Paul Drinkhall was within a couple of points of defeating teenage Japanese star Tomokazu Harimoto in his latest match in the T2 league in Malaysia.

Fresh from defeating world No 6 and Harimoto’s compatriot Jun Mizutani in the previous match, Drinkhall maintained his good form against the 14-year-old, ranked No 20 in the world.

Such were the fine margins, a 4-1 defeat could easily have been a 3-2 victory as Drinkhall lost two games on a golden point. The final scoreline was 11-7, 11-10, 11-10, 4-11, 9-4 in favour of the youngster.

Drinkhall’s Team Rossi lost the overall fixture 15-13 to Team JJ.