Will Bayley is guaranteed another Paralympics medal after reaching the class 7 semi-finals of the men’s table tennis in Paris.
The 2016 gold medallist from Tunbridge Wells booked a place in Friday’s last-four with a 3-1 win over Germany’s Bjoern Schnake.
Bayley had never dropped a set in three previous meetings with Schnake, but the German won the Paralympic Qualification Tournament to book his place in Paris and played a superb match to beat the Chinese world No.7 Liao Keli in the previous round.
Bayley took the first set 11-5, but Schnake came back to take the second 11-9 to level at 1-1 and he made the world champion work hard to take the next set 11-6 and secure a 3-1 win 11-5 in the fourth.
“I’m so glad to come through that,” said Bayley. “I’m playing so well, and I just thought if I did what I did today I’d manage to win but I didn’t expect him to play so well.
“To be honest, I didn’t think he was capable of doing what he did today. So, I had to stay calm and I just went back to tactics and what I had to do to win.
“I think I used my experience today – I’ve been in big matches before in big competitions and it was important that I’ve won the worlds and the Europeans because I’ve been up against it in those as well and I’ve come through.
“I just think I had a bit of confidence, and I thought to myself ‘I’ve still got this, if I stick to my guns I can still get through this’. It felt like a bit of a whirlwind that I was caught up in at times, but we got through it.
“He was tactically really good against me and when someone does that to me it makes it difficult. To win when someone has done that is really good so I can take confidence from that because he tactically couldn’t have played me much better – he was spot on.
“I stuck in there and I eventually pulled away and so that gives me confidence. I want to go all the way. I think I’m playing the best of my career and I’m ready to go all the way so ‘let’s go’.”
