Liam Pitchford turned up the power in the fourth set to complete a 3-1 victory over Aleksandr Khanin in the last 16 of the WTT Contender Budapest event.

Having won the first two games against his Belarussian opponent, ranked 155 in the world, Pitchford was narrowly pegged back in the third.

But a run of points from 3-3 in the fourth, featuring several of his trademark blistering backhands, set him up to complete victory and move into the quarter-finals.

Pitchford, the top seed, will next face Kilian Ort of Germany (WR 198), who beat world No 86 Benedek Olah of Finland in four games. The match is at 2.20pm UK time on Thursday, on Table 1. Watch the live stream on the WTT website (registration required).

In the Women’s Doubles quarter-finals, Denise Payet and her Croatian partner Andrea Pavlovic were beaten in three games by the fourth seeds Ema Labusova & Tatiana Kukulkova of Slovakia.

Results

Men’s Singles
Round of 16
Liam Pitchford bt Aleksandr Khanin (BLR) 3-1 (11-9, 11-7, 9-11, 11-4)

Women’s Doubles
Quarter-finals
Ema Labusova & Tatiana Kukulkova (SVK) bt Denise Payet & Andrea Pavlovic (CRO) 3-0 (11-9, 11-4, 11-6)