by Ian Marshall, Editor

After accounting for Israel’s Gilad Skop (11-2, 11-1, 11-3), he caused a major upset by overcoming Romania’s Bobi Simion, the no.2 seed (11-9, 11-9, 11-7); two fine performances under his belt, he concluded the day with a four games win in opposition to Georgios Mouchthis of Greece (11-7, 11-8, 7-11, 11-6).

Success for Martin Perry and there was also success for his colleague with whom one year ago he had secured men’s team class 6 bronze in Lignano. David Wetherill, the top seed, duly secured first place in his group as did Paul Karabardak, the no.3 seed. Defeat for Bobi Simion but it was his only reverse; thus second place in the group and progress to the main draw was achieved.

“It’s the first time I see so many people here in Lignano and I am happy of this. It’s difficult because you have to be very focused in every match.” Bobi Simion

A positive outcome for Great Britain, it was the same in men’s singles class 1, the top two names, Rob Davies and Tom Matthews both ending the day unbeaten. Similarly Will Bayley remained unbeaten in class 7 as did Kim Daybell in class 10.

Impressive performances, it was very much the order of the day from the top names in the remaining men’s singles events; all ended the day without defeat.

Fabien Lamirault and Maxime Thomas of France, the top seeds in class 2 and class 4 respectively remained unbeaten as did Germany’s Thomas Schmidberger in class 3 and Serbia’s Mitar Lalikuca in class 5.

Likewise in class 8, Viktor Didukh maintained a perfect record, a feat achieved by Poland’s Marek Chybinski in class 11.

Play in the men’s singles events conclude on Friday 15th March.

Lignano Masters Open: Draw and Full Results