TABLE TENNIS

THE Welsh pairing of Aberdare’s Tom Matthews and Bridgend’s Paul Davies won silver medals in the men’s class 1 team event at the Para Table Tennis Slovenia Open.

With two wins from three matches in the round-robin men’s class 1 event, Matthews and Davies needed to win their final match against Italy to be sure of a medal.

Playing together for the first time, they lost the doubles 3-0 to an experienced Italian pair.

But Davies levelled the tie with a win against an opponent who had won gold in the singles earlier in the week.

That left Matthews needing to beat Federico Falco in the deciding singles.

The 24-year-old took a 2-0 lead and held his nerve to take the match 11-7 in the fourth after Falco had threatened to take the match into a decider.

With both Britain and Hungary/France finishing with three wins from four, the gold was decided on the result between the two teams.

It was the Hungarian/ French partnership who prevailed for a second time, having beaten Matthews and Davies the previous day.

Matthews said afterwards: “I’m proud that I kept my composure. I didn’t get angry with myself and went with the flow when he was winning points and just composed myself for the next point.

“Paul played really well beating Andrea Borgato, which was a massive win, and it is great to beat the Italians.

“I’m looking forward to the World Teams now and this is going to give us a lot of confidence.

“This is the first time we have played together, so we’ll work on our doubles. It has got better throughout the tournament and there is better to come.”