The ITTF World Masters Championships is under way in Rome – with 6,100 competitors, aged from 40 all the way up to 99, representing 110 member associations.

Selected tables from the event are being live-streamed on the ITTF YouTube channel – click here to watch.

The competition has now moved on to the knockout phase – click here to visit the event website and check out all the results.

There is a healthy English contingent of around 180 competitors at the tournament for the first year under its new name – it was formerly the World Veterans Championships.

They include Denis Neale, who is the last English man to win an individual medal at the World Championships – a Mixed Doubles bronze alongside Mary Wright in 1969. He is competing in the MS80 category and won his three group matches on day one of the competition, including a superb 3-2 (9-11, 9-11, 11-8, 11-8, 11-3) comeback victory over Dimitrije Bilic of Germany.

Neale is one of only two World Championships medallists competing, the other being Mikael Appelgren of Sweden, a four-time gold medallist in the team and doubles competitions in the 1980s and 90s.

Also competing is Betty Bird, who won gold alongside Marianne Blasberg of Germany in the WD85 category at the last edition of the event in Oman last year. This time, the pair step up to the WD90 class.

Sandra Rider, who won two silvers last time out, is once again competing in the 70-year bracket as she aims to go one better. She started with two wins out of three group matches, losing out to Tamura Masako of Japan.

Lorestas Trumpauskas, who won MS50 silver last time, is another looking to upgrade to gold, and he started with three wins in the group stage, having moved up to MS55.

Wales’ Mike Marsden is defending his title in the Over-40s Men’s Doubles but has a new partner – Pawel Orzechowski of England taking over from Germany’s Gregor Foerster.