Silver for Martin Perry in men’s class 6 and bronze medals for Fliss Pickard (women’s class 6) and Chris Ryan (men’s class 2) were the highlights for the British team in the singles events at the ITTF World Para Challenger Podgorica in Montenegro.

Men’s class 6

Martin Perry began with a 3-0 win against 18-year-old Luka Vidovic from Serbia and went through to the knockout stages as group winner after a 3-0 win against Junki Itai, the former Para Asian Championships medallist from Japan.

Perry received a round of 16 bye and was a 3-0 winner of his quarter-final against the Russian Timur Khusnullin, gold medallist in the World Para Challenger Astana last year and progressed to the final without dropping a set after beating world No 6 Lee Se Ho from Korea Republic, the Asian Para Games bronze medallist 3-0 in the semi-final.

The Scotsman faced world No 3 Bobi Simion in the final and never really settled into the match against the two-time European medallist from Romania who was a 3-0 winner.

“There are lots of positives to take from the tournament,” said Perry. “To not drop a set on the way to the final filled me with a lot of confidence, especially against some tough opponents. Obviously disappointed with the result in the final but I never really got going – I felt tactically Bobi was spot-on and he kept me out of the game really well. The few chances I had to try and fight back in the first two sets in particular I just made a few mistakes, and it just compounded from there.

“I wasn’t particularly happy with my performance in the final, but I’ve got to give credit to Bobi for the way he played. I thought he played really well and congratulations to him on winning. It was nice to be in the final of a tournament again; it’s been almost a year since I did that – in Slovenia last year – so that’s decent and now I’m looking forward to playing doubles with Billy (Shilton). Hopefully we can put in a good performance and carry on from what we did in Poland.”

Women’s class 6

Fliss Pickard recovered from dropping the first set to beat Antonina Khodzynskaya, the former Paralympic silver medallist from Ukraine 3-1 and secured her place in the quarter-finals as group winner with a 3-1 win against Barbara Jablonka, the European Paralympic Youth Games champion from Poland.

Pickard and Katarzyna Marszal have had some great battles in the past and met five times in 2025 with Pickard winning four but the world and European silver medallist from Poland claimed victory in their most recent meeting at the European Championships in November. Today it was Pickard who regained the upper hand with a 3-0 win in their quarter-final to set up a semi-final meeting with Maryna Lytovchenko.

She had never beaten the world and Tokyo Paralympic champion in 18 previous meetings but made a great start, taking the first set 11-9, and led 7-2 in the second before the former world No 1 from Ukraine came back to win it 11-8. Pickard led 8-1 and 10-6 in the third but lost it 12-10 and she showed all her character and determination to fight back and take the fourth set 12-10 to level at 2-2 before Lytovchenko took the deciding set 11-5 to win 3-2.

“This has been a tough tournament,” said Pickard. “I’ve been working on a lot of things to evolve my game and have been struggling to find the right balance here, but I definitely produced some better stuff in the semi. I just have to trust the process and take it forward into Slovenia next week.”

Men’s class 2

Chris Ryan lost the first set to the former world No 1 Peter Lovas but fought back to beat the Paralympic and European men’s doubles champion from Slovakia 3-1. He led Boris Stoiljkovic 2-0 before the former two-time European team medallist from Serbia edged the third 13-11 but Ryan secured his place in the knockout stages as group winner by taking the fourth 11-9 for another 3-1 win.

A 3-0 win in the quarter-final against Iker Sastre, the world and European doubles silver medallist from Spain took him through to the semi-final where he was beaten 3-0 by world No 3 Park Jin Cheol, the five-time Para Asian champion, Tokyo Paralympic bronze medallist and world doubles champion from Korea Republic.

“I have to be happy overall with the tournament,” said Ryan. “I had some really good wins and performances on the way to the semi-final and it’s pleasing to see the level of my game has improved. Even the matches I won were all difficult and playing in these high-level competitions is exactly what I need to keep getting better. The semi-final was very tough so I’m going to have to do everything I can to get to Park’s level as quickly as I can.”

Men’s class 1

Tom Matthews was involved in a very close match against world No 4 Jeong Sang Gu and after the Para Asian Championships silver medallist from Korea Republic edged a tight third set 12-10 to lead 2-1 Matthews took the fourth 12-10 to level at 2-2 before the deciding set went the way of the Korean 11-9. The Welshman started well against Rakan Abdulrahman Alsalmi, taking the first set 11-7 but the Para Asian Championships doubles bronze medallist from Saudi Arabia came back to take the next three to win 3-1 and deny Matthews a place in the knockout stages.

In only his third international tournament Nathan Drayner was drawn in a tough group with three of the most experienced players in men’s class 1. He was beaten 3-0 by Endre Major, the Paralympic bronze medallist and former European champion from Hungary, 3-0 by Silvio Keller, the former European bronze medallist from Switzerland and 3-0 by Dmitrii Lavrov, the Russian world No 6 and two-time European bronze medallist who is competing here as an individual neutral athlete.

Men’s class 7

Theo Bishop lost his opening match in three close sets to Bjoern Schnake, the world No 11 and former European bronze medallist from Germany but progressed to the knockout stages with a 3-0 win against the veteran Pjetro Paljusevic from Montenegro.

He started well in his round of 16 match against Yannick Paredis, taking the first set 11-3 before the European champion from Netherlands edged a tight second set 14-12 to level at 1-1. Bishop took the third 11-8 and secured a 3-1 win, 11-8 in the fourth to progress to the quarter-finals where he lost a five-set battle against the former European bronze medallist Kevin Dourbecker, fighting back to level at 2-2 before the experienced Frenchman clinched a 3-2 win, 11-8 in the fifth.

Men’s class 8

Billy Shilton was a comfortable 3-0 winner against Aleksej Radukic from Serbia and received a walkover in his second group match following the withdrawal of Wong Hon Lam, the Para Asian Championships silver medallist from Hong Kong China. Shilton faced the 17-year-old Italian Ludovico Bini in the round of 16 and the U23 Paralympic Youth champion, who had won their previous meeting in Italy last month had the edge again and was a 3-0 winner.

Men’s class 10

Max Flint had a tough opening match against Filip Radovic from Montenegro and was beaten 3-0 by the world No 2 and two-time Paralympic bronze medallist. He did not progress after a 3-0 loss to Lin Chun Ting, the former Asian Para Games bronze medallist from Chinese Taipei.

The tournament continues with the doubles events that conclude on Saturday.