A string of victories over higher-ranked players has put national champion Tom Jarvis into the semi-finals of the WTT Feeder Fremont event in California.
Having overcome unranked Kao Cheng-Jui of Chinese Taipei in the first round, winning the decisive fourth game 15-13, Jarvis went on an exceptional run of wins.
Currently ranked at 247, dropping 72 places after a batch of ranking points expired, Jarvis set about earning the points to climb the rankings again.
In the last 32, he withstood a great comeback by India’s Harmeet Desai (WR 122), who came back from 3-0 down to level before Jarvis won the seventh 11-9.
He then overcame Vincent Picard of France (WR 210) in five before impressively sinking world No 63 Marcelo Aguirre of Paraguay, again seeing his opponent close from 3-0 down but this time winning it in six.
Jarvis plays Japan’s Mizuki Oikawa in the semi-finals at 8pm UK time on Sunday. Oikawa is ranked at 234 but was ranked as high as 85 recently before losing a batch of ranking points.
David McBeath went out in the first round of the singles to Italy’s Jordy Piccolin, ranked 32 places higher than him at No 374.
In the doubles, Jarvis & McBeath got through the first qualifying round against an American pair, but were then defeated by a pair from Chinese Taipei featuring world No 25 Chuang Chih-Yuan & Kao Cheng-Jui.
Results
Men’s Singles
Round of 64
Jordy Piccolin (ITA) bt David McBeath 4-2 (11-7, 11-13, 6-11, 11-9, 11-9, 11-8)
Tom Jarvis bt Kao Cheng-Jui (TPE) 4-2 (11-8, 8-11, 11-5, 5-11, 11-6, 15-13)
Round of 32
Jarvis bt Harmeet Desai (IND) 4-3 (11-9, 13-11, 12-10, 8-11, 5-11, 7-11, 11-9)
Round of 16
Jarvis bt Vincent Picard (FRA) 4-1 (11-6, 11-4, 5-11, 11-7, 11-7)
Quarter-finals
Jarvis bt Marcelo Aguirre (PAR) 4-2 (11-4, 12-10, 11-4, 9-11, 7-11, 12-10)
Men’s Doubles
Qualifying round 1
David McBeath & Tom Jarvis bt Jihai Wang & Wei Wang (USA) 3-1 (11-6, 11-9, 8-11, 11-9)
Qualifying round 2
Kao Cheng-Jui & Chuang Chih-Yuan (TPE) bt McBeath & Jarvis 3-1 (11-9, 11-6, 8-11, 11-9)