by Simon Daish

Dragos Florin Oprea and Rares Sipos were named as the 21st seeded pair for the Boys’ Doubles event, while their rivals from Italy Antonino Amato and Daniele Pinto headed into the match occupying the position above on the seeding table so a close duel between the two pairings was to be expected.

Despite taking the early lead in the match Oprea and Sipos were left disappointed with their start to the tie, as Amato and Pinto made a positive response with the capture of back-to-back games to put the Italians 1-2 ahead after the opening three ends had drawn to a close.

The Romanian duo were down but they weren’t out and – after claiming the fourth end in deuce – Oprea and Sipos sealed the victory with a win in game five to book their spot in the next round (11-4, 8-11, 9-11, 14-12, 11-9).

Eighth seeds Alexandru Manole and Cristian Pletea are through to the quarter-finals of the competition, following the Romanian pair’s success against Denmark’s Andreas Dilling and Anders Lind.

Dilling and Lind managed to level the scores at one game apiece by the conclusion of the second game but with the next two ends going to the No.8 seeds Manole and Pletea, the duo from Romania were able to find their way to a 3-1 victory (11-7, 7-11, 11-5, 11-4) without requiring a dramatic finish to the match.

Hong Kong’s Kwan Man Ho and Ng Pak Nam came to within a game from suffering an unexpected defeat as the No.7 seeds were pushed to a deciding game before eventually coming out on top against Chinese Taipei’s Feng Yi-Hsin and Tai Ming-Wei (12-14, 11-6, 11-7, 10-12, 11-3), while the other pairing from Chinese Taipei Huang Chien-Tu and Lin Yun-Ju overcame Japan’s Yuto Kizukuri and Yuki Matsuyama (11-6, 11-3, 12-10).

The Boys’ Doubles quarter-finals stage will take place on Tuesday 6th December and by the conclusion of the day the two pairs of finalists will be known.

Sun International 2016 World Junior Championships: Day Six Quotes