by Ian Marshall, Editor

Notably in Sharm El-Shiekh Malamatenia Papadimitriou reached the semi-final stage of the Cadet Girls’ Singles event, losing to the champion elect, Poland’s Ilona Sztwiertina.

However, earlier partnering the host nation’s Farida Badawy there had been success; together they won both the Cadet Girls’ Team and Cadet Girls’ Doubles titles, in each final overcoming Ilona Sztwiertina and her Polish colleague, Emilia Skub.

Next in line to Malamatenia Papadimitriou in the order of merit is Germany’s Annett Kaufmann followed by Hungary’s Dorottya Tolgyes and the Czech Republic’s Helena Sommerova.  Notably one year ago Anett Kaufmann was the Girls’ Singles runner up in Slovakia and like both Dorotta Tolgyes and Helena Sommerova was on duty earlier this year at the European Youth Championships in Cluj-Napoca.

Somewhat similarly in the Cadet Boys’ Singles event, Frenchmen Felix Lebrun and Hugo Deschamps, the respective top two names on duty, were present in Cluj-Napoca as was Poland’s Dawid Kosmal the no.3 seed. Pertinently, last year, Hugo Deschamps reached the quarter-final stage of the Boys’ Singles event. Germany’s Tayler Fox, in action earlier this year on the ITTF World Junior Circuit in both Sweden and France, completes the top four names.

Overall a total of 86 boys and 72 girls will compete in Bratislava. Proceedings commence with the Boys’ Team and Girls’ Team events followed by Cadet Boys’ Singles, Cadet Girls’ Singles, Cadet Boys’ Doubles and Cadet Girls’ Doubles competitions.

A most encouraging entry, a chance for a select number of players to make a name for themselves; for the majority it is an opportunity to savour the international arena.