Tunbridge Wells’ Will Bayley and Minster’s Ross Wilson win golds at US Para Open in Fort Worth, Texas

Will Bayley and Ross Wilson warmed up for September’s European Para Table Tennis Championships with golden displays stateside.

Tunbridge Wells’ Bayley won gold in the class 7 event at the US Para Open in Fort Worth, Texas - his sixth consecutive class 7 title - while Wilson, from Minster, was too good for the competition in the class 8 category to follow up last month’s Czech Para Open success.

Wins for Bayley over Matthew Britz from New Zealand and Masoud Mojtahed of the USA set up a Quarter-Final against Claudio Bahamondes Vega from Chile, which he won 3-0.

A 3-0 win against former world and European team medallist Kevin Dourbecker from France took the Rio 2016 gold medallist through to the Final, where he defeated Israel Pereira Stroh from Brazil, again 3-0.

“I’m really happy and very proud,” said Bayley. “To have won six tournaments in a row at this high level is something I never thought I’d do in my career, and it is an amazing achievement to be unbeaten since Tokyo.

“To win a strong tournament against two players in the top 10 and other players just outside gives me a lot of confidence going to the Europeans. To beat Israel 3-0 is a great win so overall an amazing tournament for me.”

Wilson, like Bayley, opened with 3-0 wins - Yosef Lender (USA) and Edwin Rojas (Puerto Rico) his opponents - and as top seed and group winner he received a bye into the last four. A 3-0 victory against Marco Makkar from USA took him into the Final where he beat Pathway athlete Ryan Henry 3-0.

“I’m really happy with how I’ve played out here,” said Wilson. “Two consecutive tournament wins is a proud moment for me and hopefully I can build on it for the rest of the season leading up to the European Championships.

“It was good to play