England’s European Championships is over with Liam Pitchford’s surprise defeat to France’s Thibault Poret and Tin-Tin Ho’s 4-3 loss to Germany’s Yuan Wan.

As controlled as Pitchford had been in defeating Robert Gardos in the first round last night, he was inconsistent in today’s last-32 match in Linz, Austria, struggling to find his game for more than a few points at a time and littering his performance with unforced errors.

The game scores were close, raising hope that, by staying in touch, he would click into gear sooner or later. But it never happened as the world No 75 from France completed a 4-1 victory to move into the last 16.

Pitchford (WR 56) won the first four points of the match but it was soon 4-4 and the first game remained tight. Poret took the lead for the first time at 10-9 and won the game a point later.

The second saw a similar pattern but this time it was Pitchford who took the lead at 10-9. However, he could not repeat the pattern from the first game as Poret won the next three points.

One sensed the third was a must-win game and the high stakes were indicated by both men taking their timeout – Pitchford at 1-4 and Poret at 8-7. Pitchford again took the lead at 10-9 and although he missed the first game point, he made the second stick.

Any thoughts of clicking into gear were soon dispelled as Poret romped into an 8-2 lead in the fourth, which he eventually took 11-7.

With Pitchford still playing in fits and starts, the fifth was tight up to 9-9, Poret levelling with the aid of a dead net-cord. The next point saw him bring up match point courtesy of an edge, and he hammered a forehand past Pitchford’s defences to complete victory.

That defeat left Ho as the last English player standing and she went into her last-32 lash with 32nd seed Yuan Wan buoyed by an impressive demolition of seventh seed Natalia Bajor of Poland yesterday.

A topsy-turvy clash which went the distance started with Ho twice coming from behind to lead 3-2. The first was won 11-6 by Wan, but Ho hit back by taking nine points in a row from 0-1 on her way to winning the second 11-3.

The next two followed a similar pattern, Wan winning the third 11-7 and Ho the fourth 11-4, again building an impressive lead – this time 9-2 – after losing the first point.

The symmetry was broken in the fifth, which saw Ho come from 4-7 down, via Wan’s timeout at 6-7,to win it 11-8. This time, Wan hit back in style in the sixth, a 6-1 lead paving the way for an 11-3 final scoreline.

So to the decider. Ho started positively with the first two points, but trailed 5-3 at the change of ends, which coincided with her timeout. Ho kept closing to a point behind, only for Wan to pull two ahead again, all the way up to 10-8 – but the German only needed one more point to seal her passage to the last 16.

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Results

Men’s Singles
Round of 32
Thibault Poret (FRA) bt Liam Pitchford 4-1 (11-9, 12-10, 10-12, 11-7, 11-9)

Women’s Singles
Round of 32
Yuan Wan (GER) bt Tin-Tin Ho 4-3 (11-6, 3-11, 11-7, 4-11, 8-11, 11-3, 11-8)