DENISE Payet has seen her world ranking soar after beating several higher-ranked players on her first appearance at the World Team Championships.

The 16-year-old Enfield player was ranked No 631 in the world going into the tournament and joined Tin-Tin Ho and Maria Tsaptsinos in a young England team for the event in Sweden.

But she more than cut her ranking in half, surging up to No 309 on the latest ranking list published after the tournament.

England were playing in the second division and started well with group victories over Dominican Republic (3-0), Switzerland (3-2) and the group top seeds Chile (3-1).

And Payet picked up some eye-catching victories, defeating No 305 Yasiris Ortiz 3-2 (11-9, 9-11, 11-6, 7-11, 11-4) in the first match and No 426 Celine Reust 3-1 (11-5, 11-9, 12-14, 11-5) in the second.

Against Chile, she capped those two victories by seeing off world No 248 Judith Morales 3-1 (9-11, 11-3, 11-9, 11-7).

There followed a 3-1 defeat by Canada, and a subsequent 3-0 reverse at the hands of Serbia meant England were edged into fourth place in the group, meaning they entered into play-offs for the bottom half of the division.

And a 3-2 defeat by Cuba meant they ended in the 40th to 44th position bracket.

Payet, who competed at the Commonwealth Games, said: “I won three matches out of six and I’ve beaten players ranked above me and played well, so I’m very pleased with my performance.

“I didn’t know what to expect, I just went in with no pressure, wanting to play my game and see how it went.

“It’s boosted my confidence knowing I can challenge higher-ranked players. I feel I can come out of the competition with my head held high.”

“As a team we were unlucky that we came fourth in the group on countback. We had a good team spirit and were all behind each other.”