British team assured of doubles medals in Slovenia

Going into the final day of competition at the ITTF Slovenia Para Open in Lasko the British team is assured of at least four medals in the doubles events. Bly Twomey and Fliss Pickard (women’s class 14), Billy Shilton and Paul Karabardak (men’s class 14), Ashley Facey and Ross Wilson (men’s class 18) and Aaron McKibbin and Joshua Stacey (men’s class 18) are all through to the semi-finals of their respective events while Martin Perry and Grace Williams and Theo Bishop and Bly Twomey are through to the quarterfinals of the mixed class 14.

Women’s class 14

Bly Twomey and Fliss Pickard began with a 3-0 win against Kubra Korkut from Turkey and Kim Seongkok from the Republic of Korea, a second defeat for World number two Korkut against Twomey after losing to the British teenager in the singles. Twomey and Pickard secured top position in their group and a bye into the semi-finals with a 3-1 win against Camelia Ciripan and Gabriela Constantin from Romania.

Men’s class 14

Paul Karabardak and Billy Shilton had to dig deep to come through their first match against Piotr Manturz and Michal Deigsler from Poland 12-10 in the deciding set. They lost 3-1 to Paulo Salmin Filho and Israel Pereira Stroh, the Para PanAmerican silver medallists from Brazil but secured their place in the quarterfinals with a 3-0 win against Matthew Britz from New Zealand and Samuel Altshuler from USA. Karabardak and Shilton then produced a great performance to beat the Para PanAmerican champions Matias Pino Lorca and Ignacio Torres Orostica 3-0 to go through to the semi-finals.

Will Bayley and Martin Perry began with a 3-0 win against Gonzalo Rodriguez from Spain and Lee Se Ho from the Republic of Korea. They produced some great play to level at 1-1 against Clement Berthier and Esteban Herrault and made the European champions from France fight all the way despite losing the next two sets 12-10. A 3-0 win against Bobi Simion from Romania and Yehonatan Levi from Israel took them through to the quarterfinals and after losing the first set to the Swedish pair of Jonas Hansson and Sam Gustaffson11-9 they edged the second 12-10. They led 7-3 in the third but Hansson and Gustaffson came back to take it 11-9 and went on to take the fourth 11-8 for a 3-1 win.

Theo Bishop teamed up with Ben Despineux, the World doubles bronze medallist from Belgium and they were 3-1 winners against Tomaz Rabuzin and Luka Trtnik from Slovenia. They lost 3-1 to the former World team champions from Spain Jordi Morales and Alvaro Valera and then beat Matias Pino Lorca and Ignacio Torres Orostica 3-1 to progress to the quarterfinals where they lost 3-1 to Berthier and Herrault.

Men’s class 18

Ross Wilson and Ashley Facey lost their opening match to Alejandro Diaz and Jose Ruiz Reyes from Spain 3-1 and then combined really well to beat Emil Andersson and Daniel Gustafsson from Sweden 3-0. A 3-0 win against Manuel Echaveguren Farias from Chile and Hamza Taleb from Belgium in their final group match took them through to the quarterfinals as group winners to face Maksym Nikolenko and Lev Kats from Ukraine. Wilson and Facey took the first two sets and then won a marathon third set 19-17 to take the match 3-0 and go through to the semi-finals.

Joshua Stacey and Aaron McKibbin looked sharp in beating Hiromi Sato and Hayuma Abe from Japan 3-0 but then lost 3-1 to the class 9 pair of Koyo Iwabuchi from Japan and Lucas Didier from France. They recovered from a slow start to beat Lin Chun Ting and Hu Ming-Fu from Chinese Taipei 3-1 and secure their place in the quarterfinals where they showed their character and determination to come back twice and level against Ander Cepas and Jorge Cardona before taking the deciding set 11-4 to beat the European bronze medallists from Spain 3-2.

Men’s class 4

Rob Davies and Tom Matthews, playing together for the first time since winning the men’s class 1 team event at the European Championships in 2015, were drawn in a tough group and lost in three close sets to class 3 World number eight Jang Yeongjin and class 1 World number one Joo Young Dae, the Asian Para Games champions from the Korea Republic. The Welshmen did well to take the third set against the class 2 pair of World number six Jiri Suchanek from Czechia and World number eight Oleksandr Yezyk from Ukraine but did not progress after a 3-1 loss.

Men’s class 8

Chris Ryan and Jack Hunter-Spivey are playing doubles together for the first time here and they lost 3-0 to Kazuki Shichino and Genki Saito, the Asian Para Games bronze medallists from Japan. They produced a fighting performance to beat Henrik Andersson and Marc Graf from Austria 3-1, 14-12 in the fourth and then played really well to take the first set against Mitar Palikuca and Mladen Ciric 12-10. The European bronze medallists from Serbia came back to take the match 3-1 which meant that the British pair did not progress from the group.

Women’s class 10

Megan Shackleton teamed up with Hatice Duman from Turkey and after losing 3-0 to the European bronze medallists Alexandra Saint Pierre and Flora Vautier from France and 3-0 to Irem Oluk and Nergiz Altintas from Turkey they fought hard against the European silver medallists Borislava Peric-Rankovic and Nada Matic from Serbia but went out after a 3-1 loss.

Women’s class 20

Grace Williams and Lethicia Lacerda from Brazil were far from disgraced in a 3-0 loss to World champions Lei Li Na and Yang Qian from Australia and they did not progress after a 3-0 loss to World bronze medallists Neslihan Kavas and Merve Demir from Turkey.

Mixed class 7

Rob Davies and Megan Shackleton had a tough first match against the class 3 pair of Jang Yeongjin and World and Paralympic medallist Lee Mi Gyu from the Republic of Korea and they were beaten 3-0. They played well against Ljubisa Gajic and Andreja Dolinar from Slovenia, taking the third set 11-6 and leading 6-1 in the fourth before ultimately losing 3-1 and did not progress after a 3-0 loss to class 4 former World champion Nesim Turan and Hatice Duman from Turkey.

Mixed class 14

Martin Perry and Grace Williams made a promising start to their partnership despite a 3-1 loss to Clement Berthier and Morgen Caillaud, the European bronze medallists from France. They came through a five-set battle against Yehonatan Levi from Israel and Stephanie Grebe from Germany, taking the deciding set 11-8 to secure their place in the quarterfinals.

Theo Bishop and Bly Twomey began with a 3-0 win against Bobi Simion, the class 6 former European silver medallist from Romania, and class 8 European doubles bronze medallist Zsofia Arloy from Hungary. They recovered from a slow start to beat Piotr Manturz and Barbara Jablonka from Poland 3-1 and progress to the quarterfinals.