After the primary day of the doubles occasions on the ITTF European Para Desk Tennis Championships in Sheffield the British group is assured of at the least three medals when the event concludes at this time.
World champions Fliss Pickard & Grace Williams (girls’s class 14), Aaron McKibbin & Martin Perry (males’s class 14, pictured above) and Ross Wilson & Joshua Stacey (males’s class 18) are all via to the semi-finals whereas Jack Hunter-Spivey & Megan Shackleton (blended class 10) also can take a medal in the event that they win their closing round-robin match.
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Photos by Michael Loveder
Ladies’s class 14
Fliss Pickard & Grace Williams began with a 3-0 win towards Jenny Slettum & Nora Korneliussen from Norway and adopted that with a 3-1 win towards the highest seeds within the group Lucie Hautiere & Morgen Caillaud from France. They play their closing group match at this time towards Smilla Sand & Cajsa Stadler from Sweden however are already assured of a semi-final place.
“It’s actually troublesome to come back from any excessive and are available again down,” mentioned Williams, “particularly contemplating I didn’t count on to win a medal within the singles and even get via the group so it was nice that we had a night to have that top earlier than the doubles.
“We mentioned, ‘nicely that’s executed, and we’ll have a good time on Saturday when the competitors is completed, now we’ve received to give attention to the doubles’. It was troublesome however having Fliss as my anchor helped lots – she knew what I wanted in that match and within the match to assist me get again right down to earth.”
Males’s class 14
Martin Perry & Aaron McKibbin needed to present all their character and willpower to come back via their quarter-final towards Jonas Hansson & Sam Gustafsson. The Swedish pair raced via the primary set 11-3 however Perry and McKibbin responded by taking the second 11-6. Hansson & Gustafsson moved forward once more 2-1 and when the British pair levelled at 2-2 the match went to a deciding set. Perry & McKibbin levelled at 5-5 and led 10-7 however misplaced the subsequent two factors earlier than securing the set 11-9 and the match 3-2.
“To be sincere, I felt very assured going into the sport,” mentioned McKibbin. “Martin has had such a very good singles and I really feel that his degree is there and he offers me a number of confidence. I didn’t really feel below stress to dominate the sport for us. I felt it was 50/50 – he might take management at instances, and I might take management at instances, and I feel that helped.
“I feel we discovered one aspect was lots higher for us than the opposite and after we had been up within the fourth set we thought if we will win this set and maintain the fifth tight till we swap ends, we’re going to be in cruise management and it labored out ultimately.”
“We had a set gameplan and we simply knew we needed to execute that,” mentioned Perry. “We felt like we had been doing the fitting issues and between these factors the place we made a few errors we mentioned, ‘that’s the fitting method to play and that’s the best way we’re going to complete this match off’ and it labored very well.
“We received a bye due to our seeding and to begin later in a event is troublesome as they got here in having a match already and I feel that will have performed into their palms a bit as we didn’t get out of the blocks as rapidly as we might have wished. However the chemistry between us is so good that we 100% imagine in one another and as soon as we get going and begin to click on we assist one another and bounce off one another very well and it was nice.”
World champions Billy Shilton & Paul Karabardak additionally had a bye into the quarter-finals and though they began nicely towards Henrik Brammer and sophistication 7 world No 1 Peter Rosenmeier, taking the primary set 11-3, the Danish pair levelled at 1-1 after which edged a good third set 12-10. That gave them the momentum and though Shilton & Karabardak fought arduous and saved two match factors they may not save the third and Brammer & Rosenmeier took the match 3-1.
“It wasn’t straightforward going straight right into a quarter-final towards a group that had already performed a match, however the Danish pair performed very well,” mentioned a dissatisfied Shilton. “They’d a very good tactic towards us, and we struggled to vary it.”
Males’s class 18
Ross Wilson & Joshua Stacey appeared sharp in profitable their opening match towards Mio Wagner & Henrik Meyer from Germany 3-0 and so they made a terrific begin of their quarter-final, profitable the primary set 11-4 towards the category 8 pair of world No 1 Viktor Didukh & world No 6 Maksym Nikolenko. The Ukrainian pair edged the second 12-10 however the British pair moved forward 2-1 by taking the third 11-9. They went 4-1 down within the fourth however then got here storming again to take the set 11-6 and the match 3-1.
