On the final day of the ITTF Costa Brava Spanish Open in Platja D’Aro, Ashley Facey & Joshua Stacey took bronze in the men’s class 18 doubles.

Facey & Stacey (pictured above) progressed to the quarter-finals with wins against Ivan Karabec from Czechia & Richard Csejtey from Slovakia 3-0 and Nathan Pellissier & Ma Lin from Australia 3-1.

They beat Banyu Tri Mulyo & Komet Akbar from Indonesia 3-1 and twice came back to level in their semi-final against Mateo Boheas & Thomas Bouvais but the world bronze medallists from France took the deciding set 11-8 and the match 3-2.

“I thought the quarter-final was pretty good,” said Stacey, “we were very solid and made sure we set each other up well. In the semi-final I think potentially if we had been a bit better tactically going into the fifth set the margins for error would have been a bit larger and we would have had more room to play a bit freer.

“I don’t think it was a bad performance – I think a partnership in doubles is always going to be a work in progress based on the fact that you and your partner are always going to want to improve – and it’s obviously disappointing not to have got to the final and potentially won the tournament.”

“It wasn’t good enough in the semi-finals,” said Facey. “I didn’t play so well but Josh and I were united as a team which was good. It was a tight match and anything could have happened and so we’re disappointed not to get to the final.”

In men’s class, 14 Billy Shilton & Martin Perry led Ben Despineux & Krizander Magnussen 2-0 but the Belgian/Norwegian partnership came back to win 3-2. A 3-1 win against former world champions Jordi Morales & Alvaro Valera from Spain kept them in contention but they went out after a 3-0 loss in their final match to Huang Jiaxin & Peng Weinan from China.

Grace Williams & Fliss Pickard could not find the form that won them the women’s class 14 world title in 2022 and were beaten 3-1 by Gabriela Constantin from Romania & Yuri Tomono from Japan, 3-1 by Wong Yue Ching from Hong Kong, China & Nora Korneliussen from Norway and 3-0 by Morgen Caillaud &Lucie Hautiere from France.

Tom Matthews & Jack Hunter-Spivey did not progress in men’s class 8 after losing to Shi Yanping from China & Genki Saito from Japan 3-0, Maciej Nalepka from Poland & Lucas Carvalhal Arabian from Brazil 3-0 and Kim Jung-gil & Kim Young-gun from Korea 3-0.