Will Bayley and Bly Twomey saved two match points to reach the mixed class 14 doubles quarter-finals at the World Para Championships in Pattaya on Friday, the high point of a hard opening day for the British team in Thailand.
The European champions, playing together for the first time since winning that title last year, beat Ukraine's Maksym Nikolenko and Maryna Lytovchenko, the world No 2 pair, 9-11, 11-7, 5-11, 11-1, 13-11. Earlier in the day the defending men's class 14 champion, Billy Shilton, and his new partner, Martin Perry, went out, as did Twomey and Fliss Pickard in the women's class 14 event.
Bayley and Twomey come through
The British pair had a bye into the last 16 and lost the first game 11-9. They were 3-1 down in the second when Twomey took a medical timeout, and they then recovered from 5-2 down to take the game 11-7.
After the Ukrainians won the third 11-5, Bayley and Twomey lost only one point in the fourth. They led 5-1 in the decider, but Nikolenko and Lytovchenko levelled at 6-6 and had match points at 10-8 and 11-10. The British pair saved them all and won the game 13-11, and Bayley ran to the corner to hug the head coach, Andrew Rushton.
"That was one of the most difficult matches I've ever played in my career," Bayley said. "It looked like we were down and out at 1-0 down and 3-1 down when Bly had to take a medical timeout."
Bayley, the men's class 7 world champion, said Twomey was "in a lot of pain" but insisted on carrying on. "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," he said. They play the Netherlands' Yannick Paredis and Kelly van Zon in the quarter-finals on Saturday.
Shilton's defence ends
Shilton won the men's class 14 doubles title four years ago with Paul Karabardak. He and Perry came back from 5-0 down to lead 7-6 in the first game of their quarter-final against the United States' Ian Seidenfeld, the Tokyo 2020 class 6 Paralympic champion, and Samuel Altshuler, but lost 11-8, 11-5, 11-6.
"They played strategically very smart and I think from our side we just didn't bring the level that we know we can," Shilton said. He added that he was "motivated more than ever" to show his level in the singles.
Pickard and Twomey beaten
Pickard and Twomey, who had played only two tournaments together this year, lost 11-7, 9-11, 11-8, 11-7 to China's Wang Rui and Jiang Shan in the women's class 14 last 16. They led 6-2 in the third game before the Chinese pair took it.
"When you're not playing together regularly it is hard and the communication wasn't great to be honest," Pickard said.
A win, then defeat, for Perry and Williams
Perry and Grace Williams won their first mixed doubles match 11-7, 11-9, 6-11, 11-6 against Norway's Krizander Magnussen and Nora Korneliussen, who Williams said had beaten them at last year's European Championships. They then led Chile's Ignacio Torres and Florencia Perez, the Para Pan American silver medallists, by two games before losing 7-11, 9-11, 11-9, 11-6, 11-7.
Perry said they were 4-1 up in the fourth game when three of the next four points went against them off nets and edges. "We could have won it by a convincing scoreline, and I felt we played a lot of good stuff in both matches."
In the men's class 8 doubles, Jack Hunter-Spivey and Rob Davies lost 3-0 to Germany's Valentin Baus and Thomas Schmidberger, the Paris 2024 Paralympic silver medallists. The British pair saved three match points in the third game to level at 10-10 before losing it 12-10.
What comes next
Bayley and Twomey's quarter-final is on Saturday. In the singles, Bayley has a bye to the class 7 quarter-finals and Davies a bye to the class 1 quarter-finals, as the draw showed on Wednesday, while Twomey opens against Costa Rica's Kristel Morales Madriz in the class 7 last 16. The championships run until 19 November.
