Dorset’s Sophie Barcsai was one of 12 girls invited to participate in the 2019 Stiga Masters Minimes in Blegny (Belgium) at the weekend.

The invitation was in response to her Top 20-finish at the recent Euro Mini Championships in Strasbourg. In the Belgian event, Sophie was representing Hungary.

The first of two days of play saw two groups of six play round-robins to determine the main draw positions.

Sophie opened with a 3-1 (11-6, 6-11, 13-11, 11-7) defeat to Romania’s Andreea Jifcu and a 3-0 (11-4, 11-6, 11-7) reverse to France’s Leana Hochart but then notched her first victory, 3-1 (11-6, 11-7, 5-11, 13-11) over Lessia Lewyckyj of Belgium.

A 3-1 (11-9, 11-8, 9-11, 11-3) loss to Spain’s Maria Berzosa was followed by a 3-0 (11-6, 11-7, 11-2) win against Julia Leal of Portugal.

In Sunday’s main draw, Sophie beat Belgium’s Lilly Laffineur 3-1 (3-11, 13-11, 11-8, 11-9) and subsequently lost 3-0 (4, 5, 7) to the No 1 seed Gaetane Bled of France.

She bounced back, repeating her win over Leal and, in her final match, beat Romania’s Serean Jantea 3-0 (4, 7, 7) to end in fifth place.