Skegness's Tom Jarvis makes last 16 of table tennis World Championships in Qatar

​Having beaten the tenth seeded former European champion Dang Qiu and the Romanian national champion Iulian Chirita in the two previous rounds, Jarvis knew he had the weaponry to worry world number five Liang Jingkun of China, and put up a superb fight before losing in six games in Doha.

Jarvis, who won men's team bronze for England at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, set the tone with a blistering start, opening up 5-1 and 7-2 leads in the first game, ultimately notching the game 11-8.

But Liang is No 5 in the world for a reason and demonstrated that in winning four out of five points from 7-7 in the second to level the score.

It was 11-9 to the Chinese in the third but Jarvis remained in the match and suddenly had a run from 3-5 down win the remaining points in the fourth game. He was not even fazed by Liang asking for a let at 10-5, claiming a wet ball, thumping a clean forehand winner on the replayed point to level up the score.

The fifth proved to be the most ragged of the match from Jarvis as unforced errors – and a service fault – saw Liang run through it 11-2.

At 8-3 in the sixth it looked as if Liang had finally got the better of Jarvis, but Jarvis took the next two points to prompt a Liang timeout.

Whatever was said, it worked as Liang took the next two points to bring up five match points. One was saved, but Jarvis went long and Liang threw back his head in half celebration and half relief.

It was ultimately not to be for Jarvis but he will leap up to around 80 in the world rankings this week and the confidence he can take from his run to the last 16 will surely act as a springboard to go higher.