“I feel within the second set I made a number of errors,” mentioned Wilson, “which received them again within the recreation, which I used to be a bit aggravated with. I feel in that third set we grew to become a bit extra medical after which going into the fourth set we began just a little bit gradual however then as the sport went on we simply grew to become extra medical once more and we actually cemented the win by ending it off the best way we did.”
“Even to go 4-1 down within the fourth I don’t assume we did a lot fallacious,” mentioned Stacey, “aside from fairly fundamental errors however I feel the best way during which we set the factors up was right – it was simply the ending product. Me and Ross didn’t change from what we had deliberate out from the beginning, and I feel we had been only a bit an excessive amount of for them and so they couldn’t address us at this time. I wouldn’t put a restrict on how a lot we will enhance.”
Will Bayley & Ashley Facey made a terrific begin of their final 16 match towards Igor Misztal & Maksym Chudzicki from Poland, taking the primary set 11-5, however the Polish pair got here again strongly to win 3-1.
Males’s class 4
Tom Matthews & Romain Simon confirmed that they’ve the potential to be a profitable partnership regardless of dropping within the quarter-final to Julien Michaud & class 2 world and Paralympic champion Fabien Lamirault. The French pair are a longtime doubles group, and so they took the primary set 11-5 however Matthews and Simon edged the second 15-13 after which levelled once more at 2-2. The expertise of Michaud & Lamirault proved decisive within the deciding set and so they took it 11-6 for a 3-2 win.
Blended class 10
Jack Hunter-Spivey & Megan Shackleton performed nicely of their first round-robin match however had been overwhelmed 3-1 by the world bronze medallists Mitar Palikuca & Nada Matic from Serbia. They had been 10-7 down within the first set towards Ali Ozturk & Irem Oluk from Turkey however fought again to edge it 12-10 after which got here again from 4-1 right down to win the second 11-8. Ozturk and Oluk took the third, however Hunter-Spivey & Shackleton saved producing the photographs when it mattered, and so they took the fourth set 11-9 for a 3-1 win. That saved their hopes of a medal alive, and so they play their closing match at this time towards Shmuel Ben Asor and Caroline Tabib from Israel.
“I feel it was huge to win the primary set,” mentioned Hunter-Spivey. “Coming again battling is what we’ve constructed this group on and by no means giving up. Meg was actually stable at this time, the most effective I’ve ever seen her play and I’m very happy with her efficiency.”
“I feel as a result of we’re such good buddies off the desk,” mentioned Shackleton, “now we have a terrific understanding of one another professionally and tips on how to get the most effective out of one another and I feel we confirmed that at this time as a result of the stress was on, and I feel we each pulled out some good things so we may be actually proud.”
Blended class 14
Billy Shilton & Fliss Pickard needed to work arduous of their final 16 match towards Alyn Nikolae & Camelia Ciripan from Romania. After dropping the primary set they took the subsequent two and led 9-5 within the fourth however the Romanian pair took the subsequent six factors to degree at 2-2. Shilton and Pickard moved to 10-3 within the deciding set and took it 11-6 to safe a 3-2 win. Within the quarter-finals they took on Viktor Didukh & girls’s class 6 world No 1 Maryna Lytovchenko and the Ukrainian pair had been too robust in a 3-0 win.
Of their first event collectively Will Bayley & Bly Twomey had been overwhelmed 3-0 by the very skilled French pair of Clement Berthier & Morgen Caillaud however their doubles partnership is in its infancy, and so they can actually be a drive to be reckoned with sooner or later.
Blended class 17
Ashley Facey & Grace Williams are a brand new partnership for the British group and after dropping an in depth first set towards Juan Perez Gonzalez & Olaia Martinez from Spain 11-9 they fought again from 10-8 right down to take the second 12-10. At 7-7 within the third the match was finely poised however the Spanish pair gained the subsequent 4 factors to take it 11-7 and ran away with the fourth 11-3 to win the match 3-1 and progress to the quarter-finals.
