Britain's Liam Pitchford reached his first ITTF World Open semi-final in the Czech Republic today ©Getty Images

China's Zheng Peifeng ended Liam Pitchford's dream of a first World Tour title as he overcame the Briton in the semi-finals of the International Table Tennis Federation Czech Open.

Pitchford reached his first World Tour semi-final by defeating Germany’s top seed Dmitrij Ovtcharov before succumbing to Zheng in the last four at the OMEGA Sports and Health Centre in Olomouc.

The 25-year-old has hit a purple patch this month, having beaten China’s Rio 2016 champion Ma Long at the last ITTF Open in Bulgaria, and today again he demonstrated his new-found level of play against the man who began the year as world number one.

Pitchford, currently ranked at 48 in the world, made short work of Ovtcharov, winning 13-11, 10-12, 11-4, 11-7, 11-6.

But he was undone by the enigmatic Zheng, who has played rarely in the last seven years and has no current world ranking, but who himself beat the top-seeded Ovtcharov at the Bulgaria Open.

Zheng earned his place in the final with an 11-8, 11-7, 11-13, 11-5, 11-9 win.

His opponent there will be Portugal's Marcos Freitas, who won a marathon semi-final against Japan's Tomokazu Harimoto 11-5, 1-11, 11-8, 9-11, 11-8, 5-11, 11-6.

Ovtcharov’s compatriots Bastian Steger and Patrick Franziska also departed at the quarter-final stage, beaten respectively by Zheng Peifeng and Tomokazu Harimoto of Japan. 

Japan's top seed Kasumi Ishikawa is through to tomorrow's women's singles final at the ITTF Czech Open ©Getty Images
Japan's top seed Kasumi Ishikawa is through to tomorrow's women's singles final at the ITTF Czech Open ©Getty Images

Japan’s top seed in the women’s sngles, Kasumi Ishikawa, moved smoothly into tomorrow’s final with an 11-7, 12-10, 11-6, 11-13, 11-6 victory over compatriot Saki Shibata.

She will now meet China’s qualifier Wen Jia, who earned an 8-11, 11-4, 11-6, 11-0, 11-0 win over team-mate Wu Yang, whose performance was undermined by injury.

Wen had beaten defending champion Mima Ito of Japan in her quarter-final.

In her earlier quarter-final, Ishikawa had put a predictable end to the inspired challenge that had been mounted by Puerto Rico’s 17-year-old qualifier Adriana Diaz, who had beaten the sixth and tenth seeds in previous rounds.

But Ishikawa didn’t have things all her own way as she won 12-14, 11-5, 11-7, 11-6, 9-11, 11-5.

Shibata had undertaken her own surprise progress in beating compatriot Miu Hirano, the third seed and world-ranked 10 places above her at nine, in her quarter-final match, coming through a  monumental match 11-9, 12-10, 12-10, 7-11, 8-11, 4-11, 11-7.

The tournament is due to conclude tomorrow.