by Ian Marshall, Editor

Competing in class 2, the 27 year old from Cerqueira César, after overcoming Femke Cobben of the Netherlands in a closely contested full distance five games encounter (8-11, 11-5, 11-5, 7-11, 11-7), accounted for China’s Liu Jing, gold medallist in class 1-2 at the three most recent Paralympic Games.

In a second hard fought contest of the day, the Brazilian resisted a spirited recovery by Liu Jing to record a landmark win (11-4, 11-9, 8-11, 5-11, 11-2). Two confidence boosting victories to her credit, Catia Christina da Silva Oliveira duly completed her group stage matches in style. She secured a straight games win in opposition to Serbia’s Ana Prvulovic (11-8, 19-17, 11-4).

Defeat for Liu Jing, the no.3 seed but it was her only defeat; thus second place and progress to the main draw was the end result. Problems for Liu Jing; for Italy’s Giada Rossi and Russia’s Nadejda Pushpsasheva, the top seeds, there no such travails, first group positions were reserved.

Likewise in class 1, play organized on a group basis, Poland’s Dorota Buclaw and Israel’s Chagit Yona Brill, the respective top two seeds, remained unbeaten. In class 3, it was no different, China’s Xue Juan and Sweden’s Anna-Carin Ahlquist, the leading names, reserved top spots, as in class 4 did Serbia’s Borislava Peric-Rankovic and China’s Zhou Ying. The one upset of note in class 4 being the defeat of England’s Sue Gilroy, the no.5 seed, by Zorica Popadic, like Borislava Peric-Rankovic from Serbia (13-11, 6-11, 11-3, 11-8).

However, in class 5, life was somewhat different; China’s Zhang Bian, the top seed, duly finished in first place in her group but Korea Republic’s Jung Younga, the no.2 seed, had to settle for second place behind Sweden’s Ingela Lundbäck.

Play in the women’s singles standing classes concludes on Thursday 9th May.

Thermana Lasko Slovenia Para Open 2019: Latest results and main draws