by Simon Daish
Very little separated the title contenders heading into the concluding day of the action, leading to an exciting finale in the Junior Girls’ Singles event.
Starting the day off with a close encounter against Anastasia Kolish of Russia (8-11, 11-7, 11-4, 9-11, 8-11, 11-8, 11-7) Adina Diaconu gave her chances of reaching the top step of the podium a significant boost with a commanding victory over Belgium’s Lisa Lung (12-10, 11-4, 11-7, 11-6).
However, the top seed was given a real scare in her final match of the tournament against Serbian player Izabela Lupulesku, who made the brighter start to the match by claiming the opening three games. But, Adina Diaconu fought back well and four consecutive game wins (5-11, 5-11, 3-11, 11-8, 11-6, 11-7, 11-9) saw the Romanian star register her 17th point of the campaign.
Anastasia Kolish went on to suffer her second defeat of the day when she met Izabela Lupulesku in the second session of play (5-11, 8-11, 6-11, 7-11), but her six games triumph against Lisa Lung (11-13, 5-11, 12-10, 14-12, 11-2, 11-6) proved enough to seal the runners-up spot due to a superior games ratio over her rivals (+51).
Jennie Wolf and Lisa Lung also finished on 15 points each with the German representative pipping the Belgian to third position with a greater games ratio (+33 to +24) while Izabela Lupulesku, Zhang Xuan and Luisa Saeger all ended their campaigns with 13 points. Tania Plaian and Denise Payet secured 12 and 9 points respectively.
Germany may have missed out on the Junior Girls’ Singles trophy, but there was a success story for the country in the Cadet Girls’ Singles tournament as Sophia Klee celebrated a gold medal finish.
Sophia Klee finished in first position despite ending up on the losing side in two out of her three concluding matches, suffering defeats to Romania’s Elena Zaharia (7-11, 8-11, 6-11, 11-9, 11-9, 9-11) and Italy’s Jamila Laurenti (5-11, 7-11, 15-17, 9-11) with the victory in her opening encounter of the day against Camille Lutz of France (11-6, 14-12, 6-11, 11-7, 11-7) proving enough to seal the title.
Ozge Yilmaz was left disappointed with her start to the tournament losing out in three of her opening four matches in Worcester, but she has shown great character since and a strong outing on the final day saw the Turkish player record her fifth consecutive win in the category with a hat trick performance on day three leading to a second position finish overall.
Third position was awarded to Isa Cok of France, while Italian competitor Jamila Laurenti finished one spot below.
