England Aspire Squad member Joseph Hunter picked up a couple of victories at the Czech Junior & Cadet Open, where he competed at both age groups.
Hunter started in the older Junior singles, where he was eliminated in the group stage of the singles and, alongside Mauro Scharrer of Switzerland, in the first round of the doubles.
In the Cadet Boys’ Team competition, Hunter competed alongside Preyesh Suresh Raj of India and Rhys Hetherton of Wales and they finished second in the group on countback, having beaten an Austria-Belgium-Kazakhstan composite 3-1 and lost narrowly 3-2 to Croatia. Hunter shone in the victory, defeating Julian Rzihauschek 3-1 (11-6, 13-11, 5-11, 11-9). Only the group winners progressed to the knockout stage.
In the Cadet events, Hunter again went out in the singles groups, though he picked up a good 3-1 (11-8, 5-11, 11-8, 12-10) victory over Blaz Lapajne of Slovenia. Hunter & Hetherton were knocked out in the first round of the doubles.
Results
Junior Boys’ Singles
Group 13
Fabian Fritz (AUT) bt Joseph Hunter 3-0 (11-5, 11-6, 11-2)
Oleksandr Malov (UKR) bt Hunter 3-0 (11-4, 11-8, 11-6)
Jan Mokrejs (CZE) bt Hunter 3-0 (11-9, 13-11, 11-3)
Junior Boys’ Doubles
Round of 64
Alexander Ahl & Tom Colvin (IRL) bt Joseph Hunter & Mauro Scharrer (SUI) 3-1 (11-7, 9-11, 11-5, 11-9)
Cadet Boys’ Singles
Group 20
Xavier Wats (BEL) bt Joseph Hunter 3-0 (11-9, 11-7, 11-7)
Hunter bt Blaz Lapajne (SLO) 3-1 (11-8, 5-11, 11-8, 12-10)
Yaroslav Oleskevych (UKR) bt Hunter 3-1 (6-11, 11-7, 11-6, 12-10)
Cadet Boys’ Doubles
Round of 64
Andras Oros & Petar Vidic (SRB) bt Joseph Hunter & Rhys Hetherton (WAL) 3-0 (11-8, 16-14, 11-9)
Cadet Boys’ Team
Group 3
Russia 3 England-Wales-India 0
Sergey Ryzhov bt Preyesh Suresh Raj 3-0 (11-7, 12-10, 11-5)
Vladislav Bannikov bt Joseph Hunter 3-0 (11-7, 11-6, 12-10)
Alexey Perfilyev bt Rhys Hetherton 3-0 (11-4, 11-6, 11-7)
Croatia 3 England-Wales-India 2
Luka Zlatkov bt Hunter 3-0 (11-6, 11-4, 11-6)
Suresh Raj bt Borna Petek 3-0 (11-4, 14-12, 11-6)
Luka Lozusic bt Hetherton 3-0 (11-9, 11-9, 11-6)
Suresh Raj bt Zlatkov 3-0 (11-9, 13-11, 11-6)
Petek bt Hunter 3-0 (11-6, 11-7, 11-9)
England-Wales-India 3 Austria-Belgium-Kazakhstan 1
Suresh Raj bt Alan Kurmangaliyev 3-0 (11-8, 11-5, 11-9)
Xavier Wats bt Hetherton 3-1 (11-7, 9-11, 11-9, 11-4)
Hunter bt Julian Rzihauschek 3-1 (11-6, 13-11, 5-11, 11-9)
Suresh Raj bt Wats 3-2 (11-9, 8-11, 6-11, 11-8, 11-7)