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Liam Pitchford

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Liam Pitchford
Pitchford in 2016
Personal information
Full nameLiam Benjamin Pitchford
Born (1993-07-12) 12 July 1993 (age 31)
Chesterfield, England
Height1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)[1]
Weight70 kg (11 st; 150 lb)[1]
Table tennis career
Playing styleShakehand, Offensive
Equipment(s)Victas Liam Pitchford(blade), Victas V>15 Extra (FH), Victas V>15 Extra (BH)
Highest ranking12 (August 2019)
Current ranking24 (1 November 2023)[2]
Medal record
Men's table tennis
Representing  England
World Championships
Bronze medal – third place 2016 Kuala Lumpur Team
World Cup
Bronze medal – third place 2018 London Team
Commonwealth Games
Gold medal – first place 2018 Gold Coast Men's doubles
Gold medal – first place 2022 Birmingham Men's doubles
Silver medal – second place 2010 Delhi Team
Silver medal – second place 2014 Glasgow Team
Silver medal – second place 2014 Glasgow Mixed doubles
Silver medal – second place 2018 Gold Coast Mixed doubles
Silver medal – second place 2022 Birmingham Men's singles
Bronze medal – third place 2010 Delhi Men's doubles
Bronze medal – third place 2014 Glasgow Men's singles
Bronze medal – third place 2018 Gold Coast Team
Bronze medal – third place 2022 Birmingham Men's team
Europe Top-16
Bronze medal – third place 2023 Montreux Singles

Liam Benjamin Pitchford (born 12 July 1993) is an English table tennis player.[3][4] He is sponsored by Victas.[5]

Career

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Pitchford began playing table tennis when he was eight years old. He won the British Home Countries Championship in 2009, and two Commonwealth Games medals in 2010 (Silver in Team and Bronze in Doubles).[6]

In the summer of 2011, he transferred to German club TTF Liebherr Ochsenhausen in the top division, the Bundesliga, having played for second division club FC Tegernheim the previous season. From 2009 to 2010 Pitchford played for Aarhus BTK in the best Danish league. In July 2014, his contract with Ochsenhausen was extended by three years.[7]

In the autumn of 2011, he beat World number nine Vladimir Samsonov[8] and World junior number three Wu Jiaji in international competitions, paving his route to becoming number one in the English rankings in November 2011. He finished the year with a career-high World ranking of 171 to become the third highest-ranked British player on the ITTF World Ranking list, and was subsequently part of the Team GB squad for the London Olympics in 2012.[9]

Pitchford has won national singles titles at U14, Cadet, U21 and Senior levels, and doubles titles at U14, Cadet, Junior and Senior levels.[10] He is the reigning men's singles national champion (March 2015).[11]

In 2014 he was part of the England men's team which clinched promotion to the top level of world table tennis at the World Team Championships in Japan.[12]

Pitchford represented England at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, winning a silver medal in the team competition as Singapore took gold in a repeat of the 2010 result. He also won a silver medal alongside Tin-Tin Ho in the mixed doubles, and won the bronze medal in the men's singles.[13] In August 2014 he reached a career high of No 44 in the ITTF world rankings.[14]

At the 2015 World Table Tennis Championships, Pitchford showed growth by reaching the round of 32 in men's singles.[15] He beat two-time World Cup runner-up Kalinikos Kreanga and world number 20 Tiago Apolonia before losing to South Korean Joo Sae-hyuk.[15]

In June 2015, Pitchford was part of the Great Britain table tennis squad at the inaugural European Games in Baku, where he reached the quarter-finals.[16]

In March 2016, Pitchford was part of the England team, alongside Paul Drinkhall and Sam Walker, which won bronze medals at the World Team Championships in Malaysia, England's first medal at that level since 1983 and the first time a newly promoted team had earned a podium place at the event.[17]

Pitchford competed for Team GB in the singles and team events at the Rio 2016 Olympics. He reached the last 32 in the singles[18] and, alongside Paul Drinkhall and Sam Walker, beat France[19] to reach the quarter-finals of the team event, where GB were beaten by China.[20]

In July 2017, Pitchford helped the Falcons team to win the inaugural Ultimate Table Tennis league in India.[21]

