A tough first day for the British team at the ITTF World Para Table Tennis Championships in Thailand ended on a high with a typically fighting performance from Will Bayley & Bly Twomey to progress to the quarter-finals of the mixed class 14 doubles after disappointing losses earlier in the day for Billy Shilton & Martin Perry in men’s class 14 and Fliss Pickard & Bly Twomey in women’s class 14.

Mixed class 14

Will Bayley & Bly Twomey were competing together for the first time since winning the European title last year and having received a bye into the round of 16 they were drawn against the number two ranked pair in the world in Maksym Nikolenko and Maryna Lytovchenko from Ukraine.

After losing a close first set 11-9 they were 3-1 down in the second when Twomey took a medical timeout after which they recovered from 5-2 down to take the set 11-7. Nikolenko and Lytovchenko took the third set 11-5 but Bayley & Twomey raced through the fourth set 11-1 to level at 2-2. They led 5-1 in the deciding set, but the Ukrainian pair came back to level at 6-6 and had match points at 10-8 and again at 11-10 but Bayley & Twomey saved them all and clinched an emotional win 13-11.

Bayley’s celebration at the end illustrated just how important the victory was, and he raced into the corner to hug head coach Andrew Rushton.

“That was one of the most difficult matches I’ve ever played in my career,” said Bayley. “It looked like we were down and out at 1-0 down and 3-1 down when Bly had to take a medical timeout. I said to Bly, ‘we’re going to show what we’re all about here and we’re not going to give up’. We had to dig deep and I can’t believe how she kept going – she was in a lot of pain but she insisted on carrying on so I wanted to give my best for her and to win it like that – she said to me afterwards, ‘I needed that’.

“We’ve had a lot of disappointing results and hard losses today, and I wanted to kick start the tournament for us and to get a bit of momentum going for the next few matches and I think we did that tonight. It was a brilliant win and one of my best in terms of doubles. I’m really proud of Bly – she was outstanding. She played a brilliant shot in the last point and that is what champions do – she played a brilliant point when we needed it and that is special.”

Bayley & Twomey face Yannick Paredis & Kelly Van Zon of the Netherlands in the quarter-finals tomorrow.

Martin Perry & Grace Williams were quick out of the blocks in their opening round of 32 match against Krizander Magnussen & Nora Korneliussen from Norway, leading 9-2 before taking the first set 11-7 and won the second 11-9 to lead 2-0. Magnussen & Korneliussen took the third set 11-6 but Perry & Williams came back to take the fourth set 11-6 and the match 3-1.

They started well in their round of 16 match against Ignacio Torres & Florencia Perez taking the first set 11-7 and the second 11-9 but the Para Pan American Championship silver medallists from Chile edged a close third set 11-9 and took the fourth 11-6 before securing a 3-2 win, 11-7 in the deciding set.

“8-8 is a pivotal moment in any set,” said Williams, “especially when we were 2-0 up and when they take the third set you give them the momentum. It happened earlier against Norway, and we managed to win the fourth set, but they (Chile) had a bit of luck so it feels annoying, but we tried our best and we did play really well. It was a good win against Norway especially as we lost to them in the Europeans last year so there are a lot of positives to take but it’s still really disappointing.”

“The win against Norway was really good,” said Perry, “particularly for myself after the loss with Billy to USA earlier. Against Chile I thought we were unfortunate because we were 4-1 up in the fourth and three of the next four balls were nets and edges against us.  I think we had two more at the end of the set and as Grace said that gave them the momentum and a bit of confidence. We could have won it by a convincing scoreline, and I felt we played a lot of good stuff in both matches.”

Women’s class 14

Fliss Pickard & Bly Twomey came into these World Championships having only been able to play two tournaments together this year and they started slowly in their round of 16 match, losing the first set to class 7 world number nine Wang Rui & class 6 world number seven Jiang Shan from China 11-7. They raced into an 8-2 lead in the second set and won it 11-9 to level at 1-1 and led 6-2 in the third but Wang & Jiang worked their way back into the set and took it 11-8 before completing a 3-1 win, 11-7 in the fourth.

“I think there were patches where we had full control,” said Pickard, “but when you’re not playing together regularly it is hard and the communication wasn’t great to be honest. At 6-2 in the third set I think we stopped communicating and because of that the movement stops and then you stop working together. They are a strong pair, and it’s been an up and down year for both of us, so we move on and look forwards.”

Men’s class 8

Class 5 Jack Hunter-Spivey & class 1 Rob Davies had a tough draw in the round of 16 against Valentin Baus & Thomas Schmidberger, the two-time European champions and Paris 2024 Paralympic silver medallists from Germany and they can be proud of their performance despite a 3-0 loss. They saved three match points in the third set to level at 10-10 before the German pair edged it 12-10 to secure the win.

“Obviously it was difficult playing against a class 5 and a class 3,” said Davies. “Baus is world number one, and it was a case of trying to get used to his power and top spin, but I enjoyed it, which was the main thing. We played like we were told to and like we wanted to so I’m relatively happy and it was good to get some experience of playing in the hall before the singles. Although we never play to lose, it was always going to be difficult.”

“What we went out to accomplish we did and we gave a good account of ourselves against two very good players,” said Hunter-Spivey. “We were unlucky not to get that third set in fairness, but I think what we came to do we achieved and it has been a pleasure to play with Rob in the doubles.”

Men’s class 14

Billy Shilton & Martin Perry recovered from 5-0 down to lead 7-6 in the first set against men’s class 6 Tokyo 2020 Paralympic champion Ian Seidenfeld & Samuel Altshuler, but the greater consistency of the American pair secured them the first set 11-8 and the second 11-5 to lead 2-0. Shilton & Perry fought back from 5-1 down in the third to level at 5-5 but Seidenfeld & Altshuler were not to be denied, and they completed a 3-0 win, 11-6.

“It was a combination of a few things,” said a bitterly disappointed Shilton, who was defending the title he won four years ago with Paul Karabardak. “They played strategically very smart and I think from our side we just didn’t bring the level that we know we can. That is the disappointing thing – we have put in a lot of work this year and to lose that match is going to be a hard one to take. I’m motivated more than ever now to show the level that I can show in the singles. I didn’t show it in the doubles, so I’ll be practicing hard over the next few days to make sure I bring it in the singles, and I’ll be ready for sure.”