English Open report
The young Welsh players of Megan Phillips, Chloe Thomas, Patrick Thomas and Angharad Phillips all found the tournament a great experience and will gain a great deal from mixing with top players like Michael Maze and Ma long in the practice area. They never registered any wins in both the open singles and the U21 singles but showed ability taking sets off various players in their respected groups.
Stephen Jenkins lost to Salifou [France] and Bobaccia [Italy] in what was a tough draw but played some good stuff. Steve was coached by Neil Powell for both his matches.
Ryan and Naomi both failed to qualify for the next stage. Ryan beat a player from Monaco in his first match 4-0 but lost out to the higher ranked Vostes [Belgium 0-4]. Naomi had one of the hardest groups of all the women’s losing to players from Korea and India. She did pick wins in the U21 category beating a French player 3-1 and Mary Fuller, England, 3-0. In the last 16 Naomi was unlucky against a German player coming back from 1-3 down but level at 3-3 but couldn’t edge ahead and lost the 7th close.
Adam was the sole Welsh player to qualify from the group stage in the open events where he beat Nicholls [England] 4-2 and a player from Belarus 4-1. He then met Obeslo from Czech and lost a close 4-2.
The highlight of the tournament was Ryan & Adam teaming up in a great doubles run late on Thursday night. They beat the French pairing of Lebasson and Purec 3-0 and in the next round they had a brilliant win against Keinath and Sereda {Slovakia] 3-2. Keinath is in the top 50 in Europe which showed the level they were playing at.
In the 9pm match they faced the Korean pair of Joo Sye Houk and Li Gun Park. Joo is the former world singles runner up back in 2003 where he lost to Werner Schlager in Paris. Ryan and Adam had their chances but lost 0-3 [-11, -9, -5].
A very worthwhile competition to enter and participate in and all players gained from it.