Liam Pitchford may not have been the top seed heading into the WTT Feeder in Manchester, England, but in front of a British home crowd he was certainly the favourite. 

At last year's event, Pitchford had been well on track to clench his first WTT title, but an injury while he was leading in the quarterfinal ended his hopes. 

A small abdominal injury had taken him out for a few weeks, off the back of winning his first British National Championship title with #TeamJOOLA, but he was determined to get out on the table in Manchester and set things right. 

Kicking things off, Pitch navigated his round of 32 and 16 matches against Lillo and De Las Heras of Spain with back to back 3-0 wins. 

In the quarterfinal he fended off a determined Tom Jarvis in four games.

The biggest test of the event came for him in the semifinal. He trailed by two games against Hungary's Andras Csaba. The main changes came with adjustments to his serve game strategy, and as he pressed back into the match, the pressure began to fall away. 

An English home crowd lifted him up as he fought back in the match. He won games 3 and 4 by the slimmest of margins, both 11-9, as Csaba desperately tried to halt the late charge from Pitchford. 

An ecstatic Pitchford threw himself to the ground at the conclusion of an intense 5-game match, as he locked his place in the final.

Pitchford acknowledged that his game had started to come back as he progressed through the matches, and his confidence was building. By the time the final arrived, he was more than prepared. 

Across the table was Poland's Samuel Kulczycki, competing in his second WTT Feeder final of the year. The two time Polish National champion in singles, had walked away from the WTT Feeder Dusseldorf with a silver medal earlier this year. Now he had an opportunity to go one step further. 

Pitchford seemed to have no intention of letting his opponent catch any momentum, combining reverse pendulum serves of varying placements, with tight short game and his usual signature backhand flicks and winners, with exceptional wrist acceleration. 

It was one way traffic through the first two games, and in a best of 5 game final, Pitchford was a runaway train. 

Kulczycki started off stronger in the third, looking more confident on the attack, and started to look more threatening as he held level in the game. Pitchford had to dig deep, and with a little good fortune he was able to push his way over the line.

A 3-0 final and Pitchford sealed his maiden WTT title win on home turf in England. 

Congratulations to Liam!

Header image courtesy of World Table Tennis