BRECON’S Rob Davies retained his men’s class one singles title at the European Para Table Tennis Championships in Slovenia on Saturday (September 30) but faced disappointment when the team event was cancelled.
Rio Paralympics champion Davies led a historic British clean sweep of the medals in men’s class one with Tom Matthews taking silver and Paul Davies bronze but the team event was cancelled when Hungary withdrew, meaning the minimum quota of four teams had not been reached.
In the semi-final Rob Davies had to take on his great friend and fellow Welshman Paul Davies in what was a repeat of their final in the European Championships in 2013. It went to a deciding set and the 33-year-old from Brecon proved just too strong for the 50-year-old from North Cornelly in taking the match 11-5 in the fifth.
He then had to take on another fellow Welshman in Matthews in the final and used all his experience to close out the match 11-9 in the third to secure his third consecutive European title.
“It feels pretty amazing,” said Davies. “It was a very emotional semi-final playing Paul, who’s been through a lot in the last 12 months. For Tom as well to win the semi-final shows how much GB Para table tennis is coming on and the young players are improving all the time. The World title next year would be nice. That is definitely my aim – I didn’t think I would be in the finals here to be honest but I’ve done it, dug deep and battled through every match and got there.”
Matthews faced Federico Falco, the Italian who had taken Rob Davies to five sets in the group stages, in his semi-final and showed great character and fight to come back from 2-1 down to take the final two sets 11-8.
The 25-year-old from Aberdare was not able to reproduce that form in the final but having taken bronze two years ago was happy to take the silver this time.
“Rob is a true champion and a great guy,” said Matthews.
“I’m happy for Rob, happy for myself and happy for the team.”
London 2012 bronze medallist Paul Davies was also delighted to be back in the medals at a major championship. “It was a really good game,” he said.
“I’ve got to give the guy (Rob) credit, he is a talented player and I taught him! He deserved to win but I think I pushed him to get that win today.”
Rob Davies had been due to play the team event with Davies and Matthews after the conclusion of the singles but the trio faced disappointment when the Hungarian team withdrew over the weekend.