Birmingham Day 7 Match Report
Another amazing day in the table tennis hall for Team Wales.
Charlotte and Callum started the day off with a fantastic performance against England’s Maria Tsaptsinos and Sam Walker in the mixed doubles event. The Welsh pair went 2-0 up but Tsaptsinos and Walker were not going to give up easily ad they fought back to make it 2-2. Charlotte and Callum went back to the table for the 5th set with victory on their mind and victory they achieved with an 11-4 final set in their favour.
Next up Charlotte and Callum faced the Canadian pairing of Eugene Wang and Mo Zhang. Charlotte and Callum gave their all but Wang and Zhang were just too good on the day and they secured a 3-0 victory against the Welsh pair.
Both Joshua Stacey and Grace Williams had one group match left in their respective para individual events. Grace faced her friend Fliss Pickard from England on show court 2. Pickard won the first set but Grace came back taking the second set 12-10. From here on in it was point for point but Pickard was victorious 3-1 winning the third and fourth sets 11-9.
Josh faced Panteleimon Kailis from Cyprus in his final group match. After winning two matches yesterday Josh was hoping to win his third and final match and top the group and win he did! Josh cruised to a 3-0 win against the defender from Cyprus and tomorrow he will face the number 1 seed of the event Ross Wilson from England in the semi final.
For our three ladies competing in the women’s individual event it was a good day in the hall! Charlotte was the first to confirm her place in the last 16 after beating Oribamise of Nigeria. Charlotte went 3-0 up but the Nigerian fought hard and managed to bring the match score to 3-2 however Charlotte remained calm and won the match with an 11-9 victory in the 6th set. Charlotte will face world ranked 76 Sreeja Akula of India in the last 16 tomorrow morning.
Anna drew fellow Nigerian, Fatima Atinuke Bello, in the last 32. Anna cruised to a 4-0 victory demonstrating some amazing table tennis and she enters the last 16 facing Natalie Cummings of Guyana.
Chloe drew world ranked 137 Sarah Hanffou of Cameron in the last 32. We saw an amazing display of table tennis from both but it was Chloe who came out on top with a fantastic 4-2 win. Chloe lost the first set 7 but took the second set 11-8. Hanffou wasn’t going to make it easy for Chloe and she came back to win the third set 11-9 however Chloe returned to the table for the fourth set and from here on in she was in control and won the final 3 sets 4,7 and 5. Chloe faces Jian Zeng, world ranked 60 in the last 32.