ITTF WJC Hungarian Junior Open

[DaveR]

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With the top English players Paul Drinkhall and Darius Knight away in China, it was down to Gavin Evans, Liam Pitchford and Damien Nicholls to compete under the banner of English Boys Team. The team managed to reach the last 16 at the Hungarian Junior Open, where they met Romania 1, unfortunately going out 1-3. It was Liam Pitchford who managed to pull out their sole win (3-2) when he faced fellow Europe Youth Top 10 competitor Hunor Szocs.
ETTA

[Annie]

Better luck next time guys :thumbsup:

[DaveR]

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The English players of Gavin Evans, Liam Pitchford, Christopher Doran and Damien Nichools gained some more valuable international experience whilst attending the ITTF WJC Hungarian Junior Open.
It was Liam Pitchford, the player with the least amount of international experience that really shone for England, causing the shock of the tournament when he beat the winner of the Joola German Junior Open, Kristian Karlsson (SWE).
A breakdown of how the English players got on is below.
Boys Singles
Christopher Doran unfortunately didn’t make it out of the group stages so had to wait until the doubles to make his impact.
Damien Nichools went out in the first round against Patryk Jendrzejewski (Pol) 11-5, 9-11, 11-6, 11-6, 9-11, 11-2.
Gavin Evans, England’s top cadet beat Ivan Zeljko (HRV) 3 -11, 11-8, 12-10, 11-9, 11-3 before losing against Jun Seung Lee (KOR) 4-11, 11-9, 5-11, 5-11, 8-11.
Liam Pitchford beat Paulo Rocha (BRA) in convincing style 11-7, 11-6, 11-7, 11-8, his dominance continued against Kristian Karlsson (SWE) 11-3, 11-9, 2-11, 12-10, 13-11, only to be halted in the third round by the French player Romain Lorentz (FRA) 11-8, 11-8, 11-5, 6-11, 9-11, 11-9.
Final
Mattias Karlsson (SWE) beat Thomas Le Breton (FRA) 11-5, 11-3, 11-2, 11-5.
Girls Singles
There were no English girls out in Hungary.
Final
Ha Eun Yang (KOR) bt Barbora Balazova (SVK) 11-6, 9-11, 11-7, 10-12, 8-11, 11-5, 13-15.
Boys Doubles
Gavin Evans and Cedric Nuytinck (BEL) were beaten by Seung Jun Lee and In Cheol Shin (KOR) 6-11, 5-11, 11-9, 2-11.
It was the pairing of Christopher Doran and Damien Nichools that performed the best for us in the doubles, beating Daniel Gabor Kiss and Tamas Lakatos Tamas (HUN) 7-11, 11-9, 11-6, 6-11,11-6 in round 1, followed by the French team of Thomas Le Breton and Victorien Le Guen 11-8, 11-8, 6-11, 14-12 in round 2. Their run of form came to an end in the third round, where after some close fought battles they lost to Viktor Brood and Anthony Tran (SWE) 14-12, 11-4, 16-14.
Liam Pitchford teamed with Ludovic Bierny (BEL) got a bye and then beat Filip Cipin and Fucec (HRV) 5-11, 11-9, 9-11, 11-8, 5-11, before losing to Patryk Jendrzejewski and Daniel Puchalski (POL) 11-9, 11-7, 11-6.
Final
Daniel Kosiba and Peter Sebestyen (HUN) beat Seung Jun Lee and In Cheal Shin (KOR) 7-11, 9-11, 11-6, 5-11.
Junior Boys Team
England finished top in their group beating Serbia1 3-2, Austria2 3-1 and losing to Ukraine 2-3. In the main draw they went out to Romania1 1-3.
Final
France 2 were the eventual winners beating Poland 3-1.
Junior Girls Team
There were no English girls out in Hungary.

Final
There was an all Korean final with Korea2 beating Korea1 3-0.