The 10th seed progressed to the knockout stages after defeating Chuang Chih-Yuan of Chinese Taipei 9-11, 11-6, 11-8, 13-11, 13-11 and Kanak Jha of the United States 7-11, 11-4, 13-15, 11-5, 11-5, 10-12, 11-4.

Germany’s Dimitrij Ovtcharov, seeded seventh, is due to meet Pitchford in the last 16 in the Chinese city.

"I was practicing well and putting in the right work, so I felt confident coming into the event," said Pitchford.

"Getting two wins out of two and playing some good table tennis, of course I’m very happy."

Pitchford could face reigning Olympic and world champion Ma Long of China in the quarter-finals.

Ma, who failed to gain a place on the podium at last year’s World Cup, begins his campaign against surprise qualifier Darko Jorgic of Slovenia.

In the same half of the draw, third seed Tomokazu Harimoto of Japan takes on Austria’s Robert Gardos with a quarter-final meeting against either Sweden’s Mattias Falck or Hong Kong China’s Wong Chun Ting.

Falck won their most recent encounter at the 2019 Hong Kong Open, but Wong is the player in form after an impressive day at the office.

In the group stage, Wong managed to secure top spot, overcoming Korea Republic’s Jeoung Youngsik 11-9, 10-12, 12-10, 11-7, 7-11, 12-10 in the process.

"I am satisfied with my performance," said Wong.

"It has been eight months since playing on the international stage.

"Regardless of who my opponent is, I am happy to be able to take part in one of the top table tennis events and get a win."

Top seed Fan Zhendong of China is seeking a record-equalling fourth Men’s World Cup and a third in succession.

Fan takes on Taiwanese player Chuang Chih-Yuan who is making his 16th appearance at the event.

Awaiting at the quarter-final stage is either Chinese Taipei’s Lin Yun-Ju or Germany’s Patrick Franziska.

Lin starts the favourite but Franziska is in form after finishing in first place in his group, seeing off Jorgic 11-6, 11-5, 11-6, 11-6 and Nigeria’s Quadri Aruna 11-9, 11-5, 11-8, 12-14, 11-8.

In the same half of the draw, fourth seed Hugo Calderano of Brazil meets Jeoung Youngsik while Japan’s Koki Niwa confronts another Korean in Jang Woojin.

The last 16 and quarter-finals are scheduled to be played out tomorrow with the semi-finals, third place playoff and final due to be staged on Sunday (November 15).