by Simon Daish
One of the major stories of the day was produced by a Slovak Republic representative as Jakub Zelinka pulled off a tremendous win against Andreas Dilling.
Denmark’s Andreas Dilling entered the Junior Boys’ Singles draw as the 20th highest ranked player on the seeding list, but it was Jakub Zelinka who put in the more convincing performance of the two players and after eventually claiming the victory across six games (11-9, 11-7, 11-7, 9-11, 6-11, 11-9) the Slovak player highlighted confidence as a key factor in the match.
“At first I had to convince myself that I could beat him. I had to believe and to build my self-confidence. I played more aggressive then him and my service game was better, which allowed me to attack faster”, Jakub Zelinka.
Another eye-catching result saw Hungarian contestant Istvan Patrik Molnar fall victim to an exit from the event, as Swedish star Jonathan Thimon produced a magnificent showing in the upper half of the draw.
Istvan Patrik Molnar made the brighter start to the match, calming three of the opening four games but Jonathan Thimon persevered and with the following three ends going in the Swedish player’s favour the prospect of a shock outcome became reality (4-11, 15-13, 6-11, 10-12, 11-9, 12-10, 14-12).
Joshua Bennett came out on the correct side of a deciding game victory as the English contestant recovered from a two games deficit to beat Slovak rival Stefan Peko (9-11, 6-11, 11-7, 13-11, 12-10, 9-11, 11-4), while Tilen Cvetko of Slovenia edged to a nervous 4-3 triumph (6-11, 10-12, 11-7, 11-6, 11-8, 8-11, 11-7) in his encounter with Ukraine’s Anton Limonov.
The Junior Boys’ Doubles tournament also featured a number of exciting duels on day seven, which included a couple of scary moments for seeded pairings.
Germany’s Tobias Hippler and Gerrit Engemann were pushed hard as the sixth seeds required all five games before emerging successful against Belgian opponents Valentin Pieraert and Quentin Jacques (12-14, 11-7, 8-11, 11-4, 11-3), while the 14th seeded Italian partnership of Antonino Amato and Daniele Pinto defeated the Swiss combination of Cedric Tschanz and Pedro Osiro (9-11, 11-13, 11-8, 11-4, 11-9).
Stag 2017 European Youth Championships: Results – Thursday 20th July
