by Ian Marshall, Editor
At the final hurdle of the Cadet Boys’ Singles event, Chen Yuanyu beat colleague Lin Shidong (11-6, 11-6, 11-7), having earlier in the day at the quarter-final stage accounted for Romania’s Iulian Chirita (12-10, 11-5, 11-8) and one round later Chinese Taipei’s Kuo Yu-Liang (11-8, 11-7, 11-6).
In the opposite half of the draw, in the last eight, Lin Shindong had overcome Li Hsin-Yu, like Kuo Yu-Liang from Chinese Taipei (11-6, 6-11, 11-7, 11-9); prior to ending the hopes of compatriot, Huang Youzheng (12-10, 9-11, 13-11, 12-10).
Silver for Lin Shindong, bronze for Huang Youzheng; in the Cadet Boys’ Doubles competition for both it was the latter colour. In harness, they experienced a straight games penultimate round defeat at the hands of Kuo Hsin-Yu and Wang Guan-Ru (11-9, 12-10, 11-9), the champions elect.
Later, in an all Chinese Taipei final, they accounted for Kuo Yu-Liang and Tsai Li-Yang (11-5, 11-9, 11-9). Impressively, in the counterpart semi-final, Kuo Hsin-Yu and Wang Guan-Ru had ended the progress of Romania’s Calin Drenea and Daniel Moldovan (11-8, 11-2, 11-3).
Chen Yuanyu, the Cadet Boys’ Singles winner (Photo: Mario Samec)
A performance of quality from Chen Yuanyu, it was the same from Kuai Man. In the later rounds, she accounted for the Czech Republic’s Helena Sommerova (11-4, 11-8, 11-3) and Chinese Taipei’s Huang Yu-Jie (11-5, 11-6, 15-13), prior to securing the title at the final expense of Prithika Pavade of France (5-11, 11-7, 11-8, 11-7).
Equally, imposing, in the opposite half of the draw, Prithika Pavade had recorded a quarter-final win against Germany’s Annett Kaufman (11-7, 11-9, 11-7), before in the penultimate round halting the aspirations of Russia’s Elizabet Abraamian (12-10, 11-5, 13-11).
The top step of the podium for Kuai Man, in the Cadet Girls’ Doubles event it was the third step. Partnering colleague Xie Jiatong, the duo experienced a semi-final defeat at the hands of Elizabet Abraamian and Russian colleague, Liubov Tentser (11-5, 8-11, 11-7, 11-8).
Alas for the Russian duo it was not to be gold; they were beaten in the final by Huang Yu-Jie and Tsai Yun-En (11-7, 11-5, 11-5), the semi-final winners in opposition to the combination of the host nation’s Hana Arapovic and the Czech Republic’s Linda Zaderova (2-11, 11-7, 11-3, 11-4).
Play concluded in Varazdin; attention now turns to Belgrade, the 2018 Serbia Junior and Cadet Open commences on Wednesday 19th September.
