by Ian Marshall, ITTF Publications Editor

In his opening contest, Rob Davies was beaten by Switzerland’s Sylvio Keller in five games (11-7, 9-11, 8-11, 11-3, 11-3), before experiencing a four games defeat at the hands of Italy’s Federico Falco (11-3, 9-11, 11-8, 11-9).

Federico Falco duly accounted for Sylvio Keller in a full distance duel to top the group (11-5, 11-6, 8-11, 5-11, 11-2).

An upset of note, the only other surprise to compare came in Class 2 where Ireland’s Colin Judge, the winner the previous week in Spain, upset the odds. He remained unbeaten to secure first place in his group, notably accounting for Ukraine’s Oleksdandr Yezyk, the no.2 seed (10-12, 11-6, 14-12, 5-11, 11-5).

The consolation for Oleksdandr Yezyk was that it was his only defeat; thus second place was gained and progress to the main draw. Poland’s Rafal Czuper, the top seed, duly secured first place in his group and could well be on course to meet the in-form Irishman in the final.

Otherwise, it was a day for the favourites with the host nation enjoying success. Thomas Schmidberger finished in first place in his group in Class 3 to justify his top seeded position, as in Class 5 did Valentin Baus.

Likewise, there was notable success for Ukraine; it was first place in the group as their top seeded status advised for Maksym Nikolenko in Class 7, a success that was matched in Class 8 by Viktor Didukh.

First place as predicted, it was the same situation for Turkey’s Abdullah Ozturk, the no.1 seed in Class 4 and in Class 6 for Denmark’s Peter Rosenmeier. Similarly, not to be left out in Class 9, Belgium’s Laurens Devos remained unbeaten, as did Poland’s Patryk Chojnowski in Class 10 and Hungary’s Peter Palos in Class 11.

Play in the individual events concludes on Thursday 15th June.

2017 Bayreuth Para Open: Draw and Latest Results