Junior English trio Helshan Weerasinghe, Jared Patel and Sam Mabey had fluctuating fortunes in Hodonin at the Czech Junior and Cadet Open with none of the hopefuls able to progress past the last 64 stage of the Boys’ Singles.
England’s Junior No. 1 Weerasinghe, who just last week had been foiled in his attempts to reach the Youth Olympic Games after the qualifiers in the same location, was the only player to advance through the group stage and into the main knockout draw. Both Mabey and Patel were twice beaten in their groups and had to settle for a place in the consolation singles draw.
Helshan, meanwhile, managed to beat Slovakia’s Samuel Kaluzny 4-3 (having also beaten him in the YOG qualifiers) before being drawn against the top seed David Reitspies from Czech Republic. Ultimately he was outclassed by the Czech in a 4-1 defeat as the English effort came to a close.
Both Helshan and Jared, and Sam and his Jordanian partner Zeyad Aldmaisy, had earlier been beaten in the doubles while both Sam and Jared made the last 16 of the consolation singles before having their respective campaigns cut short once more. A full list of results can be found below.
Czech Junior and Cadet Open (Hodonin, February 12-16, 2014)
Junior Boys’ Singles:
Group 7:
Helshan Weerasinghe bt Aviv Ben-Ari (ISR) 3-0 (11-3, 11-8, 11-7)
Helshan Weerasinghe bt Stellan Smid (NED) 3-0 (11-7, 11-5, 11-2)
Group 10:
Isaac Zauli (BRA) bt Sam Mabey 3-0 (11-4, 12-10, 11-7)
Junta Fukuda (JPN) bt Sam Mabey 3-2 (11-8, 11-3, 9-11, 11-13, 12-10)
Group 18:
Rares Sipos (ROU) bt Jared Patel 3-0 (14-12, 11-3, 16-14)
Thomas Grininger (AUT) bt Jared Patel 3-0 (11-5, 11-9, 11-9)
Qualifying Round:
Helshan Weerasinghe bt Samuel Kaluzny (SVK) 4-3 (11-4, 4-11, 5-11, 12-10, 5-11, 11-5, 11-6)
Last 64:
Helshan Weerasinghe bt David Reitspies (CZE) 4-1 (11-6, 11-9, 11-6, 7-11, 14-12)
Junior Boys’ Consolation Singles:
Last 32:
Sam Mabey bt Alonso Ramos (PER) 3-0 (11-8, 12-10, 11-1)
Jared Patel bt Olav Kosolosky (BEL) 3-0 (11-2, 11-5, 11-4)
Last 16:
Ron Borower (ISR) bt Sam Mabey 3-1 (11-8, 5-11, 11-6, 11-2)
Diego Rodriguez (PER) bt Jared Patel 3-0 (11-9, 11-8, 11-9)
Junior Boys’ Doubles:
Round of 64:
Ivor Katic/Marko Popovic (SRB) bt Helshan Weerasinghe/Jared Patel 3-1 (11-7, 9-11, 11-7, 11-5)
Deni Kozul/Patrik Sukic (SLO) bt Sam Mabey/Zeyad Aldmaisy (JOR) 3-1 (7-11, 11-8, 11-4, 11-2)
Russell Moore (February 13, 2014)