England’s best young players go head-to-head for glory at the Cadet & Junior Nationals this weekend – and judging by recent results it could be a thrilling competition.
A number of the leading seeds are in great form heading into the competition at Medway Park.
Top seed in the Junior Boys’ events, Tom Jarvis, started last month by winning the Junior National Cup and then enjoyed one of his biggest career wins when he defeated world No 152 Florent Lambiet of Belgium – ranked more than 200 places above him – at the Slovenia Open.
The third seed, Luke Savill, also shone at the same event, where he overturned a 401-place difference in the rankings to defeat world No 135 Darko Jorgic.
Meanwhile, second seed Matt Leete returned from the Zagreb Open last week with gold medals from both the team and individual events, and fourth seed Josh Bennett won the under-19 title at the ESTTA Individual Finals.
Two of the top four in the Junior Girls’ events also won at the ESTTA tournament – No 3 Charlotte Bardsley in the under-16s and No 4 Kate Cheer in the under-19s. No 2 seed Gauri Duhan was runner-up to Bardsley.
The top seed, Denise Payet, is the Junior National Cup champion and made her Senior England debut against Spain in Preston last month.
In the Cadets, the top two seeds in the boys’ event, Amirul Hussain and Ethan Walsh, were gold medallists in the team event at the Zagreb Open. Walsh, already the Cadet National Cup champion – Hussain missed the event with illness – also won an individual silver.
Bardsley, who also won two bronze medals at the Belgium Youth Open last month, is top seed in the Cadet Girls’ Singles.
Jarvis is the only defending singles champion as Tin-Tin Ho is no longer eligible, while Cadet singles champions Harry Dai and Payet have also moved up an age group.
As well as singles, the Cadet & Junior Nationals also features doubles and a junior team event. With the likes of Mollie Patterson, Jamie Liu, Ruby Chan and Shayan Siraj also having shone at the Zagreb Open, it promises to be a high-quality competition.
Click here to view the programme, including the draw.
We will be streaming the pick of the action from Medway on our YouTube channel – click here to view from 9am on Saturday.