England’s campaigns in the team events at the European Youth Championships ended well with three wins out of three for the cadet boys and girls to finish on top form ahead of the singles events.
With the junior boys finishing 17th yesterday and the junior girls securing 23rd, it was left to the younger generation to bring an end to the team proceedings in Ostrava.
The cadet boys won twice to finish 25th overall after victories over Lithuania (3-1) and Ukraine (3-0). Marcus Giles lost the first game of the day for the English cadets but it would turn out to be the only loss conceded by the boys during an impressive set of performances.
While Luke Savill won both of his singles matches on the day and Tom Jarvis won on his only appearance, the best result came from Giles who made up for his earlier defeat by completing a full turnaround against Benas Sirmantas (LTU) 3-2 (10-12, 5-11, 11-2, 12-10, 11-4) to seal the team win.
The cadet girls also finished well as both Letitia McMullan and Denise Payet secured singles victories against Luxembourg to give the team a 32nd place finish. McMullan and Payet also combined in the doubles to record a 3-1 win and give themselves confidence for the rest of the week.
The singles and doubles events kick-off from Wednesday with the pressure intensified for those who are trying to meet high expectations. The full draws for the English players can be found below.
For up-to-date coverage of the English players progress keeps tabs on the ETTA’s twitter account across the rest of the week.
56th European Youth Championships (12-21st July 2013) Ostrava, Czech
Republic Team Results
Cadet Boys
Pos 25-28
England 3-1 Lithuania
Romualdas Franckaitis bt Marcus Giles 3-2 (8-11, 11-9, 6-11, 11-9, 11-9)
Luke Savill bt Benas Skirmantas 3-1 (11-9, 12-10, 10-12, 11-4)
Jarvis/Giles bt Stankevicious/Franckaitis 3-1 (19-17, 11-5, 12-14, 15-13)
Marcus Giles bt Benas Skirmantas 3-2 (10-12, 5-11, 11-2, 12-10, 11-4)
Pos 25-26
England 3-0 Ukraine
Luke Savill bt Rodion Chmelov 3-2 (11-7, 11-8, 9-11, 8-11, 11-3)
Tom Jarvis bt Ostap Riznychenko 3-2 (11-4, 11-5, 7-11, 2-11, 11-7)
Jarvis/Giles bt Chmelov/Riznychenko 3-2 (11-5, 10-12, 11-6, 3-11, 12-10)
Cadet Girls
Pos 32-34
England 3-1 Luxembourg
Liz Lethal bt Denise Payet 3-2 (11-6, 2-11, 3-11, 11-5, 11-8)
Letitia McMullan bt Sophie Meyer 3-2 (11-6, 1-11, 11-4, 9-11, 11-7)
McMullan/Payet bt Lethal/Meyer 3-1 (11-0, 11-9, 6-11, 11-9)
Denise Payet bt Sarah Meyer 3-0 (11-7, 11-7, 11-6)
Singles Draws
Junior Boys:
1st round:
Igor Morais vs Sinisa Marcetic (BIH)/Konstantinos Angelakis (GRE)
Helshan Weerasinghe vs Kyrylo Samokysh (UKR)
George Downing vs Ludvik Persolja (SLO)
2nd round:
Sam Walker vs (Turcek (SVK) v Kucera (CZE)/Davidov(ISR))
Junior Girls:
Qualifying round:
Lois Peake vs Nikki Eerland (NED)
1st round:
Maria Tsaptsinos vs Ashley Givan (IRL)
Cadet Boys:
1st round:
Luke Savill vs Adam Blomqvist (SWE)
Tom Jarvis vs Martin Petrovic (CRO)
Marcus Giles vs Andreas Dilling (DEN)
Cadet Girls:
1st round:
Letitia McMullan vs Daria Chernoray (RUS)
Emily Bolton vs Katie McGlone (IRL)/Mihaela Dimova (BUL)
2nd round:
Tin-Tin Ho vs (Kukulkova (SVK) v Pateraki (GRE)/O’Halloran (IRL))
Doubles Draws
Junior Boys:
Helshan Weerasinghe/George Downing v Deni Kozul/Tom Sfiligoj (SLO)
Igor Morais/Conor Edwards (WAL) v Leonardo Mutti/Alessandro Baciocchi (ITA)
Sam Walker/Viktor Gorman (SWE) v Valentin Nad Nemedi/Kristian Halas (SRB)
Junior Girls:
Maria Tsaptsinos/Lois Peake v Lea Rakovac (CRO)/Chantal Mantz (GER)
Cadet Boys:
Tom Jarvis/Marcus Giles v Andrei Labanau (BLR)/Rimas Lesiv (LTU)
Luke Savill/Marcus Hilker (GER) v Rares Sipos/Vladimir Anca (ROU)
Cadet Girls:
Tin-Tin Ho/Maria Malanina (RUS) first round bye
Emily Bolton/Letitia McMullan v Beate Jasuka/Karina Gailisa (LAT)
Denise Payet/Sonia Tiplicki (ISR) v Dinara Mammadova/Maryam Imanova (LAT)
Junior Mixed Doubles:
Sam Walker/Maria Tsaptsinos v Ingemar Peter/Eva Jurkova (SVK)
George Downing/Lois Peake v Gael Vende/Liza Schempp (SUI)
Helshan Weerasinghe/Ashley Givan (IRL) v Siarhei Afanasenka/Hanna Patseyeva (BLR)
Igor Morais/Hannah Lynch-Dawson (IRL) v Luca Marcato/Francesca Trotti (ITA)
Cadet Mixed Doubles:
Luke Savill/Denise Payet v Marcus Hilker/Jennie Wolf (GER)
Marcus Giles/Letitia McMullan v Slawomir Dosz/Katarzyna Hennig (POL)
Tin-Tin Ho/Tomas Polansky (CZE) first round bye
Tom Jarvis/Emily Bolton v Ivan Perez/Sofia Xuan Zhang (ESP)
Written by Russell Moore (July 16, 2013)