Bronze for Williams in France
Welsh teenager Grace Williams took bronze in the women’s doubles WD20 with Frenchwoman Lucie Hautiere on the final day of the SQY French Para Open in Saint Quentin en Yvelines today. Scott Robertson and Sue Bailey made it through to the knockout stages of the mixed doubles XD10 but missed out on a medal after losing in the quarterfinals while Robertson also lost in the quarterfinals of the men’s doubles MD8 with his French partner Francois Geuljans.
Having finished second in the group Williams and Hautiere went through to the semi-finals where they faced the class 9-10 European team champions, class 9 World number six Neslihan Kavas and class 10 World number six Merve Demir, and the Turkish pair were 3-0 winners.
“I feel that I’ve played really well in this tournament,” said Williams. “It was a great experience playing with Lucie and winning bronze with her. I’m aiming to control my emotions better in Slovenia this week - before and during matches.”
Robertson and Geuljans took on class 3 Tokyo and Rio team bronze medallist Anurak Laowong and class 5 Asian Para Youth Games champion Norakan Chanpahaka from Thailand in the last 16. They led 2-0 and after dropping the third set had match point at 11-10 in the fourth but the Thai pair saved it and went on to level at 2-2. Robertson and Geuljans established an 8-5 lead in the deciding set and maintained their advantage to take the set 11-8 and the match 3-2.
That took them through to a quarterfinal against the class 5 Asian Championships team medallist Park Jae Hyeon and class 3 Jang Yeongjin. The Korean pair had come through their group unbeaten, and they were too strong for Robertson and Geuljans, taking the match 3-0.
In the quarterfinals of the mixed doubles XD10 Robertson and Bailey played Chanpahaka and Panwas Sringam, gold medallist in last year’s Paralympic World Qualification Tournament, and the pair from Thailand just had the edge in three close sets, taking a time out before clinching the win on their fourth match point 13-11.