Medals at the 2020 Paralympic Games, at the ITTF Egypt Para Open in the men’s singles events, in Ismailia, it was gold for Great Britain’s Jack Hunter-Spivey (Class 5), Belgium’s Laurens Devos (Class 9) and for Hungary’s Peter Palos (Class 11).
Likewise, in the women’s singles for Alexa Svitacs, also from Hungary (Class 9-10), it was the top prize.
A successful venture for Hungary, it was even more successful for France.
In the men’s singles competition, Alan Papirer (Class 1-2) and Florian Merrien (Class 3) duly justified their top seeded positions. Colleague, Esteban Herrault, the no.2 seed (Class 6), emerged a somewhat unexpected winner.
He ended Greek hopes, in the final he beat Georgios Miuchthis (9-11, 11-9, 11-4, 11-6), the penultimate round winner in opposition to colleague Marios Chatzikyriakos, the top seed (12-10, 11-7, 11-4).
Three titles for Frenchmen, it was the same for the hosts. Mohamed Saleh (Class 4), Sayed Youssef (Class 7) and Abdelrahaman Abdelwahab (Class 10) all endorsed their top seeded status.
Top seeds to the fore in the men’s singles with one unexpected gold; it was the same in the women’s competition.
India’s Sonalben Patel (Class 2-3) emerged victorious as did compatriot Bhavina Patel (Class 4-5); outcomes as predicted. The surprise name was Iraq’s Najlah Al Dayyeni (Class 6).
Not listed amongst the elite names; she ended Romanian aspirations. After accounting for Gabriela Constantin in the group stage (11-7, 11-9, 11-4), she secured the title at the expense of Camilia Ciripan (9-11, 11-6, 14-12, 11-4).
Attention now turns to the men’s doubles, women’s doubles and mixed doubles competitions, the numbers allocated to the categories to determine the name of the events being the maximum when the classes of the players are added together.
Play concludes in Ismailia on Saturday 2nd April.
