Table tennis: Yorkshire's Paul Drinkhall edged out of doubles at World Championships
England’s No 1 pair bowed out at the hands of Indian pair Sharath Kamal Achanta and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, going down 4-2 (10-12, 11-8, 9-11, 12-10, 15-13, 11-6).
It means they missed out on a plum tie against world No 1 Ma Long & Germany’s Timo Boll in the last 32.
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Hide AdEarlier in Dusseldorf, Drinkhall and Pitchford started with two routine three-set victories in their preliminary matches to move into the main draw, seeing off opposing pairs from French Polynesia and Dominican Republic.
Drinkhall begins his singles campaign on Wednesday against Cazuo Matsumoto of Brazil at 4pm UK time.