share the same phosphonate moiety with one chiral centre of unknown configuration which was determined by synthesising both enantiomers of 2-hydroxy-2-phosphonoacetic acid methyl ester. A chiral cyclic phosphite was reacted with methyl glyoxylate in a Pudovik reaction to give a pair of diastereomeric α-hydroxyphosphonates, which were separated by HPLC. The configurations at C-2 were assigned on the