by Ian Marshall, ITTF Publications Manager

Both much travelled Yanapong Panagitgun finished last year in sixth place on the Standings, Maciej Kolodziejczyk occupied the eleventh spot; the result was that both qualified for the ITTF World Junior Circuit Finals staged earlier this year in Luxembourg.

Notably, they were drawn in the same group, each experienced defeat at the hands of India’s Manav Vikash Thakkar and Chinese Taipei’s Feng Yi-Hsin; more pertinently with Asuncion in mind, when they played each other, it was Yanapong Panagitgun who prevailed.

There is a debt for the Austrian to settle and that is very much the scenario with regards to the players who complete the top eight names.

Prominent is Argentina, Martin Bentancor is the no.3 seed, Leandro Fuentes, the no.5 seed with Santiago Lorenzo being the no.8 seed; from Brazil Eduardo Tomoike is next in line to Martin Bentancor with Peru’s Rodrigo Hidalgo and Chile’s Andres Martinez being the no.6 and no.7 seeds.

At the recent South American Junior and Cadet Championships staged in Santiago in late March; Martin Bentancor won the Junior Boys’ Singles title. In the final he beat Santiago Lorenzo having in the penultimate round accounted for Eduardo Tomoike. Meanwhile, at the semi-final stage Santiago Lorenzo had beaten Rodrigo Hidalgo, having one round earlier ousted Andres Martinez; also to add to the equation, in the round of the last eight Eduardo Tomoike had defeated Leandro Fuentes.

Potential revenge matches await but that must wait; the team events commence proceedings.

Yanapong Panagitgun, alongside Singapore’s Dominic Song Jun Koh, heads the Junior Boys’ Team seeding being immediately followed by Martin Bentancor and Santiago Lorenzo. Peru’s Joel Cisneros and Carlos Fernandez are the Cadet Boys’ Team top seeds with Costa Rica’s José Perez and Alfredo Sanchez being the next in line.

Also, the names of Carlos Fernandez and Alfredo Sanchez feature prominently in the Cadet Boys’ Singles, they are the respective top two seeds; in the Mini-Cadet Boys’ Singles Sweden in the guise of Elias Sjögren and Tom Holmqvist head the list.