Pickard and Twomey take doubles silver in Slovenia
Fliss Pickard and 15-year-old Bly Twomey took silver in the women’s class 14 doubles at the ITTF World Para Elite Lasko tournament in Slovenia today and there were bronze medals for Billy Shilton and Martin Perry (men’s class 14), Joshua Stacey and Aaron McKibbin (men’s class 18), Megan Shackleton with her Israeli partner Caroline Tabib (women’s class 10) and Grace Williams with Lin Tzu Yu from Chinese Taipei (women’s class 20).
Women’s class 14
Fliss Pickard and Bly Twomey saved three match points at 10-7 down in the deciding set against Chiu Kan Shan and Wong Yue Ching before taking it 12-10 to beat the Asian Para Games bronze medallists from Hong Kong China 3-2. They beat Camelia Ciripan and Gabriela Constantin from Romania 3-0 and progressed to the semi-finals despite a 3-2 loss to Freja Larsen from Denmark and Cajsa Stadler from Sweden.
Pickard and Twomey recovered from 8-4 down to edge a tight first set 14-12 against Morgen Caillaud and Thu Kamkasomphou and were 5-0 down in the second before taking it 12-10. The French pair reduced the deficit by taking the third 11-8 but Pickard and Twomey secured a 3-1 win, 11-8 in the fourth.
In the final they faced Katarzyna Marszal from Poland and Zsofia Arloy from Hungary and at 2-0, 6-3 down they looked out of it, but they fought back superbly to take the third set 13-11 and again from 9-5 down in the fourth to level at 9-9 before Marszal and Arloy secured the set 11-9 and the match 3-1.
“That is what we’re known for and that is why we fight,” said Pickard. “We looked like we were well out of it, but we kept going and that is basically what we do. We weren’t at our best and they are a strong team, and they played well. It’s all about being able to play when you’re not feeling great - it would be great if you could play well all the time but it’s not reality and I think that is true testament to our relationship that we can fight together even when things are not going so well.”
“We are so similar in that we both fight for every point and never give up,” said Twomey, “so it is amazing to play with someone like that who has the same mentality and is always happy and just wants to enjoy it and have fun. I can take a lot from the doubles and playing with different styles. Playing with Fliss has really inspired me and made me more positive about the future.”
Men’s class 14
Billy Shilton and Martin Perry came through a tough battle against Peter Rosenmeier from Denmark and Katsuyoshi Yagi from Japan 11-7 in the fifth and topped their group after a 3-0 win against Aleksej Radukic and Luka Vidovic from Serbia. They won their quarterfinal against GB teammate Paul Karabardak & Paulo Fonseca from Brazil 3-1 to progress to the semi-finals where they faced Emil Andersson and Michael Azulay from Sweden. Shilton and Perry started well and led 9-6 in the first set, but the Swedish pair came back to take it 11-9 and went on to take the second 11-6. Although the GB pair kept fighting and took the third set 11-6 Andersson and Azulay ran away with the fourth 11-3 to win 3-1.
“I think if we had taken that first set it would have changed the whole match,” said Shilton. “Personally, I felt that I didn’t play my best after that and it’s difficult in those sorts of matches when I feel that I can’t get my attacking shots on the table.”
“At 9-6 up we were a bit unfortunate with an edge ball that went against us and that was a big momentum swing,” said Perry. “As Billy said, if we had taken the first set that is massive in these matches. We took the third and we were there or thereabouts despite not playing our best. We still haven’t had long playing together and a lot of these partnerships that are here have had years together. I definitely think it is coming and we have shown in the previous rounds that we can play some good stuff. Obviously disappointed not to make the final but at least we’ve got some sort of medal to go home with, and we can try and get better for the next competitions because I genuinely believe that if we are both on our game and playing our best we’ll be a very difficult team to break down.”
Karabardak and Fonseca had earlier lost 3-2 against Sam Gustafsson and Jonas Hansson from Sweden but came through their group with a 3-0 win against Marc Ledoux from Belgium & Bobi Simion from Romania.
Will Bayley and Theo Bishop lost 3-2 to Clement Berthier and Esteban Herrault, the European champions from France and then beat Piotr Manturz and Marcin Zielinski 11-4 in the deciding set after the Polish pair had come back from 2-0 down to level at 2-2. Bayley and Bishop lost their quarterfinal match to Gustafsson and Hansson 3-0.
