Table tennis champions head to Bayreuth Open

Great Britain’s David Wetherill, whose wonder shot at London 2012 went viral on YouTube with 6.3 million views, hopes to step up his game even more in Bavaria in class 6.

The second Bayreuth Open will start on Wednesday (29 May), drawing nearly 300 table tennis players from 41 countries around the world to Germany’s Bavaria region.

The event, lasting through Friday (1 June), will include competition in men’s and women’s singles and team events in all sport classes.

Tournament seeding will be done according the latest ITTF para-table tennis ranking list. Singles matches will be determined by round robin, with two players advancing from each group to the second (knockout) stage. Matches will be played to the best of five games.

Men’s preview

Poland’s Patryk Chojnowski will look to stand out, as the 23-year-old is the defending Paralympic champion in the men’s class 10 singles event and helped the Polish team pick up a Paralympic silver in the team event at London 2012.

He currently holds the highest point total of anyone in the tournament, with 1,901. Points on the ITTF’s ranking list.

Germany’s Jochen Wollmert will be a favourite for the host nation in class 7 after beating Great Britain’s Will Bayley for singles gold at London 2012.

Twenty-one-year-old class 3 player Thomas Schmidberger, who won the tournament in 2011 and is a Paralympic silver and bronze medallist, will also hope to impress his home fans.

Great Britain’s David Wetherill, whose wonder shot at London 2012 went viral on YouTube with 6.3 million views, hopes to step up his game even more in Bavaria in class 6.

Another notable on the men’s side include Paralympic champion Peter Palos of Hungary, who is currently ranked No. 1 in the world in class 11.

Spain’s Jose Manuel Ruiz Reyes (class 10) and Sweden’s Emil Andersson (class 8) could also be in the running to top the podium.

Women’s preview

Kelly van Zon, a London 2012 gold medallist from the Netherlands, will compete in the women’s class 7, while Swedish star Anna-Carin Ahlquist, a Paralympic gold and silver medallist, won the 2011 edition of the Beyreuth Open and is currently ranked No. 1 in the world in class 3.

Ukraine’s Yuliya Klymenko finished with a class 6 bronze in London and also won the 2011 edition of this tournament, and so she will look to star as well.

Although she failed to medal at the London Games, Australia’s Melissa Tapper could be one to surprise in class 10, especially with her fourth-place Paralympic finish still on her mind.