Tom Jarvis and Sam Walker won a match each before exiting to Indian opposition as they tuned up for the Mark Bates Ltd National Championships at WTT Feeder Beirut.

National Men’s Singles champion Jarvis won his first match in the Lebanese capital, against Mazen Sanaoubar of Palestine, in three straight. Walker needed four against Kazakhstan’s Sanzhar Zhubanov.

It put them both into the last 32, where Walker faced 11th seed and Birmingham 2022 bronze medallist Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, ranked 103 places above him at No 101 in the world.

Walker got off to a great start as he took the first 11-7, and he led the second 10-7 before, after missing those game points but saving two, losing it 14-12.

Walker led the third 6-5 but was only briefly ahead in the fourth as Gnanasekaran began to exert himself and book his place in the last 16 by taking the match in four.

Jarvis (WR 163) was up against Jeet Chandra (WR 236) and the first two games were identical scores to Walker’s Jarvis taking the first 11-7 and losing the second 14-12.

The Englishman went back in front by taking the third, but Chandra pulled away from 6-6 in the fourth to level the match. Jarvis looked on a roll in the decider as he went from 5-2 down to 8-5 up, but Chandra then had a run of five points to bring up two match points, the second of which he took.

Results

Men’s Singles
Round of 64
Sam Walker bt Sanzhar Zhubanov (KAZ) 3-1 (11-8, 11-5, 9-11, 11-6)
Tom Jarvis bt Mazen Sanaoubar (PLE) 3-0 (11-6, 11-6, 11-2)

Round of 32
Sathiyan Gnanasekaran (IND) bt Walker 3-1 (7-11, 14-12, 11-7, 11-5)
Jeet Chandra (IND) bt Jarvis 3-2 (7-11, 14-12, 7-11, 11-7, 11-9)