England's men fought their way into the last 16 of the World Team Table Tennis Championships at the Copper Box Arena in London on Sunday night, winning 3-1 against Moldova on the back of a Tom Jarvis comeback that drew the loudest cheers of the home programme.
The match opened with Sam Walker losing 3-0 to Moldovan number one Vladislav Ursu. Jarvis levelled the tie with a 3-0 win over Andrei Putuntica before debutant Connor Green saw off Denis Terna 3-1 to put England 2-1 ahead. Jarvis was then asked to close out the tie against Ursu and produced what England head coach Alan Cooke later called "the best comeback I've seen from a young Englishman in a major World Championship."
Down 8-3 in the fourth game and one set away from sending the tie to a deciding fifth match, Jarvis won eight of the next nine points to take the set 11-9 and the match 3-1 (11-6, 11-11, 12-10, 11-9). The result lifted England men into a last-16 clash with Brazil for a place in the quarter-finals.
The night belonged half to the men and half to Ukraine. The European nation, in their first World Championships under interim coach Yana Zarechna, eliminated England's women 3-1 in the round of 32. Tin-Tin Ho, the senior English number one, had given the home side an early lead with a 3-1 (4-11, 11-6, 11-9, 11-7) win over Tetyana Bilenko, but the night turned in match two when 18-year-old Tianer Yu went down 0-3 (5, 6, 6) to Margaryta Pesotska.
Ella Pashley then lost 3-2 to Veronika Matiunina from a 2-0 lead — a flip that drained the English bench — before Ho fell 0-3 (4, 7, 8) to Pesotska in the closing match. Pesotska's veteran-class performance, with two clean sets and a tactical change-up to a wider service position, ended the women's tournament before the round of 16.
Ukraine progress to a last-16 clash with Japan; the United States, who needed five matches in their group-stage closer, also booked a place. England women coach Donna Joannou said after the match that Pashley would be "very disappointed" with the way she let the Matiunina match slip but emphasised the broader trajectory: "Reaching the round of 32 is the best Worlds finish for our women's team in 12 years. Two years ago we were not even seeded."
For the men, the Brazil match-up will be played at the Copper Box on Monday night. Jarvis, the player of the day, was succinct on what the comeback meant: "You always train for moments where you've got nothing to lose. That was one of them." Cooke confirmed Walker would line up again at number one against Brazil after a difficult night against Ursu, with Green in the third spot.
