by Ian Marshall, ITTF Publications Editor

It will be for Su Pei-Ling, her sixth ITTF World Junior Circuit tournament of the year; notably in addition to winning in Croatia, she was a Junior Girls’ Singles semi-finalist in Chinese Taipei, the runner up in India.

Ninth appearance

An increasingly regular face on the ITTF World Junior Circuit, there are few that are more familiar than that of Kana Takeuchi; in Otocec, she will be making no less than her ninth appearance of the year.

Furthermore, time and time again, she has proved a most worthy competitor.

Additional to Varazdin, she was the winner if the Junior Girls’ Singles event in the Czech Republic, the runner up in Portugal and Spain, as well as being a semi-finalist in Sweden and Hong Kong.

Most successful

In Otocec, Kana Takeuchi is the top seed in the Junior Girls’ Singles event; Su Pei-Ling is the third seed; sandwiched in between is Yuko Kato, the most successful female player on this year’s ITTF Junior Circuit.

A semi-finalist in the Czech Republic and Spain; most impressively she won in France, Sweden and Portugal but she is a young lady with a point to prove. In Croatia, she suffered a surprise second round defeat; she was beaten by the Slovak Republic’s Tatiana Kukulkova.

Europe and North America

Worthy names from Asia; it is the same from Europe and North America.

Germany’s Caroline Hajok leads the challenge from the old continent; she is the fourth seed in the Junior Girls’ Singles event, with colleague Janina Kammerer being the sixth seed. Amy Wang of the United States is the fifth seed.

All were on duty in Varazdin; Caroline Hajok who earlier in the year won in Tunisia, was beaten the second round by Russia Kristina Kazantseva, Janina Kammerer experienced defeat at the quarter-final stage when facing Kana Takeuchi.

Meanwhile, for Any Wang it was a penultimate round exit. She was beaten by Su Pei-Ling.

Team events

Play commences with the team events.