Watching 11-year-old Ladimir MAYOROV lead Spain to victory in the Round of 16 of the Under 15 Event at the European Youth Championships was a unique experience. Spain reached the quarterfinals after the team, seeded no. 9, defeated no. 4 seeds England 3-1. See photos here.
MAYOROV overcame both Abraham SELLADO and Kacper PIWOWAR, while also partnering with Tianxiang ZOU to prevail in the doubles. SELLADO scored England’s sole point with a win over Alexander MALOV. However, it was not just the victory that captured attention in the Torax Arena in Ostrava — it was the style, the maturity, and the strategic intelligence that the 11-year-old boy displayed, thinking three steps ahead like a seasoned professional.
His father and coach, Eduard MAYOROV, explained:
“Ladimir has the mindset of a semi-professional and much older player. He trains every day for 3 to 4 hours – because he wants to. I don’t think it’s necessary, but he’s doing it because he enjoys the game. He enjoys thinking about tactics, about combinations. Twice a week, he is also in the high-performance center where he trains with me and his mother, Svetlana BAKHTINA, a former member of the national team.”
In the quarterfinals, Spain will meet the top-seeded Italy. Danilo FASO and Francesco TREVISAN justified their ranking with a solid win over Hungary’s Mark GERGELY and Lenard SZABO.
“In the first match, FASO Danilo played against GERGELY, which was a really good match – we believed in him because we knew FASO knows how to play against Mark.
The next match I played against Lenard SZABO, which I lost 2-3; he was leading 2-0, but then I won two games and it was 2-2. In the fifth game, I was up 8:6 but lost 8:11.
In the following matches — the doubles and my last singles – I was much calmer and more focused, and that helped me a lot to win. In doubles with FASO, we won 3-1, and in my last match against GERGELY, I played really well and won 3-1,” explained TREVISAN.
Denmark, seeded no. 17, reached the top 16 and have now gone one step further. On their way to the quarterfinals, Malik SEVERINSEN and Emil HASSELBALCH overcame Portugal.
“I can say that we slightly changed our lineup because we knew MALIK would need some breaks if we were to continue playing more matches – and we hit the right combination in the lineup.
We led 2-0 early, which was a big advantage for us. The most difficult match was definitely the second one – Emil HASSELBALCH struggled a bit when he was leading, but fortunately, he played very smart and calm.
In that match, he changed tactics — started to use more spin and a lot of short shots. Portugal really had problems with that, especially the short balls — we had identified that as a weakness from the start. In the next round, we can play more freely and with calmness. We’ve played a lot of youth series, so we actually expected to make it to the Round of 16,” explained coach Claus ARNSBAEK.
In the Under 15 Girls Event at the European Youth Championships, Czechia found their winning rhythm in the Round of 16, played at the end of the third day of competition in Ostrava.
Hanka KODET, Adela BRHELOVA, and Simona HOLUBOVA overcame Austria’s Mariia LYTVYN, Sophia PICHLER, and Vanessa TANG.
“For sure, it is a big relief that we won against Austria. We knew it would be a tough match, but we stayed focused and tried to play our best the whole time.
We struggled a lot in the group stage, so we are really happy that we made it to the Round of 16 – and I think we were a bit lucky.
The most important match was the doubles, because that match is always the most decisive. In this match, we chose the tactic to play more short balls.
In my singles match against Mariia LYTVYN, I felt really good because I had beaten her the last time we played – so maybe she had that in her head and was more nervous than me. But I didn’t focus on that win, because every match is different. I went into the match with a clear head.
To be honest, it wasn’t a simple match, the last two points really helped me,” explained KODET.
Romania’s Patricia STOICA and Maya Roberta MADAR were fully in control as they defeated Belgium’s Juliette DEDECKER and Temperance TANG in convincing fashion.
France caused an upset by beating Sweden in straight matches. Lou-Anne BOCQUET, Eva LAM, and Albane ROCHUT exceeded expectations and outplayed Siri BENJEGÅRD and Angelina BEBAWY.