Men’s class 18
Aaron McKibbin and Joshua Stacey were 3-0 winners against Gabriel De Oliveira Antunes and Jean Carlos De Souza Mashki, the Para PanAmerican champions from Brazil and then beat Pawel Wlodyka and Michal Deigsler from Poland 3-0 having edged a tense first set 17-15. They had to dig deep to beat Huang Ren Ting and Su Jin Sian from Chinese Taipei 11-9 in the fifth and received a bye into the semi-finals where they never really got into the match and lost 3-0 to Ander Cepas and Juan Bautista Perez from Spain.
“To be fair we’ve played a lot of matches this week,” said McKibbin, “and I think that was probably one too far - the tank was a bit empty for both of us today. It’s a shame because I don’t think Josh and I have played our best doubles in these last two competitions. We’d been really solid up until now and only really ever lost matches in the fifth set and beaten a lot of the best teams and shown that we are one of the best teams in the world. Both of us didn’t bring our best level and we can take that on the chin - we have both had great singles competitions and it can happen sometimes. I’m not worried about it and the fact that we can make two semi-finals when we’ve really not been at our best - we can still take confidence from that.”
“I don’t think it is a movement issue,” said Stacey, “it is more about the opportunities you give your opponents. Sometimes it can make it look as if the movement is an issue and in reality we’ve not made the right shot selection, and it leaves the table wide open.”
Women’s class 10
Megan Shackleton and Caroline Tabib from Israel twice fought back to level against Nergiz Altintas and Irem Oluk from Turkey before losing the deciding set 11-7 and progressed to the semi-finals with a 3-0 win against Khetam Abuawad and Fatem Elelimat from Jordan. They lost a close first set to Hatice Duman from Turkey and Thais Fraga Severo 12-10 but took the second 11-9 to level at 1-1. Having lost the third set they recovered from 6-3 down in the fourth to level at 6-6 but lost it 11-9 and the match 3-1.
“We’ve played a lot together now,” said Shackleton, “especially over the last year so I think we have definitely built our foundation, and it is just about taking it up another notch now against some of the stronger teams. I think I can take a lot out of all the doubles matches – mixed and women’s – and put it into my singles game. I’m playing a lot of the girls that I do in the singles and obviously developing my game all-round. Looking forward to playing mixed with Jack tomorrow. We’ve got a bit of a point to prove from Poland - we want to go up a gear and show what we can do, and we’ve been working hard so fingers crossed.”
Women’s class 18 RR
Having won gold last week with Thea Nielsen from Denmark, Grace Williams teamed up with Lin Tzu Yu, the class 10 World number seven and Asian Para Games champion from Chinese Taipei. They came through a marathon third set 18-16 to beat Kelly Van Zon from Netherlands and Mirjana Lucic from Croatia 3-0 and then came back from 2-1 down to beat Neslihan Kavas and Kubra Korkut from Turkey 3-2, 11-8 in the deciding set. They lost 3-0 to the Russian pair of Anastasia Kostenevich and Olga Gorshkaleva and took the first set in their final round-robin match against Alexa Szvitacs from Hungary and Karolina Pek from Poland before losing 3-1.
“It is always difficult adapting to a new partner,” said Williams, “especially someone who speaks relatively little English, so it is about finding a way to communicate with them and also getting tactics and learning how to play with them. Sometimes I play in class 14 so there is a big difference in the style of play in the higher class, but I feel that I’ve played really well so that is a positive to take away. It’s always good to get medals but it is also good to get a lot of practical things to take from the matches into the training hall and the next block of training before the USA in August.”
Men’s class 4
Rob Davies and Tom Matthews lost their opening match 3-0 to the class 2 pair of World number three Rafal Czuper and Tomasz Jakimczuk, the European bronze medallists from Poland. They started well against Federico Crosara and Federico Falco, taking the first set 11-8 before the Italians came back to take the match 3-1 and they played well but did not progress after a 3-0 loss to Cha Soo Yong and Park Jin Cheol, the Paralympic bronze medallists from Korea.
The tournament concludes with the mixed doubles events tomorrow.