England sent out eleven young players to compete in the Luxembourg Senior Open that was held over the four days from Wednesday 14th to Saturday the 17th of April, primarily to gain valuable International experience. For several of the youngsters it was their first senior opportunity abroad, representing their country and many of the results they achieved exceeded expectations.
The Women’s team of Kelly Sibley, Hannah Hicks and Liu Na (England/Ireland) reached the semi-final only to be beaten at the penultimate stage by a mixed team from Germany and the Netherlands, whilst (England 1) who were made up of Junior Girls, Karina Le Fevre and Emily Bates, brushed aside (Wales 2), but met their match at the next stage losing out narrowly to (Norway 1), with a 2-3 score.
England Men were represented with three teams, that of Danny Reed and Chris Doran (A), Liam Pitchford and Gavin Evans (B) with Damien Nicholls, Matt Ware and David McBeath as (C). England A performed very well to get to the last eight stage losing out to Switzerland 1-3, with the B team going out in the first round to Greece A 1-3, as did the C team losing out also in the first round to Greece B with a similar match score.
In the final of the Men’s team event Slovakia defeated Spain 3-2, whilst in the Women’s event Belarus 1, took the title at the expense of Germany 3-0.
Lubomir Pistej of Slovakia and Malin Pettersson of Sweden won the titles in Men’s and Women’s at the 5th Luxembourg Open. Lubomir Pistej overcame Min Yang of Italy in the final 4-0 (5, 15, 6, 10) whilst the Women’s winner Malin Pettersson defeated Liu Na of Ireland 4-1, (10,5,7,-6,5). Yana Timina beat Kelly Sibley in the match for third placing.
The last two days of this huge International tournament occupied the Singles events in both Men’s and Women’s. The following are our England player’s world rankings followed by their individual final placing in their respective events at the Luxembourg Open.
Men
Liam Pitchford (WR-384) – 10th.
Chris Doran (WR-686) – 19th
Gavin Evans (WR -458) – 26th
Matt Ware (WR -871) – 27TH
Danny Reed (WR – 337) – 37TH
Damien Nicholls (WR – 770) – 71ST
David McBeath (WR – 689) – 83RD
Women
Kelly Sibley (WR-165) – 4th.
Karina Le Fevre (WR-608) – 14TH
Emily Bates (WR-633) – 27TH
Hannah Hicks (WR- 502) – 33RD
Results taken from; http://www.fltt.lu
By Geoff Ware