British team ready for World Championships challenge

The Andalucia 2022 World Para Table Tennis Championships start tomorrow in the Spanish city of Granada with the men’s, women’s and mixed doubles events. There is a new look to the tournament in 2022 with team events replaced by doubles and all events decided by a straight knockout format.

First in action for the British team on day one will be Ross Wilson and Joshua Stacey who have a tough first match in men’s doubles M18 against the Australian pair of Chinese-born former Paralympic champion Ma Lin and Nathan Pellissier. In men’s doubles M14 Billy Shilton and Paul Karabardak have a bye into the quarterfinals where they will play either Matias Pino and Cristian Dettoni from Chile or Matteo Parenzan and Raimondo Alecci from Italy.

Fliss Pickard and Grace Williams face Camelia Ciripan and Gabriela Constantin from Romania in their first match in women’s doubles W14.

In the mixed doubles Jack Hunter-Spivey and Sue Bailey play the Japanese pair of Genki Saito and Kimie Bessho in XD10 while Shilton and Pickard have a bye into the XD14 quarterfinals where they will take on the winner of Israel Pereira Stroh and Aline Meneses from Brazil against Maksym Chudzicki and Katarzyna Marszal from Poland. Stacey and Williams also have a bye into the quarterfinals of XD17 and will play Piotr Grudzien and Karolina Pek from Poland.

British Para Table Tennis Performance Director Gorazd Vecko said: “I’m really happy with the preparation and the work we have done with the athletes since Tokyo. Our target was to be as best prepared as possible for the World Championships and I think we have done everything we could and the players are in good shape. We are a force and a British team that supports and respects each other whatever happens. Obviously this World Championships is different because the ITTF is trying new things like a straight knockout event which we’ve never had before, and doubles events which is new – especially mixed doubles. Doubles was part of the team event but the mixed doubles is new and so it is like a pilot event for us and we will see where we are with the doubles. It is the World Championships but it is also a preparation to see where we stand against the best players and the other countries so we can decide the best combinations for doubles that we can have in Paris.”

The doubles events will be played from November 6-8 with the singles starting on November 8 and concluding with all finals on November 12.

All matches are available to watch on live stream via the website: https://www.ittf.com/tournament/5360/2022-ITTF-World-Para-Table-Tennis-Championships/