by Wade Townsend

London is barely a hop, skip and a jump to from Düsseldorf. So with half of Team Wales flying out from Heathrow Airport, there shouldn’t have been too many problems.

But British Airways’ computers had other plans, as a complete systems failure left passengers stranded, including the Welsh team. Another flight was eventually found for the players later that evening, but without any explanation that flight was cancelled at the last minute.

So with two seperate airlines making two seperate cancellations, it was looking like Wales weren’t going to make it to Düsseldorf.

Luckily the team arrived on the morning of Day 1, but not quite in time.

Callum Evans and Daniel O’Connell both had to forfeit there opening round singles match.

Doubles was on the agenda in the evening, and if Evans had lost the match his tournament and stay in Düsseldorf would have lasted less than twenty-four hours. Luckily that wasn’t to be the case.

“I was thirty-six hours late but my forehand touch was still the bomb.”  Callum Evans

The Welsh duo won 3-1 against the mixed nation pairing of Jan Medina (VEN) and Alex Naumi (FIN).

Meanwhile Chloe Thomas came in to the hall in a frazzled state.

“I walked in to the hall completely dead. It took us thirty six hours to get here. I could have flown from Australia and still arrived earlier.” Chloe Thomas

In spite of this, Thomas managed to keep her composure and get a win on the board with little time to prepare, winning 4-2 in her opening group match in the Women’s Singles against Emme Arias (ESA).

Wales, down but not out in Düsseldorf.