by Simon Daish
Top seeds and defending Champions the pairing of Jules Rolland and Lucie Gauthier were big contenders to lift the trophy once again and with the opposition in the final seeded 15 positions lower, the odds were heavily stacked in the French combination’s favour.
Poland’s Samuel Kulczycki and Anna Wegrzyn gave a good account of themselves in the title contest and had opportunities to make life difficult for Jules Rolland and Lucie Gauthier, but ultimately the end result went in the latter partnership’s direction (11-9, 11-8, 12-10).
Jules Rolland and Lucie Gauthier have become only the fifth pair to successfully defend the Junior Mixed Doubles trophy at the tournament and the first from France to achieve that feat.
In the Cadet Mixed Doubles final the opposite scenario played out as the higher seeded French team of Fabio Rakotoarimanana and Prithika Pavade suffered a painful defeat at the hands of the mixed association partnership of Italy’s Andrea Puppo and Russia’s Arina Slautina.
Despite Rakotoarimanana and Pavade holding the advantage following the conclusion of game three it was Puppo and Slautina who came away with the win, claiming back-to-back games to see off the no.4 seeds in a full distance thriller (11-6, 3-11, 3-11, 11-8, 11-7).
