Paul Drinkhall was beaten in the semi-finals of the WTT Feeder Dusseldorf as he saw opponent Martin Allegro battle back from 2-0 down to progress to the final.

Drinkhall may reflect on a missed opportunity as he had a match point in the fourth game and led 5-2 at the change of ends in the decider.

However, his left-handed opponent from Belgium, the 14th seed and ranked No 105 in the world, hit back to reach the final against Yuta Tanaka of Japan.

Drinkhall, seeded sixth, was the highest ranked player left in the tournament and started well as, from 3-3, he pulled away to take the first 11-6.

He was always ahead in the second, though Allegro fought back from 5-1 down to take it to deuce, but Drinkhall claimed the game 12-10.

The Belgian was 10-5 up in the third, but Drinkhall came back to 10-9, forcing a timeout. It did the trick as Allegro took the next point.

The fourth saw Drinkhall move from 6-6 to 9-6, and he took his timeout at 9-8. Allegro missed a game point at 10-9, but saved a match point at 10-11 before taking his own next chance and sending the match to a decider.

At 5-2 up as the players switched ends, Drinkhall had the upper hand, but Allegro broke the back of the game by going on a run of seven successive points. Although Drinkhall stopped the rot at 5-9, Allegro brought up four match points and took his first opportunity.

Result

Men’s Singles
Semi-final
Martin Allegro (BEL) bt Paul Drinkhall 3-2 (6-11, 10-12, 11-9, 13-11, 11-6)