Liam Pitchford was unable to do to Truls Moregard what he had done to Dimitrij Ovtcharov earlier in the competition as the Swedish Olympic silver medallist knocked him out of the WTT Champions Frankfurt.

However, the 3-0 margin flattered the Swede in a high-quality match with plenty of superb shot-making from both players, and Pitchford will feel the outcome could have been different had he taken his chances in the first and third games.

The opening points were shared up to 6-6 before Moregard took the first two-point lead of the match at 8-6. Pitchford went on a run of four points to bring up two game points, but Moregard showed the big-point mentality which won him silver in Paris as his own run of four took the all-important first game.

He stayed on his roll at the start of the second, and the 5-0 lead he opened up proved too much for Pitchford to overcome as Moregard took that game 11-5.

The third saw Pitchford in the ascendancy through most of the game, leading 4-0, 6-2 and 9-5. When the lead was whittled back to 9-8, he and coach John Murphy took the timeout, but Pitchford would not win another point as Moregard again showed his ability to be clinical at the sharp end of a game.

Pitchford defeated German’s multiple Olympic medallist Ovtcharov in the round of 32 earlier in the competition. Neither Pitchford nor Ovtcharov were seeded for this event.

Widely considered one of the finest players of his generation, Ovtcharov has won a combined six Olympic silver and bronze medals from Beijing, all the way through to Tokyo. He has also won a plethora of European Championships titles throughout his career.

After points exchanged hands throughout game one but Ovtcharov pulled a slight lead after the scores hit 4-4. Liam got himself back into the game before pressing on to build his own lead after winning six out of the next seven points. After a late fightback from the German international, Pitchford crossed the line to take game one, 11-9.

The second game was very different in that Ovtcharov looked to build a sizeable points gap early on. After Pitch levelled at 4-4, Ovtcharov built another lead that Pitchford calmly clawedhis way back from. With the scores settling at 11-11, it was the next point that tipped Liam into the lead for the first time in the game. He then converted his game point to take the second game 13-11.

The final game of the match nearly perfectly resembled the first. Points were exchanged early on, before the two players were locked at 9-9. Liam took the initiative to take the next two points as well as the match.

This win secures Liam a tie with Olympic silver medallist, Truls Moregard in the Round of 16. This fixture will take place on Thursday 7th November at around 14:20 GMT on the WTT YouTube Page.

Men’s Singles
Round of 32
Liam Pitchford bt Dimitrij Ovtcharov (GER) 3-0 (11-9, 13-11, 11-9)

Round of 16
Truls Moregard (SWE) bt Pitchford 3-0 (12-10, 11-5, 11-9)