In February 2018, Pitchford was part of the England squad alongside Paul Drinkhall, Sam Walker, David McBeath and Tom Jarvis which won bronze medals by reaching the semi-finals of the ITTF Team World Cup in front of a home crowd at the Copper Box Arena in London.[22]

At the Commonwealth Games in Australia in 2018, Pitchford won the gold medal in the men's doubles alongside Paul Drinkhall,[23] the silver medal in the mixed doubles alongside Tin-Tin Ho[24] and was part of the England squad which won men's team bronze, alongside Drinkhall, Sam Walker and David McBeath.[25]

At the 2018 Bulgaria Open, Pitchford beat current Olympic and World champion Ma Long in the first round in a 7 set match,[26] arguably the biggest win of his career. However, in the next round he lost to Ma Long's Chinese teammate Ma Te.[27]

That victory, and a series of other notable wins, saw Pitchford break into the world's top 20 for the first time in December 2018, at No 16.[28] The ranking peaked at No 12 in August 2019.[29]

In November 2019, Pitchford reached the last 16 of the Austrian Open losing 4–0 to the German player Timo Boll. In the last 32, Pitchford defeated 2016 Olympic Bronze medalist Jun Mizutani 4–3.[30]

The 2020 Qatar Open proved to be an enormously successful outing. Pitchford began with a tense 4–2 win over Spain's Álvaro Robles and followed it up with another 4–2 victory over the evergreen Vladimir Samsonov who had just upset the fourth seed Lin Gaoyuan in the previous round. In the quarterfinal, Pitchford accounted for the in-form Chinese Taipei legend, Chuang Chih-yuan. But it was the semifinal that proved to be the match of the tournament. In a thrilling six game encounter, dishing out one of the best performances of his life, Pitchford beat the reigning world number one, Xu Xin, an opponent Pitchford had never managed to take a game off before. The final against Fan Zhendong was a spectacular affair and Xiao Pang certainly had to dig deep to eventually overcome Pitchford in a nail-biting 4–2 match.[31] At the same event, Pitchford and Paul Drinkhall reached the men's doubles final, losing to China's Ma Long and Xu Xin.[32]

2021

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In 2021, one week before the World Table Tennis inaugural event WTT Doha, Liam Pitchford suffered a minor hand injury while looping a half-long ball in practice. As a result, he felt pain whenever he used his backhand and suffered an early first-round upset to Andrea Levenko in the first WTT Contender event[33] and a round-of-32 upset to Kristian Karlsson in the second WTT Star Contender Event.[34]

Pitchford was upset by Darko Jorgic in the round of 32 in the men's singles event at the Tokyo Olympics.[35]

2022

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At the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, Pitchford and Paul Drinkhall successfully defended their men's doubles title.[36] Pitchford also reached the men's singles final, where he was beaten by Sharath Kamal Achanta of India.[37] He, Drinkhall, Sam Walker and Tom Jarvis won bronze in the men's team event.[38]

2024

Pitchford became the first British table tennis athlete to appear at four Olympic Games when he competed at Paris 2024.[39] He was defeated in the round of 32 bt 13th seed Darko Jorgic.[40]

Pitchford was selected as the No. 1 overall pick by the Florida Crocs in the 2024 Major League Table Tennis Draft.

