by Ian Marshall, ITTF Publications Editor

In Algiers he completed a clean sweep of junior titles.

Alongside Karim Elhakem and Abdelrahman Rahmou, he won the Boys’ Team title; later her partnered Mariam Alhodaby to Mixed Doubles success prior joining forces with Karim Elhakem once again to secure the Boys’ Doubles title. He concluded matters by being crowned Boys’ Singles champion.

Present at the Sun International 2016 World Junior Championships, currently Youssef Abdel-Aziz plays for Hohenstein in the Third Division of the German Bundesliga.

He spoke to Olalekan Okusan, the ITTF-Africa Press Officer

I am looking forward to winning the singles, doubles, mixed doubles and team events titles in Tunis, just like I did last year in Algiers. I hope I can also repeat such feat in Tunisia.

I expect that winning the title again will be difficult as there are many respectable players but I hope to win the title this year. I hope I can because I have been practising well in Germany but I must admit it is not easy because the competition is always very hard.

The teams that are very strong and remain threats to Egypt most times are Nigeria and Tunisia but we will do our best in the tournament. I hope the Egyptian team will be ready and we can achieve what we did last year in Algeria.

 Playing in South Africa last year at the World Junior Championships has really added to my knowledge of the sport as I gained more experience especially playing against the top players when I made it to the main draw of the singles. At present I am sharpening up in Germany for the competition in Tunis.