by Ian Marshall, ITTF Publications Manager

Imposingly, she secured the Girls’ Singles title at the final expense of Japan’s Yukari Sugasawa, the no.5 seed (11-9, 11-2, 11-9, 11-8), the player against whom on the opening day action she had experienced defeat in the group stage of the Girls’ Team event (11-6, 3-11, 11-7, 11-8).

It was to prove her only defeat of the whole tournament.

After accounting for Japan’s Yua Yamasaki (11-4, 11-8, 11-4, 11-2); she beat the host nation’s Tatiana Kukulkova, the no.7 seed (12-10, 12-10, 11-5, 11-7) and Chinese Taipei’s Chen Ting-Ting (11-9, 11-5, 11-5, 11-4) to reserve her place in the penultimate round, where the good form continued. She overcame colleague Gao Yanan (7-11, 11-8, 10-12, 11-2, 11-8, 11-4), the victor one round earlier in opposition to Poland’s Anna Wegrzyn, the no.4 seed (11-7, 7-11, 11-5, 6-11, 11-7, 12-10).

Impressive from Wang Xiaotong, en route to the final it had been very much the same from Yukari Sugasawa.

In the opening round she beat Slovakia’s Dasa Sinkarova (11-7, 11-2, 11-3, 11-6), before overcoming Wei Yuanhui (11-8, 9-11, 7-11, 11-8, 11-3, 8-11, 11-9) and colleague Hikari Okubo to secure her place in the penultimate round; the stage at which she caused a major upset. She beat Amy Wang of the United States, the no.2 seed (11-4, 11-8, 11-6, 5-11, 8-11, 11-7).

Play concluded in Senec; attention now turns to Wladyslawowo, the 2018 Polish Junior and Cadet Open begins on Wednesday 23rd May.