Europe Youth Top-10 | 4 Sep 2017
Romania’s PLETEA and DIACONU on test in Worcester
Photo: Henk HOMMES
2017 Europe Youth Top 10
Fantastic seven games battle in the junior boys singles final between Ioannis SGOUROPOULOS of Greece and Romania’s Cristian PLETEA sealed the STAG 2017 European Youth Championships in Portugal. Old Continent’s champion SGOUROPOULOS and silver medalists PLETEA will be on duty again in Worcester, England from 8th to 10th September at the 2017 Europe Youth Top 10.
Despite the title, Greek’s player is seeded no. two, whilst PLETEA heading the list as a no. one European junior at the rankings. Bronze medalists from Portugal, Rares SIPOS of Romania is seeded no. three. The breathtaking final of the European Championships was memorable, but in the penultimate stage there were no lack of suspense. SGOUROPOULOS needed seven games to overcame Rares SIPOS of Romania. He won after he was 1:3 down, so it will be interesting to see how both Romania’s players will respond this time.
The list goes on with France’s Irvin BERTRAND, Russia’s Artur ABUSEV, YANG Xinyu of Azerbaijan, host representative Tom JARVIS, Russia's Denis IVONIN, Germany's Tobias HIPPLER and Belgium's Florian CNUDDE.
Romania, hosts of the next European Championships in Cluj, dominates the junior’s category. At the top of the list in Girl’s Event is the leader at the rankings Adina DIACONU, followed by Andreea DRAGOMAN at the position no. four. DIACONU won bronze in singles Portugal. They finished second and third respectively in Prague at Top 10 last year. NING Jing of Azerbaijan is at the position no. two, Maria TAILAKOVA of Russia at the position no. three and Izabela LUPULESKU of Serbia at position no. 5.
No. six seed is Lisa LUNG of Belgium, whilst Russia’s Anastasia KOLISH is seventh. KOLISH clinched silver at the European Championships two months earlier. The list goes on with Daria TRIGOLOS of Belarus, ZHANG Xuan of Spain and Denise PEYET of England. For PEYET this will be valuable experience since she is not among Top 100 at the Rankings.
Russia`s Vladimir SIDORENKO, the European Champion is the best ranked player in the Cadet Boys Event. Truls MOREGARD of Sweden is no. two, followed by Russia`s Maxim GREBNEV, Bilal HAMACHE of France, Kay STUMPER of Germany, Csaba ANDRAS of Hungary, Dorian ZHENG of France. At the list is another bronze medalist, Samuel KULCZYCKI of Poland seeded at the position no. 8. Olav KOSOLOSKY of Belgium and Ethan WALSH of England.
In Cadet Girls event, Russia will be represented with four players, including top seeded, European champion, Elizabet ABRAAMIAN. Her compatriot, No. 2 seed Ekaterina ZIRONOVA achieved biggest result out of all Top 10 participants last year. She finished third behind her compatriot Anastasia KOLISH and Romania`s Tania PLAIAN.
No. 3 seed is Elena ZAHARIA of Romania, followed by Jamila LAURENTI of Italy,Prithika PAVADE of France, Natalia MALININA and Arina SLAUTINA of Russia,Natalia BRINZA of Moldova, Camille LUTZ of France and Charlotte BARDSLEY of England.