by Simon Daish Lebrun ranked 56th in the ITTF Table Tennis Youth Rankings, achieved his first goal of progressing from the group stage with little difficulty, and couldn’t have asked for a better start to the knock-out rounds as he outclassed Belarus’ Hleb Behunou 3-0 (11-8, 11-5, 11-4). However, Lebrun’s standout moment arrived in the […]
International Table Tennis Federation 13 May 2021
May 12: Puerto Rico’s Angel Naranjo got his campaign at the WTT Youth Contender Vila Real off to a flying start by winning all his matches on the opening day to reach the quarter-final of the U17 Boys’ Singles at the inaugural WTT Youth Series event in Portugal.
Angel Naranjo off to flying start in Vila Real
by Calvin Koh
Ranked 41
st on the ITTF Table Tennis Youth Ranking, Naranjo defeated Israel’s Uri Almor in straight games 3-0 (11-5, 11-8, 11-8) before fighting back from two games down to beat Croatia’s Leon Benko 3-2 (9-11,7-11, 11-3, 11-6, 11-2) in the qualifying rounds.
Chirita defies expectations to land U-17 title in Vila Real 13 May 2021
Packed with drama, the second day of play at WTT Youth Contender Vila Real saw the event’s first champions being crowned with Romania’s Iulian Chirita providing the headline act with his success in the Under-17 Boys’ Singles tournament.
Iulian Chirita lands U17 title in Vila Real
by Simon Daish
Earlier than anticipated departures for Puerto Rico’s Angel Naranjo and Belgium’s Louis Laffineur blew the title race wide open, ready for an ambitious outsider to capitalise. Step forward Iulian Chirita!
Negotiating his two remaining group fixtures against Portugal’s Francisco Ferreira and Spain’s Francesc Carrera in straight games, Chirita, ranked 22nd on the ITTF Table Tennis Youth Ranking list, then went on to see off Israel’s Uri Almor across four games (9-11, 12-10, 11-4, 11-5), before defeating Czech Republic’s Simon Belik by the same margin in the semi-finals (11-6, 6-11, 11-9, 1