Performances of the day or shock defeats, depending on which way you look at the result, two Europeans struggle to make contention this week in Spain and cling to dwindling Paralympic dreams

The first big shock of the tournament came this morning as 47 year old Frenchman Guillaume Gailly managed to beat the third seed Rickard Nilsson (SWE) with a 21-14, 13-21, 21-19 result which enabled Gailly to top SL4 men’s singles Group C.

Nilsson is in tenth position in the Race to Tokyo rankings, but with duplicate nationalities above him in the Paralympic qualifying list, he still hopes to qualify for this summer’s main event. Defeat to Gailly, who is known more for his doubles prowess, sets up a difficult draw for the Swede and will make it more difficult to pick up crucial ranking points this week at the final qualifier.

Read: Singles: Who is on the plane to Tokyo?

We caught up with Guillaume Gailly this afternoon who had this to say about the today’s performance in the singles:

- I have played against Rickard in doubles and mixed and I knew he is a serious player. I had a plan in mind in the first game but I changed it in the second and he made less errors too. He led all the way in the third end but I fought back at 18-18 and I was lucky and very happy to take the last few points. It could have been very different! 

- I am happy to be through to the quarterfinals directly, it allows me more time to recover. My old body is already crying.. I am wondering about the next few days, he added with a smile

We wanted to know what motivates Gailly, with no prospect of appearing in Tokyo 2020, he told us:

- I keep playing to maintain my quality of life and to see what my body allows me to do. My main focus is men’s doubles and I still think about our (with Mathieu Thomas) defeat in the quarterfinals of the last world championships. We hope to revenge that at the 2021 world championships.

- Who knows, in 2024 Paris I will be over 50 years old which will make me look more like a Grandpa, but my mind doesn’t accept that and maybe I can make it if circumstances allow that. Playing singles is good for my ability to move and the lockdown has finally been positive for me. I’ve been able to train over recent months where other haven’t, I realise that I am lucky and so I have made the most of that, added Gailly

No dead-heat in the Race for Levi

WH2 men’s singles saw a major upset today as Israel’s Amir Levi, who had this one week to earn vital points and equal or better England’s Martin Rooke in the Paralympic rankings, failed to beat Switzerland’s Luca Olgiati.

Levi was defeated yesterday by Thomas Jakobs (FRA) and now the Israeli finds himself out of men’s singles Group D which will mean he doesn’t gain more points to add to his Race to Tokyo quest and will finish behind Rooke.

Follow the Spanish Para badminton international tournament here this week and across our usual platforms. The schedule and results can be found on tournament software here