Liam Pitchford won WTT Feeder Vila Nova de Gaia from qualifying on Sunday as he comes back from major hip surgery, while Portugal's Fu Yu won the women's singles in front of a home crowd.

Pitchford beat Slovenia's Deni Kozul, the fourth seed and world No 71, 8-11, 12-10, 11-7, 11-6 in the men's final. He lost the first game and was taken to extra points in the second, but once he had edged that 12-10 he controlled the rest of the match.

Fu Yu, 47, beat South Korea's Kim Seongjin 11-8, 11-9, 11-6 in the women's final and dropped only two games all week, both in her quarter-final.

Nine wins from qualifying

Pitchford's ranking had fallen to No 236 during his time out, so he had to start in the qualifying groups. He won all three group matches, against Seth Pech of the US, Switzerland's Mauro Scharrer and Antoine Doyen of Portugal, then beat Romania's Andrei Istrate 3-1 to reach the main draw.

The week turned in the first round. France's Lilian Bardet, the seventh seed, led 7-3 in the deciding game before Pitchford won eight of the last nine points to take it 11-8.

"Against Bardet, I felt good and even at 7-3 down in the fifth, I stuck to the gameplan and managed to turn it around, and that gave me confidence," he told Table Tennis England.

He then beat Serbia's Dimitrije Levajac 3-0, came through a deciding game against Luxembourg's Luka Mladenovic in the quarter-finals and dropped the first game before beating Germany's Kay Stumper 11-7, 11-4, 11-2 in the semi-finals. Kozul had to come from two games down to beat France's Esteban Dorr 3-2 in the other semi-final.

The final was also a measure of how far Pitchford has come back: Kozul had beaten him in four games at the European Championships the previous month.

Second Feeder title

"It's been a crazy, long week, to be honest," Pitchford said. "That's two Feeder titles in the last two I've played." The first came at WTT Feeder Manchester in 2025, which made him the only senior English player to have won a WTT singles title. Earlier this month Sam Walker had come within two points of joining him, before losing the WTT Feeder Chennai final to Manav Thakkar.

"The whole journey coming back from injury, doing the work nobody sees – this makes it all worth it," Pitchford said.

Table Tennis England said the title would lift him 103 places in the world ranking, to No 133. Walker, who partnered Pitchford in the men's doubles, lost to Chile's Gustavo Gomez in the first round of the singles.

Fu Yu wins at home

Fu Yu, the world No 83, beat Adina Diaconu and Karen Lyne without losing a game, then came from 2-1 down to beat South Korea's Jeong Yein 9-11, 11-6, 12-14, 11-4, 11-5 in the quarter-finals. She beat Japan's Misuzu Takeya 11-5, 15-13, 11-5 in the semi-finals.

Kim, the world No 76, came from two games down against Italy's Gaia Monfardini in the last 16 and beat Spain's Maria Xiao and her compatriot Yoo Yerin on her way to the final, but could not take a game off Fu Yu.

Portugal also took the men's doubles, where Tiago Apolónia and Marcos Freitas beat Bardet and Leo De Nodrest 13-11, 13-11, 11-9. Japan's Kotomi Omoda and Cocona Muramatsu won the women's doubles against Monfardini and Nicole Arlia, and Italy's John Oyebode and Monfardini won the mixed doubles.

England in Istanbul

England's next WTT event is WTT Contender Istanbul, which starts on Tuesday. Tom Jarvis is the eighth seed in a men's singles draw headed by Denmark's Anders Lind, with Thakkar also in the main draw. Connor Green starts in qualifying, as does Tianer Yu in the women's singles, where Japan's Honoka Hashimoto is the top-ranked player. Fu Yu is in the squad of Tarnobrzeg, the holders, who open ETTU Champions League Women Stage 2 against Etival on Tuesday.