PAUL DRINKHALL hailed the English crowd’s love for an underdog as the key to his audacious comeback in the yesterday's singles bronze medal match at the Commonwealth Games - only to fall short in the final game to miss out on a medal.

Drinkhall, who is from Loftus, found himself 3-0 down and staring down the barrel of a comprehensive defeat to India’s Sathiyan Gnanasekaran only to fight back to level at 3-3 in front of a raucous home crowd on the final day of Commonwealth Games action in Birmingham.

However, it was not enough as Gnanasekaran edged a seventh and deciding game 11-9 to take bronze.

Every Drinkhall point was rapturously cheered by those in Hall 3 of the NEC, and the 32-year-old credited their support as crucial to what would have been a truly stunning fight back.

“It’s been really good support all the time,” reflected Drinkhall. “We like an underdog don’t we in England, at 3-0 that’s what I was and almost pulled it off.

“I gave everything I had to give, found something a little bit too late but even in the last set I gave myself a chance.

“When you go 3-0 down, even when you get to even terms, it’s still very hard to not put a foot wrong.”

It had looked to all be going wrong for Drinkhall, as his opponent raced into a 3-0 lead and then had control of the fourth game at 5-3 up before the Cleveland native produced a stunning run of points to win the game and take the momentum with a flick of a switch.

Drinkhall then roared through the fifth, gesturing the crowd to lift the volume, before edging a captivating sixth 12-10 to send the crowd into delirium.

And while the men’s doubles gold medallist could not carry it on through to the deciding seventh, he revealed he fed off the crowd after his slow start.

“I just tried to enjoy the experience a bit more,” added Drinkhall. “The first two, three sets I was overthinking.

“When I experience the crowd and the atmosphere, I could relax a little. I was just trying to use everything I could, change of t-shirt, everything.

“Obviously, stick within the rules but try to win the game, I need to slow it down sometimes, speed it up and get some support from the crowd and it really helped today.”

Drinkhall leaves Birmingham with two medals to add to his collection - a gold in the men’s doubles alongside Liam Pitchford as well as a bronze in the men’s team.

And the six-time British champion believes he will look back on his achievements with pride, even if it takes a little time.

“It’s difficult right now to think too positively but I’m sure at some point I’ll be very happy with that,” he reflected.

“I’m very happy with how I performed throughout, obviously I’ve lost the two most important matches but overall, I’ve performed very well.

“I'll look back and take a lot of positives from the whole tournament.”

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