Great Britain's Paul Drinkhall and Liam Pitchford lose historic final
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Paul Drinkhall and Liam Pitchford won the gold medal at the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games
Great Britain's Paul Drinkhall and Liam Pitchford have lost in the final of the Qatar Open to Chinese duo Ma Long and Xu Xin.
The pair, who hold the Commonwealth gold medal, made history by becoming the first English pairing to reach a men's doubles final on either the ITTF World Tour or ITTF Challenge Series.
However, they could not go one step further and were beaten 3-1.
"They're one of the best, if not the best pairs," Drinkhall said.
"We held our own at times and played some really good stuff. We both felt we had more, but it's difficult to access everything you have against players like that.
"It is a step forward - we haven't played together for quite a long time and it's great to start again with some good results. Hopefully we can keep that up."
Pitchford will be back in action on Sunday in the semi-finals of the men's singles when he will come up against Xin once more.