Doubles silver for Shilton and Perry in Poland
Billy Shilton and Martin Perry produced a promising performance to take silver in the men’s class 14 doubles on the final day of the ITTF World Para Challenger Wladyslawowo in Poland.
The GB pair won their opening match against the Korean duo of Lee Se Ho and Hwang Inchun 3-0 and carried their strong form into their second group match where they were 3-0 winners against the world ranked number six pairing of Piotr Manturz and Marcin Zielinski from Poland.
Shilton and Perry recovered from losing a tight first set 15-13 to Cole Rothenberger and Nicklas Jensen to beat the American/Danish partnership 3-1 and progress to the semi-finals as group winners.
They lost a tight first set to Gonzalo Rodriguez and Paulo Fonseca 16-14 but took the next two sets to lead 2-1 and then took the deciding set 11-3 for a 3-2 win after the Spanish/Brazilian pair had levelled at 2-2.
In the final Shilton and Perry faced the reigning European champions Esteban Herrault and Clement Berthier and they started well, taking the first set 11-4. The world number one ranked pair from France came back to take the next two sets 11-9 11-9 but Shilton and Perry showed great fight to edge a tight fourth set 13-11 and level the match. In the deciding set Herrault and Berthier used all their experience to take it 11-6 and the match 3-2.
“Whilst we’re disappointed with the final result we can take a lot away from this tournament,” said Shilton. “We’ve been working really hard in the training hall together, working on our tactics and our on-the-table relationship. We showed we can do it in tight situations and that gives us a lot of confidence going forward.”
“With such a tough semifinal it was really nice to see how we can perform at our level when we need to,” said Perry. “Going into the final we really wanted to win and showed that in our first set winning it 11-4. Losing the next two 11-9 was sore because they were so close but silver is still a great achievement and we can really take a lot away from this tournament.”