The top four seeds in the Boys’ Team event at the Malta Junior Open in Cospicua all recorded victories on the first day of play, Thursday 12th March 2009.
Spain represented by Ferran Brugada and Alvaro Robles led the way with an impressive three-nil opening win against Luxembourg’s Jan Thews and Sven Hansen followed with victory by the same margin against Georgios Mouchtouris and Georgios Fragkoulis of Greece.
However, for second seeds Italy’s Paolo Bisi and Marco Rech Daldosso it was a different story.
Marios Yiangou in Form They secured three-nil wins in opposition to Tunisia’s Oussama Chaieb and Haithem Chtioti and against Malta’s James Dawson and Daniel Portelli but when faced with the Cypriots Marios Yiangou and Yiagos Yiangou it was a different story.
The problem was Marios Yiangou; he beat both Paolo Bisi and Marco Rech Daldosso and almost caused their downfall in the doubles; partnering Yiangos Yiangou the duo suffered defeat in the doubles contest by the very narrowest of five game margins.
Alas for Cyprus Yiangos could not match the performance of Marios; he suffered defeats at the hands of both Italians.
Belgium A close call for Italy but that was not the situation for third seeds, Ludovic Bierny and Cédric Nuytinck of Belgium, nor for the fourth seeded partnership of Sweden’s Hampus Soderlund and New Zealand’s Philip Xiao.
The Belgians defeated Malta’s Andrew Gambina and Steve Bugeja by three matches to nil before recording a three-one victory over Pepijn Leppers and Thomas Benit of the Netherlands. The one victory for the Netherlands came in the opening duel with Pepijn Leppers accounting for Ludovic Bierny; however, wins for Ludovic Bierny and Cedric Nuytinck over Thomas Benit and a doubles success secured a Belgian victory.
New Zealand and Sweden Success for Belgium and in similar vein it was success Hampus Soderlund and Philip Xiao; they defeated Malta’s Daniel Bajada and Daniel Vella by three matches to nil but against Italy’s Simone Dernini and Jason Luini, they did experience some problems.
A three-one win was the end result with Simone Dernini defeating Philip Xiao in the opening match of the contest; however, wins for Hampus Soderlund against both Italians and a doubles success prevented an upset.
Cadet Boys’ Team Event Meanwhile, in the Cadet Boys’ Team event, the top two seeded teams both emerged unscathed.
Italy’s Lonardo Mutti and Damiano Seretti beat England’s Zak Zilesnick and Sam Walker by three matches to one, after having opened their account with a three nil victory against Malta’s Keith Vanheur and Stefan Agius.
Similarly, second seeds, Slovakia made a positive start. They beat Luxembourg’s Paul Daix and Jim Clos by three matches to nil.
