The top three seeded outfits in the Junior Girls’ Team event at the JOOLA 2013 Hungarian Junior and Cadet Open in Szombathely, all finished in first places in their respective groups when play concluded on Friday 8^th November.

It was a successful day for Hong Kong, the top seeds, who selected from Doo Hoi Kem, Minnie Soo Wai Yam, Lam Yee Lok and Mak Tze Wing; as it was for the second seeded Romanian outfit comprising Bernadette Szocs, Irina Ciobanu and Adina Diaconu.

Likewise, Chinese Taipei ‘A’, the third seeds finished in first place in their group.

First Places Secured
Hong Kong finished ahead of Egypt (Alia Doaa, Yousra Helmy, Fagr Shouman) and Sweden (Tilda Johansson, Erika Front, Filippa Bergand); whilst next in line behind Romania came Germany (Chantal Mantz, Alena Lemmer, Anne Bundesmann) and Hungary ‘A’ (Csilla Nagypal, Leila Imre, Lili Takacs).

Meanwhile, Belgium ‘B’ (Lisa Lung, Eline Loyen, Margo Degraef) finished in second place to Chinese Taipei with Poland ‘B’ (Julia Slazak, Aleksandra Falarz, Katarzyna Galus) in third position.

Polish Problems
No great problems for the top three seeds but for Poland ‘A’, the fourth seeds, there were problems.

In their opening fixture they were beaten three-nil by Serbia. Tamara Agoston accounted for Natalia Bajor (11-8, 4-11, 11-8, 12-14, 11-2), Ivana Vejnovic overcame Paulina Knyszewska 11-13, 12-10, 11-9, 11-7), with Aleksandra Savic bringing matters to a conclusion. She defeated Joanna Kiedrowska (11-7, 2-11, 11-3, 11-7).

First Place for Serbia
Earlier Serbia had beaten Spain ‘A’ by three matches to one with Ivana Vejnovic the mainstay of success. She accounted for Zhang Xuan (11-4, 11-5, 11-5) and Nora Escartin (11-8, 11-7, 11-9).

The one further win for Serbia came from Tamara Agoston in the third match of the fixture, she beat Laura Ramirez in a full distance five games duel (10-12, 11-6, 4-11, 11-6, 11-8). The one win for Spain was recorded in the opening match of the contest. Nora Escartin beat Aleksanda Savic (12-10, 5-11, 11-6, 11-7).

Serbia thus secured first place in the group.

Victory Over Spain Essential
In order to secure second place in the group and thus a passport to the main draw, success against Spain ‘A’ was essential. Victory was duly achieved and achieved in an impressive manner.

A three matches to nil win was posted with Paulina Knyszewska beating Laura Ramirez (11-5, 11-7, 12-10), Natalia Bajor overcoming Nora Escartin (11-4, 14-12, 11-9) and Joanna Kierdowska accounting for Zhang Xuan.

Top Four Cadet Teams Unbeaten
Difficulties for one of the top four seeded outfits in the Junior Girls’ Team event but there were no such similar problems for the top four outfits in the Cadet Girls’ Team competition.

Russia ‘A’ (Maria Taylakova, Valeria Shcherbatykh), the top seeds, duly finished in first place in their group as did the next three teams in the order of merit.

It was first place for Chinese Taipei (Wen Ruei-Ling, Chen Ting-Ting) as it was for Serbia (Isabeta Lupulresku, Sabina Surjan) and Belarus ‘A’ (Daria Trigolos, Maya Kunats).

The Finals
The finals of all team events will be staged on Saturday 9^th November.

Article by: ITTF - Ian Marshall

Photo by: Laszlo Peli