Emma proves she is nowwell on the way back

Having recovered from injury which kept her out of action for six months until April, she continued her road back to top form by winning three matches out of four. Her key victory was 3-1 against Sweden’s Caroline Tanska after being 8-10 behind in the third game.

The local favourite lost to England No 10 Yolanda King (Hastings) but won the competition on games countback after a three-way tie.

In the band 1 singles she lost to England No1 senior woman Joanna Parker 3-0 but during her group matches pulled off a dramatic recovery from 2-0 down to beat Sandra Go (Middlesex) 3-2.

Haywards Heath’s former Sri Lanka junior international Amila Thilakarathna got through his group and reached the last 32 of the Open Singles, beating Berkshire veteran Hari Gehlot 3-2 in the first round before eventually falling 3-0 to England No 5 Chris Doran.

It was England No1 Liam Pitchford who became the Tees Sport K2 Sussex Open champion when he beat Scotland No1 Gavin Rumgay in an exciting final on Sunday night.

Table tennis fans packed into the main hall at the K2 to watch the spectacular final unfold as Pitchford defeated the reigning champion 3-1 (6-11/11-9/11-7/11-6) to collect the £2,000 first prize.

On the way to the final, top seeded Pitchford cruised past Dorset’s rising star Matt Ware 3-0. England No10 Ware had caused one of the shocks of the tournament when he overcame England No3 and Commonwealth Games gold medallist Andrew Baggaley 3-1. He then continued his brilliant form by beating England No 5 Chris Doran 3-1 in the quarter-final.

Entertaining serve specialist Rumgay defeated England No6 Darius Knight 3-2 in a thrilling semi-final. Knight had earlier eliminated second seed Daniel Zwickl who represented Hungary at the London Olympics.

In the quarters, Rumgay’s victim was another surprise package in Hampshire’s David McBeath, who put out one of the favourites for the overall prize, French No5 and World 104 Abdel-Kader Salifou.

Tournament organiser Steve Pound from Sussex County Table Tennis Association was delighted with the way the competition went, attracting an entry of 150 players including international players who flew in from France, Hungary, Poland and Sweden.

He said: “I was pleased with the high standard of entry which made it the strongest line-up of any tournament in the UK this year.