Denise Payet earned a Bronze medal in the Junior Girls Team event at the Slovenian Junior Open, in an otherwise uneventful competition for English players Payet and Wing Kwan.
Junior Girls
Junior Girls Singles
A disappointing Junior Girls Singles competition saw Payet finish in 64th place in the consolation draw.
Seeded 39 for the event, Payet got off to a slow start in her group, losing to Hong Kong’s Ka Yee Lee 0-3 (2-11, 8-11, 5-11).
The English Junior won her second group match against Croatia’s Ana Murat, 3-1 (10-12, 11-4, 11-9, 11-9), however was unable to progress through her group after losing to Japan’s Yukari Sugasawa 0-3 (5-11, 4-11, 7-11).
Payet finished in third position in Group 9, sending her into the Junior Girls consolation event.
In the consolation round of 32, Payet was taken to deuce in the fifth set, but was unable to emerge victorious against Veronika Menko of Hungary, losing 3-2 (11-7, 8-11, 11-9, 8-11, 14-12).
Junior Girls Doubles
In the Junior Girls Doubles competition, Payet joined forces with Belgium’s Natacha Koszulap. The pair were seeded in 14th position.
In their opening match, the English / Belgium pairing defeated Daria Azarenkova (Russia) and Luiza Popescu (Romania) 3-1 (11-6, 11-7, 12-14, 11-7).
However their doubles event came to a close shortly after, in the round of 32, after losing 0-3 to the Chinese Taipei girls Pei-Ling Su and Yu-Chin Tasi (9-11, 6-11, 11-13).
The Chinese Taipei pair were seeded fourth and eventually went on to finish second in the event, taking the silver medal.
Junior Girls Team event
An English, Thai, and American combination of Denise Payet, Jinnipa Sawettabut, and Amy Wang joined together to form third seeds for the Junior Girls Team event.
The combined team comfortably progressed through the group stages after defeating India 3-1, Hungary 3-2, and being granted a BYE in their third match.
In the match against India, Payet lost to Manshree Patil 1-3 (7-11, 11-8, 6-11, 7-11) and in the match against Hungary she defeated Vila Phan 3-2 (10-12, 11-2, 6-11, 11-8, 11-4).
After finishing top of their group, the girls faced sixth seeds, Croatia, in the knock-out stages.
Payet faced and won against Marta Vukelic 3-2 (11-8, 10-12, 6-11, 11-6, 11-6) and her team mates also stood victorious, with a final score line 3-1.
In the semi-final the team were drawn against second seeds, Hong Kong.
It was Hong Kong who came out on top (3-1), with Payet losing her match 2-3 to Wing Sze Chau (5-11, 10-12, 11-8, 11-9, 5-11).
It meant Payet and team finished in third position, granting them a Bronze medal for their efforts.
Junior Boys
Junior Boys Singles
Wing Kwan entered the Junior Boys Singles competition, seeded in 36 position.
The English Junior won just one out his three group stage matches.
Kwan lost 0-3 to Slovakia’s Daniel Orac (11-8 13-15, 8-11), 2-3 to Japan’s Takeru Kashiwa (11-6, 11-8, 14-16, 6-11, 8-11), although he was able defeat Luka Norcic of Slovenia in the final match 3-2 (9-11, 11-8, 10-12, 13-11, 11-5).
A disappointing third place finish in the group stage sent Kwan into the consolation event.
After being granted a BYE in the consolation round of 32, Kwan faced Hungary’s David Molnar in the consolation round of 16.
The Hungarian came out on top, defeating Kwan 1-3 (7-11, 11-7, 10-12, 6-11) and ending his Junior Boys Singles competition.
Junior Boys Doubles
In the Junior Boys Doubles, Kwan paired with American Aditya Godhwani.
The English / American pairing comfortably won their first match against the San Marino boys Federico Giadri and Mattias Mongiusti 3-0 (11-8, 11-4, 11-8).
However they were knocked out at the round of 32 stage of the competition after losing to Portugal’s Vitor Amorim and Jose Pedro Francisco 1-3 (10-12, 11-3, 5-11, 13-15).
Junior Boys Team
Kwan joined together with Youssef Abdel-Aziz and Aleksandr Kraskovskii to form an English, Egyptian, Russian team in the Junior Boys Team competition.
The boys’ team got off to a good start in the group stages, finishing top after defeating Brazil-Lithuania 3-2 and Hungary-Romania 3-0.
Kwan won the deciding match in the Brazil-Lithuania match against Medardas Stankevicius 3-0 (15-13, 12-10, 11-6), having lost to Siddharta Almeida 1-3 earlier (13-11, 9-11, 6-11, 7-11).
The English Junior also won his match against Norbert Nagy 3-1 (11-9, 11-9, 9-11, 11-3) in the Hungary-Romania match.
Unfortunately the team were not able to carry their winning ways through to the knock-out stages as they were defeated 2-3 by a Thailand/USA combination in the Quarter-Finals.
Kwan lost both his matches 0-3; against Nikhil Kumar (6-11, 9-11, 11-13) and Yanapong Panagitgun (3-11, 9-11, 5-11).