See also

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References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b "Liam Pitchford". Birmingham2022.com. Birmingham Organising Committee for the 2022 Commonwealth Games Limited. Retrieved 16 December 2022.
  2. ^ "ITTF Table Tennis World Ranking". ittf.com. Retrieved 1 July 2023.
  3. ^ "Liam Pitchford". olympedia.org. Retrieved 1 July 2023.
  4. ^ "PITCHFORD Liam Benjamin". european-games.org. Retrieved 1 July 2023.
  5. ^ "Liam signs up with Japanese manufacturer". Table Tennis England. 4 June 2019. Archived from the original on 27 November 2020. Retrieved 1 July 2023.
  6. ^ Commonwealth Games Results (Retrieved 24 January 2012).
  7. ^ "Google Translate". translate.google.com. Retrieved 10 March 2020.
  8. ^ "Liam Pitchford". BBC Sport. Retrieved 21 June 2012.
  9. ^ "Olympics table tennis: GB men and women out in first round". BBC Sport. 3 August 2012. Retrieved 10 March 2020.
  10. ^ "Mark Bates Ltd National Championships". Table Tennis England. Retrieved 10 March 2020.
  11. ^ "Pitchford & Sibley win at nationals". BBC Sport. Retrieved 10 March 2020.
  12. ^ "England beat Italy to win team title". BBC Sport. Retrieved 10 March 2020.
  13. ^ "Glasgow 2014: England men take silver after losing to Singapore". BBC Sport. 28 July 2014. Retrieved 10 March 2020.
  14. ^ ITTF News
  15. ^ a b http://www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/Table-Tennis-Liam-Pitchford-enjoys-good-World/story-26420534-detail/story.html [permanent dead link‍]
  16. ^ "Table tennis: Liam Pitchford knocked out of European Games | Derby Telegraph". Archived from the original on 30 June 2015. Retrieved 27 June 2015.
  17. ^ "ITTF Articles". Archived from the original on 6 March 2016.
  18. ^ "Pitchford bows out, but Drinkhall still going". Table Tennis England. Retrieved 10 March 2020.
  19. ^ "Rio Olympics 2016: Great Britain into quarter-finals of men's team table tennis". BBC Sport. 13 August 2016. Retrieved 10 March 2020.
  20. ^ "Rio Olympics 2016: Great Britain out of men's team event after China defeat". BBC Sport. 14 August 2016. Retrieved 10 March 2020.
  21. ^ "Falcons TTC outclass Shazé Challengers to clinch the inaugural CEAT UTT title". Ultimate Table Tennis. 30 July 2017. Retrieved 10 March 2020.
  22. ^ "England reaches semi-final Copper Box erupts". International Table Tennis Federation. 23 February 2018. Retrieved 10 March 2020.
  23. ^ "Dramatic start, dramatic end; gold for England". International Table Tennis Federation. 14 April 2018. Retrieved 10 March 2020.
  24. ^ "Silver in Glasgow, same again in Gold Coast; Gao Ning and Yu Mengyu secure title". International Table Tennis Federation. 15 April 2018. Retrieved 10 March 2020.
  25. ^ "England secures bronze, Paul Drinkhall sets example". International Table Tennis Federation. 9 April 2018. Retrieved 10 March 2020.
  26. ^ "Historic win for Pitchford in Bulgaria". BBC Sport. Retrieved 10 March 2020.
  27. ^ "Review Day Two: Again early exit for Dimitrij Ovtcharov". International Table Tennis Federation. 17 August 2018. Retrieved 10 March 2020.
  28. ^ "Pitchford into world's top 20". Table Tennis England. Retrieved 10 March 2020.
  29. ^ "ITTF World Ranking". ittf.com. Retrieved 1 July 2023.
  30. ^ "Picture clearer but vital last places still on offer". International Table Tennis Federation. 15 November 2019. Retrieved 10 March 2020.
  31. ^ "2020 ITTF World Tour Platinum, Qatar Open - Results".
  32. ^ "Liam & Paul beaten by Chinese greats in final – Table Tennis England".
  33. ^ "Andreas Levenko UPSETS Injured Liam Pitchford 3-1 - Edges and Nets". 3 March 2021.
  34. ^ "Top 6 Storylines Following Round of 32 At WTT Star Contender". edgesandnets.com. 10 March 2021. Retrieved 10 March 2021.
  35. ^ "Olympics Day 3 Results: Lily Zhang Slow Spins Past Offiong Edem". edgesandnets.com. 26 July 2021. Retrieved 26 July 2021.
  36. ^ "It's GOLD for Liam & Paul again!". 7 August 2022.
  37. ^ "Pitchford beaten in gold medal match". 8 August 2022.
  38. ^ "England bag a bronze with flawless display". 2 August 2022.
  39. ^ "Liam Pitchford in a class of his own as he prepares for fourth Olympics". 25 July 2024.
  40. ^ "Liam Pitchford knocked out of Paris Olympics by 13th seed Darko Jorgic". 31 July 2024.
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