Qatar Open: Liam Pitchford loses first World Tour final
- Published
Liam Pitchford is currently ranked 22nd in the world and is aiming to reach his second Olympics after representing Great Britain at Rio 2016
Great Britain's Liam Pitchford lost the Qatar Open men's singles final 4-2 against world number two Fan Zhendong.
Seeded 15th, the England number one, 26, had beaten world number one Xu Xin of China earlier in the day to reach his first World Tour final.
Pitchford lost the first two games before an impressive performance in the third brought him back into contention.
But despite fighting back to 3-2, China's Fan held on to secure his second Qatar Open title.
Pitchford, from Chesterfield, also lost in the doubles final.
Along with Paul Drinkhall, he went down 3-1 to Xu and Chinese compatriot Ma Long on Saturday.
Both Pitchford and Drinkhall will be battling for a place at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics at the qualifying event in Moscow in April.