Top seeds in the Under 19 Boys Singles Event at the European Youth Championships in Malmö have safely advanced to the round of 32. Iulian CHIRITA of Romania his teammates Darius MOVILEANU and Andrei ISTRATE and Germany’s Andre BERTELSMEIER all secured third-round victories. However No. 6 seed Dragos BUJOR of Romania faced an early exit. The home crowd was delighted by the play of William BERGENBLOCK who booked his place in the next round.
Chirita defeated Czech’s Petr HODINA of Austria (13 -8 7 9 7). MOVILEANU needed one game less to secure victory over Hakan ISIK of Türkiye (8 5 5 7). ISTRATE also concluded his match against Jakub GOLDIR of Slovakia in four games (1 8 4 8).
No. 4 seed BERTELSMEIER prevailed against Khai Noah LAM of Norway after losing the opening game (9 -8 8 9 7).
Romania’s lineup was reduced as Dragos BUJOR lost to Sweden’s William BERGENBLOCK 4-2 (7 -9 8 3 -6 3). This was good news for the hosts since the second round already saw the departure of the best-seeded Swedish player Isak ALFREDSSON who lost to Benjamin PIGGOTT of England 4-2 (-10 8 8 -4 9 10). In the same round Itay AVIVI of Israel dealt another blow to the home supporters by beating Elias SJOGREN 4-1 (-10 10 7 12 4).
William BERGENBLOCK expressed his satisfaction with his performance:”I think I played really well. I kept my tactics the whole match and could come to an attack as I wished. I’m really pleased with the win.”
In the third round David SZANTOSI of Hungary beat David BJORKRYD but not before the Swede put the No. 7 seed under severe pressure in a seven-game battle (1 8 -4 -9 16 -6 9). Alessi MASSART of Belgium overcame Germany’s Lleyton ULLMANN in a narrow seven games (8 6 -9 8 -6 -9 12).
