3/25/2010        2010 Italian Junior & Cadet Open - ITTF Premium Junior Circuit

The runner up in Bahrain on the 2010 ITTF Junior Circuit but the winner in both Egypt and Malta; Isabelle Siyu Li continued the form that has taken her to the no.1 spot on the ITTF Girls’ Standings at the Italian Junior Open in Lignano on Thursday 25th March 2010.

She led Singapore to a surprise win over top seeds Poland in their opening fixture in the group stage of proceedings.

In a tense five games duel she set Singapore on the road to victory by overcoming Klaudia Kusinska and in a second full distance duel brought matters to an end by beating Magdalena Szczerkowska.

One Success
The one further success for Singapore came in the third match of the contest with Chau Hai qing overcoming Sandra Wabik; whilst for Poland, Magdalena Szczerkowsk recorded their one victory.

She defeated Sylvia Look in the second match of the fixture.

Second Place
Second place in the group was to be the eventual lot of Poland with both teams overcoming the Spanish outfit of Paula Bueno, Raquel Bonilla and Constanta Martinez.

Sixth Seeds Stumble
Defeat for the top seeds and there was also a reverse in the Girls’ Team event for the no.6 seeds, Slovakia.

They were beaten by Croatia. Star of the show in the three-one Croatian success was Mirna Tomic. She beat both Martina Adamekova and Barbora Balazova with Petra Petek adding the one further win, she defeated Denisa Mala. The one success for the vanquished came from Barbora Balazova; she defeated Ida Jazbec.

Croatia finished the group in first place ahead of Slovakia with Lithuania (Vita Veneckute, Kristina Vaskevicuite, Ugne Baskutyte) in third place and Belgium (Alison Georis, Nathalie Marchetti, Florence Vanacker) fourth.

Successful Seeds
Defeats for the first and sixth seeded teams but for the teams in between there were no such disappointments.

Romania (Cristina Hirici, Camelia Postaoca, Andrade Vincze), Serbia (Anelia Lupulesku, Andrea Todorovic, Aliz Durcek), Hungary (Krisztina Ambrus, Mercedes Nagyvaradi, Marietta Angyal) and Luxembourg (Danielle Konsbruck, Sara de Nutte, Tessy Gonderinger) remained unscathed.

Minor Surprise
Upsets in the Girls’ Team competition and there was one minor surprise in the Cadet Girls Team event with France represented by Céline Pang and Marina Berho defeating the Romania `B’ team of Andreea Rosca and Bernadette Balint. The result may not have been what ranking predicted but Céline Pang is very much the player in form.

On Wednesday she won the Youth OIympic Games International Qualification Tournament in Lignano.

Progressed as Planned
Otherwise in the Cadet Girls’ team event matters went as planned.

Romania (Bernadette Szocs, Irina Ciobanu), United States of America (Ariel Hsing, Natalie Sun) and Belarus (Katsiaryna Baravok, Alina Arlouskaya), the top three seeded teams all remained unbeaten.