First tour singles final ends in defeat for Worksop table tennis star

Worksop’s Sam Walker had one of the best international tournaments of his career to bag a silver medal at a World Table Tennis tour event in India.

A string of impressive victories put Walker into the Men’s Singles final at WTT Feeder Chennai - his first singles final on the tour – but sadly there was to be no fairytale finish as he lost out to the top seed.

Home favourite and top seed Manav Thakkar, ranked 110 places above Walker at No 49 in the world, was his opponent in the final and Walker took the first game 11-6 and then reeled off seven successive points from 8-4 down to add the second game and stand a game away from personal history.

He led all the way through the third game and stood two points from victory at 9-6 up, but was stunned as Thakkar won the next five points and then took the momentum into the fourth game, going 7-1 up and winning it 11-3.

Thakkar never allowed Walker to lead in the decider and, though the Englishman stayed in touch, he could not quite get close enough and lost it 11-8.

Walker, who competed at the 2016 Rio Olympics and has won World Team Championships and Team World Cup bronze medals with England, can at least console himself with a haul of 90 world ranking points, which will move him up closer to the world's top 100.

Earlier in the tournament he knocked out four other Indians – three ranked higher than him – on their home territory.

Walker beat second seed Ankur Bhattacharjee (WR 73) 3-0 (11-7, 11-9, 11-7) in the last 16, before coming from 2-0 down to beat sixth seed Payas Jain (WR 106) 3-2 (14-16, 5-11, 11-5, 11-7, 11-9) in the quarter-finals.

In the semi-finals, he knocked out seventh seed Snehit Suravajjula (WR 110) 3-0 (11-4, 11-8, 11-9).