Liam Pitchford made a dramatic start to his Major League Table Tennis career as his golden point notched a key victory for Florida Crocs.
The England No 1 came back to the table at 20-20 in the golden game against Bay Area Blasters. He faced Taehyun Kim knowing whoever won the point would seal the overall win for their side.
And it was Pitchford (above, photo by @majorleaguetabletennis; @realdanielcohen) who prevailed, a blistering backhand receive proving unreturnable by his South Korean opponent as Crocs took a 14-7 overall victory.
The golden game is the finale of every fixture, with every team member playing a part and the players swapping every four points until one side reaches 21.
Earlier in that match, Pitchford beat Kim 2-1 (9-11, 11-9, 11-7) in their singles encounter, while he & Kaden Xu (USA) won the doubles 3-0 (11-3, 11-2, 11-6) against Kim & Nishan Lebaka of USA.
Saturday’s victory made it two wins out of two for Crocs, who on Friday opened their season with a 13-8 defeat of Princeton Revolution. It that match, Pitchford won his singles 2-1 (11-2, 11-7, 9-11) against Jinxin Wang of USA and also won four of his eight points in the golden game.
The final match of the weekend, on Sunday, saw Crocs lose 14-7 to Portland Paddlers, who hosted the weekend.
Pitchford & Xu lost the doubles 3-0 to Hampus Nordberg (SWE) & Nikhil Kumar (USA), the scoreline 7-11, 10-11, 4-11, but Pitchford kept up his singles record with a 2-1 (7-11, 11-6, 11-8) victory over Jens Lundqvist (SWE).
With two wins from three, Crocs top the East Division in the fledgling standings, with only four of the eight teams having played.
This weekend, David McBeath’s defending champions Texas Smash enter the fray, taking on Chicago Wind, Carolina Gold Rush and Seattle Spinners in Raleigh, North Carolina.
