By Neha Aggarwal
The top seeded Russian beat Francisco Sanchi (ARG) in four straight games ( 11-9, 11-7, 11-5, 11-6 ) in a spectacular match. En route winning the title, he dropped only three games, thus setting up a splendid run through out the tournament.
In the semi-finals he knocked out an impressive Kakeru Sone of Japan in also four games (11-7, 11-3, 11-8, 11-6) to move to the finals. Sone had shown doors to the fourth seeded Truls Moregard (SWE) in the quarter-finals 4-2 ( 11-6, 3-11, 11-6, 7-11,11-8, 11-9).
Francisco Sanchi, now ranked 43 in the Under-18 global rankings in May 2017, made it to the finals as he thrashed the second seed of the tournament Denis Ivonin in a seven game thriller (11-9, 15-13, 11-9, 6-11,8-11, 8-11, 11-8). Ivonin is ranked no.21 in the global charts this May; it is certainly a huge motivator for Sanchi to make it to the final stage.
Unlike the girls, Japanese boys had some tough times in Spain this time. Five Japanese boys entered the round of 64, but only one (Kakeru Sone) made it to the top four. Maybe Japan has to do some serious thinking as the Europeans dominated the boys’ singles event through out.
In the Junior Boys’ Doubles however, Japanese boys asserted their dominance as they won the title. The pair of Kakeru Sone and Shunsuke Togami defeated Ilya Isakov and Denis Ivonin of Russia in a comfortable 3-0 margin (11-8, 11-8, 13-11) to secure the top spot.
In the semi-finals, Kakeru Sone and Shunsuke Togami out staged the top seeded pair of Chinese Taipei Feng Yi-Hsin and Li Hsin-Yang (3-11, 8-11, 12-14, 12-14). While on the other end, Ilya Isakov and Denis Ivonin of Russia made their way to the finals defeating second seeds Truls Moregard and Medardas Moregard of Sweden in straight games (11-8, 11-8, 11-8).
With the conclusion of the singles events, team events start from 19th May 2017.
