21 Sep 2018

Winner one year, for Great Britain’s Rob Davies, at the 2018 Czech Para Open in Ostrava, there will be no such accolade this year.

Competing in Men’s Singles Class 1, gold medallist at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games, on Thursday 20th September, he finished in third place in his initial stage group behind Argentina’s Fernando Eberhardt and Switzerland’s Sylvio Keller.

by Ian Marshall, Editor

Players finishing in first and second places in each group advancing to the main draw, for the top seed it was the end of the road; somewhat differently for Hungary’s Endre Major, the no.2 seed, it was a day without defeat. First place and progress to the second stage was secured.

Problems for Rob Davies; also in Class 3 and in Class 4 there were troubles for prominent names. The no.2 seeds; in Class 3 the Czech Republic’s Mladen Ciric was beaten by colleague Petr Svatos (11-8, 11-8, 11-4), in Class 4 Italy’s David Scazzieri experienced defeat at the hands of Jiri Zak, also from the Czech Republic (11-3, 11-5, 11-7).

However, it was their only defeats thus main draw places were secured. Petr Stavos as with top seed Ireland’s Colin Judge, remained unbeaten as did Jiri Zak and event favourite, Croatia’s Tomislav Spalj.

Otherwise, in each Men’s Singles category the leading names enjoyed success.

In Class 2 Poland’s Rafal Czuper and Slovakia’s Martin Ludrovsky duly booked main draw places, as in Class 5 did Norway’s Tommy Urhaug and Great Britain’s Jack Hunter-Spivey.

Similarly in Class 6 Romania’s Bobi Simon and Croatia’s Vjekoslav Gregorovic advanced to the main draw, a goal also gained in Class 7 by the host nation’s Daniel Horut and Slovakia’s Miroslav Jambor.

Meanwhile, in Class 8 Hungary’s Andras Csonka and Great Britain’s Aaron McKibbin advanced safely to the quarter-finals; whilst in Class 9, first places in their respective groups secured progress for Ashley Facey Thompson and Joshua Stacey, like Aaron Mckibbin from Great Britain.

Success for Great Britain, it was the same in Class 10 where Kim Daybell, the top seed, secured first place in his group and thus advanced to the main draw, progressing in a similar fashion to the Czech Republic’s Ivan Karabec, the no.2 seed.

Progress for the top two names; it was no different in Class 11; Belgium’s Florian Van Acker and Hungary Peter Palos, reserved first positions in their respective groups.

Play in the individual events concludes on Friday 21st September.

2018 Czech Para Open: Draws and Results

Paralympics Para Table Tennis Rob Davies