03/09/2012        2012 Italian Junior & Cadet Open - ITTF Premium Junior Circuit

Japan emerged as the surprise winners, Romania as the predicted champions; that was the end result in the respective Cadet Boys’ and Cadet Girls’ Team events at the Italian Junior and Cadet Open in Lignano on Friday 9th March 2012.

Represented by Masahi Hirota and Yuki Matsuyama; Japan, the no.8 seeds, upset the odds to capture the Cadet Boys’ Team event.

Meanwhile, in the counterpart Cadet Girls’ Team competition, there was no stopping the Romanian duo of Andreea Clapa and Adina Diaconu.

One Match Only Conceded
They dominated proceedings, surrendering just one individual match en route to the title; that being in the final against the French outfit comprising Chomis and Pauline Ogrine.

The one match to go astray was the doubles with Marion Chomis and Roza Soposki joining forces to beat Andreea Clapa and Adina Diaconu in five games (10-12, 11-9, 8-11, 15-13, 11-8).

Andreea Clapa in Form
However, there was no success for the French pair in the singles encounters.

Andreea Clapa beat both Pauline Ogrine (11-5, 11-5, 11-1) and Marion Chomis (11-8, 8-11, 11-5, 11-9); the one other Romanian success came from Adina Diaconu, she accounted for Marion Chomis in the first match of the contest (8-11, 11-2, 11-7, 12-10).

Road to Final
Earlier, the Romanian duo had posted three-nil wins over Italy ‘B’ (Le Thi Hong Loan, Julia Alzak, Zuzanna Wozniak) and Hungary (Csilla Nagypal, Leija Imre) to reach the final.

Equally the French outfit had enjoyed a relatively trouble free path en route to the final. They overcame the Austria (Karoline Mischek, Lisa Storer, Sandra Fuchs) by three matches to one, before recording a three-nil semi-final victory over Italy ‘A’ (Cristiana Dumtrache, Francesca Trotti).

Exacting First Round
Meanwhile for Japan, the first round duel against Greece proved the most testing; the contest going the full five match distance.

The player to cause Japan problems was Konstantinos Angelakis, he beat both Masashi Hirota (9-11, 12-10, 11-9, 11-9) and Yuki Matsuyama (7-11, 11-5, 11-9, 11-9). Alas for Greece he was the only victor for the European nation.

Masashi Hirota and Yuki Matsuyama combined to win the doubles against Konstantinos Angelakis and Paris Zonios (16-14, 11-7, 11-4) in the crucial third match of the contest, with Yuki Matsuyama overcoming Paris Zonois in the second match of the fixture (11-4, 11-4, 11-5) and Masashi Hirota performing likewise against Paris Zonios in the duel that concluded proceedings (11-7, 11-5, 11-3).

Strength to Strength
A tough hurdle overcome; the Japanese duo went from strength to strength; the remaining contests all saw three-nil score lines.

They accounted for Italy ‘A’ (Luca Bressan, Jordy Piccolin) in the quarter-finals before overcoming Slovenia ‘B’ (Erik Paulin, Deni Kozul) in the semi-finals and Belgium (Thibaut Darcis, Romain Lambiet) in the final.

Surprise Finalists
Japan being the eighth seeds were surprise winners but equally, Belgium was to some extent surprise finalists. They were the third seeds.

They accounted for Austria (Andreas Levenko, David Klaus) in the quarter-finals by three matches to two before recording a three-nil win over Slovenia ‘A’ (Tom Sfiligoj, Darko Jorgic), the no.1 seeds, in the semi-finals.

Top Spot Denied
A place in the final booked but it was not to be gold; Masashi Hirota and Yuki Matsuyama were not to be denied.