Darius Knight and Ella Pashley won the men’s and women’s singles at the Mark Bates Ltd National Championships Qualifying Tournament.
They led 14 qualifiers in each competition who go through to join the top 16 ranked players in the country at the Nationals ‘proper’, back at the David Ross Sports Village in March.
Athletes who finished in 15th place downwards may still get into the Nationals in the event of anyone withdrawing, or as doubles partners for those who have secured their place, so there could turn out to have been plenty riding on every match on day two, with 32 players competing in each of the men’s and women’s singles.
A total of eight live streams were shown on TTE.TV across the two-day tournament, including four tables streamed on Sunday.
The action was free to watch, and hundreds of viewers enjoyed some titanic struggles.
Click here to visit TTE.TV and catch up on the action
For all the women’s results, click here
For all the men’s results, click here
Women’s Singles
Ella Pashley came from 2-0 down in the final match to defeat Mya Sultan and take top place. In the last match to finish, the Ormesby teenager won 3-2 (8-11, 10-12, 11-9, 11-4, 11-6).
The final list of qualifiers and their finishing positions was:
1 Ella Pashley, 2 Mya Sultan, 3 Rachael Iles, 4 Rebecca Savage, 5 Anna Green, 6 Erin Green, 7 Anaya Patel, 8 Megan Jones, 9 Mabel Shute, 10 Naomi Coker, 11 Sara Williams, 12 Saskia Key, 13 Mia Lakhani, 14 Lisa Rinnhofer
With the top 14 qualifying, the matches in the 13th-16th bracket in the penultimate round were the ones with jeopardy attached.
It was Mia Lakhani and Lisa Rinnhofer who emerged victorious, against Ella Barnard and Stefania Popa respectively.
There were a lot of close matches throughout. Back in the first round, Lisa Rinnhofer beat the higher ranked Bethany Ellis 3-2 (11-2, 8-11, 8-11, 11-7, 11-3), while Stefania Popa narrowly came out on top against Isabelle Lacorte in five (9-11, 11-6, 11-8, 8-11, 11-8).
There were several close ones too in the second round. At the top of the seedings, Anna Green was pushed by Mia Lakhani before claiming a 3-2 (11-6, 7-11, 12-10, 5-11, 11-7) victory, while Rebecca Savage had to fight back against Naomi Coker, winning 3-2 (1-11, 11-8, 4-11, 11-4, 11-4).
Rachael Iles had a mini marathon with Mabel Shute, taking a 3-2 (11-7, 14-16, 13-11, 6-11, 11-7) victory, and Olivia Fletcher won a see-saw tussle with Sophie RInnhofer in five (11-3, 13-15, 11-8, 9-11, 11-9).
Anna Green was involved in another five-setter in the third round, this time being edged out 3-2 (5-11, 12-10, 11-5, 3-11, 12-10) by Savage.
Erin, the older Green sister, also went down in five as Mya Sultan turned around their match from 2- down. The score in the end was 10-12, 8-11, 11-5, 11-2, 12-10 in favour of Sultan.
Ellis had to fight past para ace Fliss Pickard 3-2 (11-13, 11-3, 11-4, 9-11, 11-4), while Tiana Dennison came from behind to win 3-2 (9-11, 6-11, 9-11, 11-4, 11-3) against Niamh Scarborough.
Men’s Singles
Darius Knight was never seriously troubled as he secured first place, though he did drop the odd game, and trailed a fast-starting Shaquille Webb-Dixon in the final before coming back to win 3-1 (2-11, 11-4, 11-9, 11-8).
The final list of qualifiers and their finishing positions was:
1 Darius Knight, 2 Shaquille Webb-Dixon, 3 Felix Thomis, 4 Larry Trumpauskas, 5 Ralph Pattison, 6 Jakub Piwowar, 7 Graeme Barella, 8 Adam Dennison, 9 Josh Bruce, 10 Naphong Boonyaprapa, 11 Olly Cornish, 12 Artur Caltabiano, 13 Ben Piggott, 14 Maxim Stevens
In the ‘winner-take-all matches in the 13th-16th bracket, victories went to Maxim Stevens, in five games against Toby Ellis, and Ben Piggott against Ormesby club-mate Jake Haygarth.
Webb-Dixon had a noteworthy win to make it into the final – beating Felix Thomis 14-12 in the fifth in the penultimate round.
Also noteworthy at the same stage was the turnaround produced by Aaron McKibbin to beat Bertie Kelly 3-2 (6-11, 6-11, 11-7, 14-12, 11-7).
Back in the earlier rounds, as the players aimed to take the first important steps towards securing those 14 coveted places, there was plenty of drama,
The first round saw Artur Veeck Caltabiano recover a 2-1 deficit to beat Umair Mauthoor 3-2 (6-11, 11-5, 5-11, 11-5, 11-7).
There was also a cracker between Bertie Kelly and Jake Haygarth, the former saving match points in the third before ultimately losing out as Haygarth won 3-2 (15-13, 11-8, 10-12, 7-11, 11-9).
In the second round, Jakub Piwowar came from 2-1 down to defeat Caltabiano 3-2 (11-9, 10-12, 7-11, 11-8, 11-3), while Krish Chotai went one better by overturning a 2-0 deficit against Robert Pelc, eventually winning it 9-11, 5-11, 12-10, 11-4, 11-3.
Mauthoor and Billy Shilton also went the distance before Mauthoor won 12-10 in the fifth – two of the other games had gone to deuce.
In the third round, Felix Thomis beat Piwowar in five (11-8 in the decider) and Caltabiano this time returned to winning ways in a five-setter, against Haygarth.