03/10/2012 Italian Junior & Cadet Open - ITTF Premium Junior Circuit

Germany’s Yuko Imamura and Theresa Kraft, the top seeds in the Junior Girls’ Doubles event at the Italian Junior and Cadet Open in Lignano, duly booked their place in the final, following success on Saturday 10th March 2012.

They beat the French duo of Marie Migot and Audrey Zarif in five games in the semi-finals (14-12, 8-11, 11-9, 11-4, 12-10), having in the quarter-final stage been in most impressive form.

In the round of the last eight, they ousted the Czech Republic duo of Simona Slehobrova and Katerina Tomanovska in a rather more comfortable manner (11-6, 11-9, 11-7).

However, for the top seeds in the Junior Boys’ Doubles event, Hungary’s Tamas Lakatos and Adam Szudi, there is no place in the final.

Second Round Defeat
They suffered a second round defeat at the hands of Japan’s Tomoya Fujimura and Taisei Matsushita (11-5, 11-9, 13-11).

A fine win for the Japanese duo; they continued their good form in the quarter-finals by beating the Czech Republic’s Davide Reitspies and Jakub Seibert (11-6, 12-10, 12-10) but then found the Belgium duo of Robin Saudemont and Emilien Vanrossomme a step to far.

Belgians in Form
The Belgians, having beaten the Chinese Taipei duo of Hung Lien-Ching and Hung Tzu-Hsiang in the quarter-finals (8-11, 11-8, 5-11, 11-3, 11-8), duly booked their place in the final by overcoming Tomoya Fujimura and Taisei Matsushita (8-11, 11-5, 14-16, 11-6, 11-8).

One round earlier Hung Lien-Ching and Hung Tzu-Hsiang had upset the order of merit by beating Germany’s third seeded partnership of Kilian Ort and Qiu Dang (9-11, 11-7, 11-2, 7-11, 11-1)

Face Czech Republic Pairing
In the final Robin Saudemont and Emilien Vanrossomme meet the Czech Republic’s fourth seeded partnership of Onrej Bajger and Michal Benes.

After causing Germany more pain by overcoming Qiu Liang and Marc Rode in the quarter-finals (11-5, 8-11, 11-6, 11-8), they caused a semi-final upset by defeating the second seeded French pairing of Mehdi Bouloussa and Andrea Landrieu in four games (11-9, 10-12, 11-8, 11-8).

Romanians Cause Upsets
Meanwhile, in the Junior Girls’ Doubles, Yuko Imamura and Theresa Kraft face surprise finalists, Romania’s Bernadett Balint and Andreea Rosca.

The Romanians upset matters by overcoming the second seeded French pairing of Sarah Berge and Laura Pfefer in round two (11-5, 11-9, 11-6), before continuing their fine form to beat the combination of Alice Barendregt of the Netherlands and Hungary’s Mercedes Nagyvaradi (11-6, 8-11, 11-5, 3-11, 11-9) in the quarter-finals.

Place Booked
A place in the penultimate round booked, they continued to upsets matters; they beat Germany’s Chantal Mantz and Nina Mittelham, the no.4 seeds to book their place in the final.

Bernadett Balint and Andreea Rosca succeeded by the very narrowest of margins in the decisive fifth game; they won 14-12, 10-12, 11-6, 6-11, 12-10.