by Ian Marshall, Editor

Youssef Abdel-Aziz, last week when partnering colleague Khalid Assar, he secured the Men’s Doubles title at the 2018 ITTF-African Championships in Mauritius, occupies the top seeded position; his best this year on the ITTF World Junior Circuit being a quarter-final finish in the Czech Republic.

Next in line is Pang Yew En Koen followed by Yanapong Panagitgun and India’s Manush Utpalbhai Shah. Most recently, Pang Yew-En Koen was the runner up in Chinese Taipei, having in June won in the Cook Islands. Meanwhile for Yanapong Panagitgun and Manush Utpalbhai Shah, their best finish of the year is a runners up spot; Yanapong Panagitgun was a silver medallist at the first ITTF World Junior Circuit tournament of the year in Oman; Manush Utpalbhai Shah experienced the same fate in both Tunisia and Jordan.

Silver medallists; for the next two in the pecking order in the Junior Boys’ Singles event in Varazdin, the best to date on this year’s ITTF World Junior Circuit is a semi-final finish. Nicolas Burgos, the no.5 seed, reached the penultimate round in Spain, Germany’s Kay Stumper, the no.6 seed, in Hong Kong.

Completing the top eight names are players who enjoyed their best of the year in Paraguay. Guilherme Teodoro, the no.7 seed, was the winner; Maciej Kolodziejczyk, like Martin Bentancor, who occupies the no.12 seeded position, advanced to the quarter-final round.

A most impressive total of 125 players compete in the Junior Boys’ Singles event in Varazdin