PAUL DRINKHALL made history as he and Liam Pitchford became the first English duo to reach an ITTF World Tour doubles final – and it took the world champions to end their run at the Qatar Open.

Fresh from winning their seventh national men’s doubles title as a pair last weekend, Loftus' Drinkhall accompanied Pitchford to Doha in good form.

Unseeded in a strong competition, they had to start in the preliminary round, where they dug deep to come back from 2-0 down to defeat Serbia’s Marko Jevtovic & Zsolt Peto 3-2.

They were drawn against Mohammed Abdulwahhab and Ahmad Khalil Al-Mohannadi of the host nation in the last 16 and blew them away 3-0, following up with a 3-1 defeat of Lam Siu Hang and Ng Pak Nam of Hong Kong in the quarter-finals.

It was another pair from Hong Kong in the semis, second seeds Ho Kwan Kit and Wong Chun Ting, and the English pair withstood a comeback to seal a 3-2 victory which made them the first English pair to reach a doubles final since the World Tour began in 1996.

Standing in their way were Xu Xin and Ma Long of China, the number one 1 pair in the world and numbers one and three respectively in the singles rankings.

Drinkhall and Pitchford lost the first set 11-8 but hit back by the same margin, but the Chinese pair stepped on the gas to win the next 11-1 and completed a 3-1 victory by winning five points in a row from 6-6 in the next set.

"It was obviously a very tough match against two of the best players in the world - one of the best, if not the best, pairs," said Drinkhall. "They make everything difficult for you.

"We held our own at times and played some really good stuff. We both felt we had more, but it's difficult to access everything you have against players like that.

"It is a step forward - we haven't played together for quite a long time and it's great to start again with some good results. Hopefully, we can keep that up."

Drinkhall also played in the singles, starting in the second preliminary round with a 4-3 win over Xu Haidong of China.

However, he was beaten 4-0 in the next round by former European champion Emmanuel Lebesson of France.