3/28/2010        2010 Italian Junior & Cadet Open - ITTF Premium Junior Circuit

Slovakia’s 18 year old Samuel Novota, who finished in 13th place at the ITTF Junior Circuit Finals in Tokyo in October 2009, won the Boys’ Singles title at the Italian Junior Open in Lignano on Sunday 28th March 2010 and in so doing collected his third career ITTF Junior Circuit title.

In 2009 he succeeded in Latin America winning in Guatemala City and in the Chilean town of Coquimbo. At the Italian Junior Open he overcame Serbia’s Dragan Subotic to clinch gold, both players being surprise finalists; Samuel Novota was the no.17 seed whilst Dragan Subotic was the no.11 seed.

Road to Final
En route to the final Samuel Novota defeated Belgium’s Ludovic Bierny, Serbia’s Vladimir Radonjic and Belgium Julien Indeherberg to book a semi-final duel with France’s Benjamin Brossier.

Novota duly ended French hopes with Benjamin Brossier being very much a player in form; at the quarter-final stage, had ended the progress of Ludovic Bierny’s colleague, Lauric Jean, the no.1 seed.

Beat the Players Causing Upsets
A run of fine wins by Samuel Novota and it was the same from Dragan Subotic, who made the most of the disappearance of highly seeded players in the lower half of the draw.

In the opening round he beat Israel’s Elad Kuperberg, the winner one week earlier of the Boys’ Singles crown at the Malta Junior Open, before ousting Hungary’s Gergely Perei and France’s Alexandre Robinot.

Surprises
Robinot, only 14 years old, had caused one of the biggest upsets of the tournament by beating Slovenia’s Jan Zibrat, the no.2 seed, in round two; a further example if it was needed of the current strength of table tennis amongst teenage boys in the French national team.

Success against a French player who had ousted a seed and in the semi-finals it was the same scenario. Subotic beat Antoine Hachard who one round earlier had ended the progress of Belgium’s Cedric Nuytinck, the no.4 seed.

French Success
Defeats for France but in the Cadet Boys’ Singles event it was success.

Andrea Landrieu clinched the top prize beating the host nation’s Alessandro Baciocchi in the final, having ousted Singapore’s Tan Kiat in the quarter-finals and Italian second seed, Leonardo Mutti, at the penultimate stage; thus avoiding the possibility of an all Italian final.

Good form Andrea Landrieu en route to the final and it was the same from Alessandro Baciocchi; at the quarter-final stage he defeated Hungary’s Tamas Lakatos, the no.1 seed, before overcoming France’s Mehdi Bouloussa.

Alas for Italy, in the final Andrea Landrieu extracted French revenge.

Home Win
However, there was success for Italy.

Alesandro Baciocchi and Leonardo Mutti won the Cadet Boys’ Singles title beating Rajko Gommers and Koen Hageraats in the final whilst in the counterpart Cadet Boys’ Team final it was success for Belgium.

Julien Indherberg and Emilien Vanrossomme clinched gold overcoming the German partnership of Christoph Schmidl and Tran Le Vu at the final hurdle.