Japanese players proved to be England’s nemesis as our involvement in the Swedish Junior & Cadet Open came to an end today.
Luke Savill, Gabriel Achampong and Omar Khassal were competing at the event in Orebro, and all can take plenty of encouragement from their performances.
Achampong and Savill both made it out of their singles groups with two wins out of three – the losses both to Japanese players.
Achampong went out in the first knockout round – the last 64 – but Savill went one step further before Japan’s Masato Kakitsuka ended his run.
Khassal lost all three group matches, although he was only outclassed by Yu Kayama of Japan and competed well in two other close matches.
He went into a consolation singles event, advancing through one round by walkover before being beaten by Hyeonggyu Woo, despite taking the first set.
In the doubles, Achampong and Khassal saw off an Egyptian pair to reach the last 32, before – seemingly inevitably – a Japanese pair proved their undoing.
Savill and partner Tyrese Knight of Barbados went through one round by walkover before losing to a pair from Puerto Rico.
Results
Junior Boys’ Singles
Group 8
Gabriel Achampong beat Laurens Devos (BEL) 3-1 (12-10, 8-11, 11-6, 11-8)
Gabriel Achampong beat Ammar Attia (EGY) 3-0 (11-9, 11-9, 11-8)
Gabriel Achampong lost to Koyo Kanamitsu (JPN) 0-3 (3-11, 6-11, 8-11)
Group 11
Luke Savill beat Petr Zakharikov (BUL) 3-0 (11-1, 11-1, 11-9)
Luke Savill lost to Yukiya Uda (JPN) 3-1 (5-11, 3-11, 11-5, 3-11)
Luke Savill beat Marwan Abdelwahab (EGY) 3-2 (5-11, 3-11, 11-4, 11-7, 11-9)
Group 18
Omar Khassal lost to Karim Elhakem (EGY) 2-3 (13-11, 11-13, 11-8, 9-11, 8-11)
Omar Khassal lost to Heemang Kim (KOR) 0-3 (3-11, 10-12, 10-12)
Omar Khassal lost to Yu Kayama (JPN) 0-3 (3-11, 3-11, 5-11)
Round of 64
Luke Savill beat Seonghyeok Kang (KOR) 4-2 (13-11, 8-11, 12-10, 6-11, 11-9, 12-10)
Gabriel Achampong lost to Adam Blomqvist (SWE) 1-4 (7-11, 11-8, 6-11, 7-11, 3-11)
Round of 32
Luke Savill lost to Masato Kakitsuka (JPN) 0-4 (8-11, 8-11, 6-11, 6-11)
Consolation singles
Round of 64
Omar Khassal beat Per Sandstrom (SWE) by w/o
Round of 32
Omar Khassal lost to Hyeonggyu Woo (KOR) 1-3 (13-11, 10-12, 6-11, 5-11)
Doubles
Round of 64
Gabriel Achampong & Omar Khassal beat Mahmoud Helmy & Ziad Wael (EGY) 3-0 (12-10, 11-2, 11-9)
Luke Savill & Tyrese Knight (BAR) beat Johan Barius & Per Sandstrom (SWE) by w/o
Round of 32
Gabriel Achampong & Omar Khassal lost to Junta Fukuda & Masato Kakitsuka (JPN) 0-3 (8-11, 5-11, 5-11)
Luke Savill & Tyrese Knight lost to Brian Afanador & Yomar Gonzalez (PUR) 0-3 (12-14, 3-11, 3-11)
Paul Stimpson
February 19, 2015