Drinkhall tastes early defeat at English Open in Sheffield

BRITISH number one Paul Drinkhall bowed out of the English Open in the second round after a straight game defeat to China's Qi Chen.

 DRINKHALL DOWNED: British number one Paul Drinkhall defeated in English Open second round

The 19-year old struggled to impose himself against an experienced opponent who has two Olympic gold medals to his name and eventually succumbed 11-3, 11-5, 12-10, 11-6 in Sheffield.

The Brit's challenge in the doubles also came to an abrupt end on Saturday after Drinkhall and partner Darius Knight were downed by number one seeds, Japan's Seiya Kishikawa and Jun Mizutani.

The English pair came through a seven game thriller against Greek pair Panagiotis Gionis and Konstantinos Papergeorgiou in the last 16 and carried that form into the quarter finals, winning the second game to level at one all.

But the world champions proved too much for the British pair and eventually won 11-5, 10-12, 11-5, 11-9, 11-4.