Tough competition for young British squad in Italy
There were no singles medals for the squad of young British athletes at the World Para Future Lignano tournament in Italy but plenty of promise for the future with some good performances and valuable experience gained.
Men’s class 3
Romain Simon lost his opening match 3-0 to Frenchman Yorick Adjal, silver medallist in the French Para Open last year and was then beaten 3-0 by Ibrahim Alhassan from Saudi Arabia. He did not progress after a 3-0 loss to World number 16 Gabriel Copola, the four-time Para PanAmerican champion from Argentina.
Men’s class 6
Dan Thomson came up against the best men’s class 6 player in the world Matteo Parenzan in his first match and the 21-year-old Paralympic, World & European champion from Italy was a 3-0 winner. Thomson then showed great character to fight back from 2-1 down against Nicklas Jensen and beat last year’s French Para Open bronze medallist from Denmark 3-2 to progress from group 1 as runner-up.
The 19-year-old from Brighton was far from disgraced in his quarterfinal despite a 3-0 loss to World number seven Bobi Simion, the two-time European medallist from Romania.
In group 4 Jacob Wicks lost 3-1 to Georgios Mouchthis, the former European team silver medallist from Greece and then lost 3-1 to the unranked 18-year-old from Serbia Luka Vidovic, 12-10 in the fourth. He did not progress after a 3-1 loss to the World Abilitysport Youth Games champion Piotr Manturz from Poland, gold medallist in last year’s Copa Tango and French Para Open.
Men’s class 7
Theo Bishop began with a 3-0 win against 13-year-old Mihai Voivod from Romania and was then impressive in beating Daniel Horut, the former two-time European bronze medallist from Czechia 3-0, 11-6 11-0 11-5. A 3-0 win against the former two-time Para PanAmerican team gold medallist from USA Masoud Mojtahed took him through to the knockout stages and as group winner he received a last 16 bye into the quarterfinals.
After losing a tight first set 13-11 Bishop twice came back to level against Luciano Khazandjian but the 15-year-old from Argentina, bronze medallist in the Brazilian Open last year, took the deciding set 11-9.
Men’s class 8
Ryan Henry was a 3-0 winner of his first match against Italian debutant Stefano Butti but was then beaten 3-0 by 21-year-old Hamza Taleb from Belgium. He needed to win his final group match to progress and he fought back from 2-1 down to level at 2-2 against Yehonatan Levi but the 16-year-old from Israel took the deciding set 11-8.
Men’s class 10
Max Flint was drawn in a tough group and he lost his opening match to the Italian World number 18 Lorenzo Cordua 3-0. He was then beaten 3-0 by Hitesh Dolwani, last year’s Al-Watani Para Open bronze medallist from India and 3-0 by World number five Igor Misztal, the former world and European team gold medallist from Poland.
Shae Thakker also faced strong competition in group two and lost his first match to the very experienced World number eight Krisztian Gardos, the World and European bronze medallist and 2016 Paralympic bronze medallist from Austria 3-0. He led 2-0 against the individual neutral athlete Ivan Karpov but the 27-year-old, winner of the World Paralympic Qualification Tournament last year, fought back to take a very close match 3-2. Thakker did not progress after losing his final match to World number 12 Pawel Wlodyka from Poland 3-0.
The tournament continues with the doubles events starting tomorrow.