by Ian Marshall
It was yet more gold for Iulian Chirita, a player to date with no less than five WTT Contender under 15 boys’ singles titles to his name plus one under 17 crown. Impressively, in September he gained success in both age groups in Varazdin.
In Tours once again he established his authority, top spot being gained ahead of colleague Dragos Alexandru Burgos and Belgium’s Tom Closset.
Notably, Iulian Chirita concluded matters the only unbeaten player in the whole tournament; for Veronika Matiunina and Camille Lutz, they experienced just one defeat each, a feat no other adversary could match, for Borgar Haug life was very different.
One defeat only
Camille Lutz, who had won the under 19 girls’ singles title at the WTT Star Contender tournament in Lisbon in September, finished ahead of Romania’s Elena Zaharia and Croatia’s Hana Arapovic, the one defeat being at the hands of Russia’s Vlada Voronina (11-9, 3-11, 11-7, 7-11, 5-11, 11-9, 12-10) who was to finish in fourth position.
Similarly, for Veronika Matiunina, in September an under 15 girls’ singles semi-finalist at the WTT events in Varazdin and Otocec, realised defeat when facing Clea de Stoppeleire of France (11-7, 16-14, 2-11, 9-11, 11-3, 11-4).
Fifth place was to be the end result for Clea de Stoppeleire; Russia’s Anastasiia Ivanova finished in runners up spot ahead of Romania’s Bianca Mei Rosu and Germany’s Mia Griesel. Notably all four surrendered just two matches, games ratio determining the outcome.
Narrow margins
A close call to decide second to fifth positions, in the junior boys, it was the same scenario to determine the top four places.
Borgar Haug, who in June had won the under 19 boys’ singles title at the WTT Youth Contender tournament in Otocec, lost to both Hungary’s Csaba Andras (11-8, 11-7, 11-13, 11-8, 11-13, 11-7) and Frenchman, Thibault Poret (6-11, 11-2, 11-9, 11-13, 11-5, 5-11, 14-12).
Similarly, Csaba Andras ended matters with two defeats as did Croatia’s Ivor Ban and Poland’s Maciej Kubik.
The end result: first place for Borgar Haug with Ivor Ban, Maciej Kubik and Csaba Andras the next in line.