by Ian Marshall, ITTF Publications Editor
Listed at no.23 on the current Men’s Class 6 World Rankings, the highest status of his career, Great Britain’s Martin Perry was the player to cause the biggest upset on the first day of play, Wednesday 14th December, at the United States Para Open Championships in Las Vegas.
Against the odds, the 22 year old Scot finished in first place in his Men’s Singles Class 6 group to reserve his place in the penultimate round.
In his opening contest he accounted for Israel’s Danny Bobrov, listed at no.11 in the global order and on duty at the recent Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
Impressively, Martin Perry emerged successful in three straight games (11-5, 11-5, 16-14), before accounting for the United States combination of Edward Schneider (11-8, 11-7, 11-3) and Ari Arratia (11-6, 7-11, 11-7, 11-3).
Danny Bobrov duly claimed second place but it was close; he needed the full five games to overcome Ari Arratia (6-11, 11-9, 11-4, 9-11, 11-8). Ari Arratia, like Edward Schneider, currently with no World ranking, finished in third place ahead of his colleague.
Defeat for one top seed and there was defeat for one more on the opening day of play in the Men’s Singles events. In Class 11, listed at no.16 in the global order, Hong Kong’s Wan Wai Lok was beaten by colleague, Leung Chung Yan (11-7, 11-9, 11-7).
One match still to play in an all-play-all organised event, Leung Chung Yan ended the day the only unbeaten player in the competition. Earlier he had overcome Tsoi Ming Fai, also from Hong Kong in five games (11-8, 8-11, 11-5, 9-11, 11-6).
Meanwhile, with the exception of Class 4 and Class 10, the top seeds in the Men’s Singles events all progressed unhindered. In Class 4 top seed, Ukraine’s Vitaliy Popov was absent, Chinese Taipei’s Chen Tai-An seized full advantage of the situation; in Class 10, where no player possesses a current World ranking, the host nation’s Jerry Vasquez remained unbeaten in a group arranged event
Otherwise it was the top seeds that imposed their authority. In the one further event organised on an all-pay-all basis, with one match still to play, Korea’s Kim Mingyu remained unbeaten in Class 2; whilst in the events organised in two phases, the top seeds reserved semi-final places.
Also from Korea; in Class 1 Korea’s Nam Kiwon advanced to the penultimate round, as did Germany’s Thomas Schmidberger in Class 3 and colleague Valentin Baus in Class 5.
Likewise in the Standing Classes, Frenchman Stéphane Messi duly booked his last four place in Class 7; a feat also achieved in Class 8 by Emil Andersson and to the delight of the host nation in Class 9 by Tal Leibovitz.
Play in the individual events concludes on Thursday 15th December.
2016 United States Para Open: Draw and Latest Results
