Paris 2024 medallists Will Bayley and Rob Davies return to international competition next week for the first time since taking Paralympic silver last year in the men’s class 7 and men’s class 1 singles respectively.

The Rio 2016 Paralympic champions are among a 14-strong British squad for the first Elite tournament under the new ITTF World Para tournament structure, taking place in Slovenia from May 12-16.

The squad also includes teenager Bly Twomey, who became the youngest Paralympic table tennis medallist when taking bronze in the women’s class 7 singles and class 14 doubles, and fellow Paris medallists Fliss Pickard, Paul Karabardak and Billy Shilton.

The line-up will be joined by Ryan Henry and Chris Ryan for the preceding ITTF World Para Challenger Lasko tournament taking place from May 6-10 at the same venue in Slovenia.

“The new ITTF competition structure represents a massive change,” said BPTT Performance Director Gorazd Vecko, “and it is taking some time for everyone to understand the new system. The biggest change is that it isn’t important who you beat or who you lose to but how far you progress in a tournament.

“The Future tournaments are intended only for young athletes and those who need to be classified but some of the first Future tournaments have included top five players in the world. This means they don’t really understand the system because winning a Future tournament as a top athlete doesn’t really achieve anything as they carry the least number of points and only an athlete’s six best tournaments count towards qualification for major championships.

“With our Performance squad we are looking to get them qualified for the major events and the Elite tournaments are the highest ranked tournaments and carry the most bonus points towards the world rankings.

“The Challenger tournament in Lasko will be preparation for the best players for the Elite but around 60% of the best players from other countries are also playing both tournaments so the Challenger will be more like an Elite tournament but is worth only half the number of points.

“It will be good preparation for the doubles to try out new combinations but will also give players a chance to play a singles tournament before the Elite.”

Slovenia has been a happy hunting ground in the past for Bayley who will be looking to win his fifth consecutive singles gold medal in Lasko, having triumphed in the Slovenia Open in 2019, 2022, 2023 and 2024.

“I’ve been training hard and I feel I’m in my best shape so I’m excited to play my first tournament since Paris,” he said. “I’m not thinking about Challenger or Elite tournaments, I just want to win every match and take it from there.

“I’ve never played back-to-back tournaments before, so I guess I’ll have to adapt to how I’m feeling. I’m playing in singles and doubles so that will be an exciting challenge for me to try and manage my body through hopefully a lot of matches over 10 days.”

Bayley was denied a second Paralympic title in both Tokyo and Paris by Yan Shuo but believes that he can beat the Chinese world No 2.

“I like to think I’ve learnt a lot from the final in Paris,” he said, “and I actually feel more confident after Paris than I was before because of my performance and the way I played. It is hard to define but I felt more dominant even in the final against Yan and I’ve got a lot of confidence from that.

“I feel after Paris that if I play my way I can win whereas I felt he outplayed me in Tokyo, so I’ve actually gained confidence from the final even though I didn’t win it.”

Fliss Pickard, Paul Karabardak, Theo Bishop and Ryan Henry will warm up for Slovenia by competing in the ITTF World Para Challenger Podgorica in Montenegro this week (April 30-May 3) where they will be joined by Pathway athletes Dan Thomson and Jacob Wicks who are looking to build on medal-winning performances in Finland earlier this month.