, 6-11, 11-8, 11-7) to Tristan Flore and Quentin Robinot of France.