PAUL Drinkhall’s relaxed approach continues to pay dividends after he became the first British table tennis player to make the fourth round at the Olympics in 24 years with victory on Monday morning.

Drinkhall had to come from behind to claim a 4-2 win over Croatia’s Andrej Gacina – a man ranked 39 places above the Middlesbrough ace in the world rankings.

The 26-year-old triumphed 8-11, 12-10, 11-9, 11-8, 5-11, 11-8 in 45 minutes and has set up a last-16 clash with world No.9 Vladimir Samsonov from Belarus.

Not since Carl Prean at Barcelona 1992 has a Brit made it this far but Drinkhall – the current world No.58 – sees no reason why the fairytale cannot continue in the fourth round clash on Monday night.

“It is going to be tough [against Samsonov] but they have all been tough,” he said.

“I feel I am in a good place. He is very experienced, he has been here before, he is in search of his first medal and probably feels he could have had one in the past so I think he has got a lot of pressure on him.

“I have not really felt much pressure throughout the whole tournament. I am confident in myself and how I am playing. I think I can beat anybody in the world on my day.”

Drinkhall came into the third round clash at the Riocentro venue clash with an impressive head-to-head record against Gacina despite the latter recently breaking into the world’s top 20.

And he had to produce both on attack and in defence to hold off the Croatian’s charge.

“I felt good and I felt tougher against his style than I have in the past,” Drinkhall added.

“I was struggling to get it through him, he was standing very close and taking the ball away from the bounce and normally that is what I can do to opponents and when I stayed close that changed the game.”

His opponent later on Monday Samsonov is competing in his sixth Olympics while for Drinkhall this is only his second – he went out in the third round at London 2012.

And with top seeds toppling all over the draw – the Brit knows the importance of taking each game as it comes.

“If you think too far ahead it quite often doesn’t come because you lose before they come,” he added.

“I think there have been a lot of cases like that here with top seeds losing early and I have just got to stay focused and win the next match.”

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