Great start to team competition for British team in Slovenia

With the singles event complete the team competition at the PTT Slovenia Open got underway this afternoon and Britain made a good start in men’s class 8 with a win for GBR2 over a combined team from Argentina and Canada. Will Bayley and Billy Shilton won the doubles 3-0 and Shilton then completed a 2-0 win with a 3-0 win in the singles against Curtis Caron from Canada. In their second match against Belgium Bayley and Shilton came back from 2-0 down to win the doubles 12-10 in the fifth and 18 year old Shilton then played a superb match against Marc Ledoux to beat the World number ten 11-8 in the fifth and give his team a 2-0 win.

GBR1 also made a winning start in men’s class 8 against Australia. Aaron McKibbin and Ross Wilson combined to win the doubles and Wilson then defeated Nathan Pellissier 3-0 in the first singles match for a 2-0 win. In their second match they faced Netherlands1 and after a 3-1 win in the doubles Wilson came through a great battle against the class 7 European champion Jean-paul Montanus 11-8 in the fifth to secure a 2-0 win.

In men’s class 5 Jack Hunter-Spivey and team partner Tommy Urhaug began with 2-0 win against Argentina. Hunter-Spivey and Urhaug won the doubles and Hunter-Spivey defeated Elias Romero 3-0 in the first singles.

Fliss Pickard and her fellow class 6 Polish team partner Katarzyna Marszal began their women’s class 6-7 team campaign against a combined team of class 7 players from Turkey, The Netherlands and Canada. Pickard and Marszal lost the doubles to Kubra Korkut from Turkey and Kelly Van Zon of The Netherlands and when Marszal beat the Canadian Stephanie Chan 3-2 to level at 1-1 Pickard had to take on Van Zon in the deciding singles. She played really well and pushed the class 7 World, Paralympic and European champion all the way despite a 3-1 loss.