by Ian Marshall, ITTF Publications Manager

The no.3 seed, in the final she accounted for Germany’s Franziska Schreiner, the no.2 seed (8-11, 11-9, 11-9, 12-10, 9-11, 11-9), having started the day with success in opposition to Chile’s Claudia Infante, the no.14 seed (11-6, 11-3, 11-4, 11-3).

A fine start, she overcame Canada’s Ann Shao (18-16, 11-6, 11-4, 11-8), prior to beating China’s Lin Lequan, the no.12 seed (11-3, 11-3, 7-11, 11-3, 12-10), very much a player in form. In the second round she had ended the hopes of the Czech Republic’s Zdena Blaskova, the top seed (10-12, 9-11, 11-7, 11-7, 11-3, 12-10), before one round later ending the defeating colleague, Tong Yifan (12-14, 11-8, 11-5, 11-2, 11-13, 11-8).

“I’m so happy that I won. I had good concentration and I played my best game. In the final my opponent played a very difficult game. She had good service, good receive, good top speed. I had to play faster and play with good service too.” Anna Wegrzyn

Success for Anna Wegrzyn and one wonders if the win was a direct outcome of her performance at the 2018 Polish Junior and Cadet Open, the previous week. Accepted they were cadet age group players but en route to the semi-finals, she beat two Chinese opponents. She overcame Li Yuqi (11-3, 7-11, 9-11, 11-3, 11-7, 11-5) and Chen Yi (5-11, 16-14, 11-6, 9-11, 14-12, 12-10). Did that no give her a massive boost of confidence for her endeavours in Markham?

Impressive from Anna Wegrzyn, it was the same from Franziska Schreiner on her journey to the gold medal contest.

She accounted for Swathi Giri (11-4, 11-7, 11-1, 6-11, 11-4), before overcoming China’s Li Yumeng (11-8, 11-9, 8-11, 11-8, 11-7) and Sabrina Zhu, the no.20 seed and like Swathi Giri from the United States (11-8, 11-8, 15-13, 6-11, 5-11, 15-13) to reach the final.