Pitchford aiming for national title No.6published at 18:38 Greenwich Mean Time 1 March 2020
Reigning champion Liam Pitchford is looking to take his sixth national title in Nottingham this weekend. If he succeeds, he would join GB colleague Paul Drinkhall, England technical director Alan Cooke and former England international Denis Neale in second place on the list of all-time wins.
Seeded one and two in the singles, Pitchford and Drinkhall have work to do if they are to equal Desmond Douglas’s record of 11 singles titles in a career but the pair are nonetheless favourites to win the doubles title together – the pair have won the title six times already.
“It’s always nice to win the Nationals,” said Pitchford. “It’s nice to play in England in front of a home crowd and show people in England that we can play good table tennis.”
In the women’s, Tin-Tin Ho and defending champion Maria Tsaptsinos are the top two seeds in the singles and will also be pairing up for the doubles as top seeds, having won the title four times together in the last five years.
In the mixed doubles, Ho will partner third seed Sam Walker and Tsaptsinos will be paired with No.4 Tom Jarvis.