Pitchford took on the German in the Round of 32 in Frankfurt, having been knocked out at this stage a few weeks ago to Lin Yun-Ju in Montpellier. Neither Pitchford nor Ovtcharov were seeded for this event.

Widely considered one of the finest players of his generation, Ovtcharov has a medal laden history in the sport, having 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)