Alice shows steel

ALICE LOVERIDGE has again underlined her immense talent as she reached the main draw of the English Open yesterday in Sheffield.

Despite losing to world number 18 Mengyu Yu of Singapore in the last-64, Loveridge was one of only two Britons to get through the qualifying stage of the event, which is on the ITTF Pro Tour and saw seven of the world's top 10 present.

The scoreline of 11-4, 11-2, 11-7, 11-7 does not reflect the excellent fight Loveridge put up, including taking a resounding lead early in the third and being all square in the early stages of the fourth set.

And the 16-year-old Sarnian had reached that stage after progressing through her qualifying group by beating Sweden's Daniela Moskovits in straight sets, 14-12, 11-9, 11-8, 11-9.

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