Shayan Siraj picked up a nailbiting win over a higher-ranked opponent in his first match at the WTT Feeder Varazdin in Croatia, but Tom Jarvis narrowly failed to pull off a similar feat.

Up against New Zealand’s Nicholas Choi (WR 245), Siraj (WR 877) led 2-1 after a hard-fought 14-12 win in game three.

He led the fourth 8-2 and then 10-6, after taking the timeout at 9-6, and looked like he would advance to the third qualifying round. However, his opponent reeled off six points in a row to force a decider.

He could have been forgiven for thinking it was not his day when another match point slipped by at 10-9 in the fifth, but Siraj (pictured above) took his next chance.

His next match, against Kazakhstan’s Sanzhar Zhubanov (WR 268), also went the distance, but this time Siraj could not finish on the right side of the scoreline as his opponent battled back from 2-1 down to win.

Louis Price (WR 876) started a round earlier than Siraj, in the first qualifying round, and was beaten in three by the unranked Mohammad Mousavi Taher of Iran.

The two English players fell at the first hurdle in the Men’s Doubles, going out in four to Park Gyeongtae & Jeong Yeonghun of South Korea, though they were not without their chances, having battled hard in the second and third and then led the fourth 7-4 and 8-6.

Jarvis was seeded into the main draw of the Men’s Singles, where he faced world No 103 Izaac Quek of Singapore, ranked 73 places above him.

Jarvis won the first, but could not make any inroads in the second as his opponent hit back. And the Englishman trailed 2-1 after Quek hit back from 9-8 down to take the third with three successive points.

Jarvis turned around the fourth game from 6-1 down, winning it 11-9, but the real drama came in the fifth as Quek fought back from 9-4 down to bring up a match point.

Jarvis saved that one, and another at 10-11, then missed a chance of his own at 12-11. Quek was the next to bring up a match point and this time he took it to win 14-12 and advance to the last 32.

Results

Men’s Singles
Qualifying round 1
Mohammad Mousavi Taher (IRI) bt Louis Price 3-0 (11-4, 11-9, 11-6)

Qualifying round 2
Shayan Siraj bt Timothy Choi (NZL) 3-2 (11-7, 6-11, 14-12, 10-12, 12-10)

Qualifying round 3
Sanzhar Zhubanov (KAZ) bt Siraj 3-2 (6-11, 11-6, 2-11, 11-8, 11-7)

Round of 64
Izaac Quek (SGP) bt Tom Jarvis 3-2 (7-11, 11-4, 11-9, 9-11, 14-12)

Men’s Doubles
Qualifying round 1
Park Gyeongtae & Jeong Yeonghun (KOR) bt Louis Price & Shayan Siraj 3-1 (11-4, 10-12, 12-10, 11-8)