Helshan Weerasinghe reached the final of the Junior Boys’ Singles at the Serbian Junior & Cadet Open, losing to top seed Darko Jorgic.

The 18-year-old Kent player, seeded third, made his way through qualifying and four knockout rounds in Vrnjacka Banja to reach the final against his Slovenian opponent.

And although he took the first set, a protracted second set which went the way of Jorgic 17-15 proved the turning point and the Slovenian pulled away to win 4-1.

Results

Junior Boys’ Singles

Qualifying Group 3
Helshan Weerasinghe bt Mihai Zamfir (ROM) 3-1 (12-10, 5-11, 11-8, 11-6)
Weerasinghe bt Aljaz Smaljcelj (SLO) 3-1 (12-10, 11-4, 17-19, 11-5)
Weerasinghe bt Nuray Niyaziev (BUL) 3-0 (11-5, 11-2, 11-4)

Round of 32
Weerasinghe bt Filip Radovic (MNE) 4-2 (11-3, 11-4, 10-12, 11-7, 3-11, 11-4)

Round of 16
Weerasinghe bt Emil Bergstrom (SWE) 4-2 (8-11, 11-4, 11-9, 6-11, 12-10, 11-1)

Quarter-finals
Weerasinghe bt Fanbo Meng (GER) 4-2 (8-11, 11-2, 10-12, 11-7, 12-10, 11-3)

Semi-finals
Weerasinghe bt Nils Hohmeier (GER) 4-0 (11-8, 12-10, 11-7, 11-9)

Final
Darko Jorgic (SLO) by Weerasinghe 4-1 (5-11, 17-15, 11-9, 11-6, 11-4)