By Neha Aggarwal
The top seed of the tournament, placed at no.5 in the Under-18 February global ranking, Maki Shiomi was certainly the indisputable winner at Orebro. Head to head, Adriana Diaz lead 2-1, winning over Maki Shiomi at 2016 ITTF World Tour Belarus Open and 2015 World Cadet Challenge, but the Japanese was determined to win at any cost in Orebro.
“I’m very happy I could win. I have met Adriana Diaz three times before and I have lost twice. I was scared before the match, but as the game progressed, I felt more and more confident,” said the winner Maki Shiomi
She was focused, the margin of error was low and the offense game worked well. Forcing Diaz to commit a lot of errors, Shiomi was very consistent in the finals. She exploited the forehand side of Diaz which gave her a 4-1 victory over the world no.9 in Under-18 Girls’ World Rankings.
In the semi-finals, she knocked off Russia’s Kristina Kazantseva in a tight six games victory (11-6, 12-14, 11-8, 7-11,11-5, 11-8). The 16-year old Russian, ranked no.30 in Under-18 girls’ singles February ranking, has been a sufferer in semi finals since 2016. She lost in the same round in 2016 ITTF World Junior Circuit tournaments held in Croatia and France.
Maki Shiomi is off to a winning start in 2017. In 2016 she was a successful Japanese winning the Junior Girls’ Gingles titles in Serbia and Italy. She was also the runner up in Junior Girls’ Singles at the Hungarian Open and in the Women’s Singles at ITTF World Tour Czech Open.
More Details:
- Junior Girls Singles
- Junior Girls Doubles
- Junior Girls Consolation
- All matches- Day 1
- All matches- Day 2
- Photo Gallery
