Europe Youth Top-10 | 28 Sep 2023
All European Singles Champions to Compete in Bucharest
The 2023 HEIDELBERG MATERIALS Europe Youth Top 10 tournament will be taking place in Bucharest, Romania, this week from September 29th to October 1st. The standout participants in the Under 19 Boys' and Girls' Events are the host nation's representatives, who are also the reigning European champions in their respective Under 19 Boys' and Girls' Singles events from Gliwice this summer: Eduard IONESCU and Elena ZAHARIA. Leading the Under 15 Events are the European champion in Under 15 Boys, Portugal's Tiago ABIODUN, and the French player Leana HOCHART.
In the Boys' Under 19 event, the top seed IONESCU did not participate last year in Tours. In the 2022 edition, Iulian CHIRITA from Romania secured the title, and in Bucharest, he is seeded fifth. Hugo DESCHAMPS of France is now the second seed; he finished third overall last year. Simon BELIK of Czechia, who was ranked tenth last year, is the third seed, followed by Tom CLOSSET of Belgium, Darius MOVILEANU, Andrei ISTRATE (fourth in Tours), and Dragos BUJOR of Romania, who was sixth. David SZANTOSI of Hungary, who was fifth in 2022, is seeded one place above Poland's Mateusz ZALEWSKI this year.
Elena ZAHARIA of Romania won the Under 15 event in 2019 in Dutch Noordwijk, and since then, she has come close but hasn't won the Under 19 title, finishing third in Berlin 2020 and second in 2021 and 2022 in Tours. Her teammate and vice-champion from this year's European Youth Championships, Ioana SINGEORZAN, is seeded second. Last year, she finished the competition in third place. Zuzanna WIELGOS of Poland is the third seed, followed by Agathe AVEZOU of France, Anna BRZYSKA, and Natalia BOGDANOWICZ of Poland. The winner of the Under 15 event last year, Bianca MEI ROSU of Romania, is seeded seventh, followed by Mia GRIESEL of Germany, Ines MATOS of Portugal, and Clea DE STOPPELEIRE of France.
In France, ABIODUN finished the tournament in sixth place, but his title in Poland has placed him at the top of the seedings in Bucharest. Julian RZIHAUSCHEK of Austria was seventh in Tours and is now seeded one place below Tiago again. Patryk ZYWORONEK of Poland, the finalist in Gliwice, is the third seed, followed by Petr HODINA of Austria, Damian FLORO of Slovakia, Botond VARGA of Hungary, Sandro CAVAILLE of France, Danilo FASO of Italy, Robert ISTRATE of Romania, and Nathan PILARD of France.
In the Under 15 Girls' event, HOCHART finished in second place last year. Now, she leads the list, followed by Josephina NEUMANN of Germany, Maria BERZOSA of Spain, European silver medalists in singles Nina GUO ZHENG of France, Gaetane BLED of France, European champion Hanka KODETOVA of Czechia, Koharu ITAGAKI of Germany, Julia LEAL of Portugal, Nora DOHOCZKI of Hungary, and Andrea JIFCU of Romania.