by Ian Marshall, Editor

Earlier than anticipated exits on this year’s ITTF World Junior Circuit have been the order of proceedings for Andreea Dragoman, having competed in the Czech Republic, France, Italy and Poland.

However, for Poland’s Anna Wegrzyn, Chinese Taipei’s Chen Ting-Ting and Russia’s Ekaterina Zironova, present in Szombathely, all have ITTF World Junior Circuit Girls’ Singles titles to their name.

Anna Wegrzyn, the no.2 seed, in addition to being a quarter-finalist in Slovakia, semi-finalist in Belgium as well as on home soil in Poland, emerged successful in Canada. Somewhat similarly, Ekaterina Zironova, the no.8 seed, won recently in Egypt, having earlier in the year reached the last eight in both Italy and Sweden.

Impressive but the most impressive record is that owned by Chen Ting-Ting. She reached the quarter-final round in France, Slovakia and Croatia; on home ground in Chinese Taipei she advanced one step further. Most significantly, one month earlier she had won in Jordan. In Szombathely, Chen Ting-Ting is the no.3 seed.

Likewise, the players next in line to Chen Ting-Ting, Italy’s Jamila Laurenti, Romania’s Tania Plaian, Germany’s Franziska Schreiner and Japan’s Haruna Ojio have all reached the latter stages this year in ITTF World Junior Circuit Girls’ Singles events.

Jamila Laurenti was a quarter-finalist in both Spain and Tunisia, a semi-finalist in Paraguay; Tania Plaian was the runner up in Serbia, as was Franziska Schreiner in Canada.

Meanwhile, Haruna Ojio advanced to the last eight in Thailand, one round further in China, Hong Kong and Sweden.

The Junior Girls’ Singles event begins on the first day of action; the top 16 seeds are exempt from the group stage.