Table Tennis Wales (TTW)

19th Portuguese Youth Open - report

Day 1 Results

Day one saw the start to the team event where Conor Edwards teamed up with Romanian player Bogdan-Cosmin Singeorzan in the Cadets and Megan Phillips teamed up with Guernsey’s Alice Loveridge and Elizabeth Priest.

In the Cadet Boys Wales/Romania drew Spain A, France A and Portugal E in their group whilst in the Junior Girls Wales/Guernsey drew Slovakia, Portugal E and Netherlands in their group.

Wales/Romania Results Cadet Boys

Spain A – Lost 0-3 - Conor Edwards lost his singles and didn’t get out to a good start.

France A – Lost 2-3 - Conor Edwards had a great win against Number 1 Joe Seyfried (WR96) 3-2 and also beat the number two player Joris Reynaud

Portugal E – Won 3-0 – Conor and Bogdan won their matches 3-0

This left Wales/Romania to finish in 3rd place and play for places 17-25

Wales/Guernsey Results Junior Girls

Slovakia A – Won 3-2 – Megan fought well and lost her first match 3-2 to Eva Jurkova (WR192), Alice won her two matches 3-1 and Elizabeth Priest lost her match 3-0, this left Megan to play the match decider which she won against Lucia Truksova 3-1.

Portugal C – Won 3-1 – Megan winning her match 3-0 against Andreia Lopes

Netherlands – Lost 0-3 – Megan lost to Kim Vermaas (WR 262) 0-3

Wales/Guernsey finish 2nd in the group and qualify to play for places 1-8.

This left the teams then to play in the knock out stage

Wales/Romania Cadet Boy Results for places 17-25

Portugal D – Won 3-0 –

Sweden C – Lost 3-2 - Conor Edwards Won 1 singles and lost 1 and broke his bat on the table playing a shot during his first singles match where he lost 3-2

Portugal C – Lost 3-1

Spain D – Won 3-0

This meant that Wales/Romania finished in 23rd place with Conor Edwards winning 5 out of 7 matche

Day 2 Results

Day two saw the girls play the Quarter Final

Portugal B – Won 3-1 – Megan beating Diana Albuquerque 3-1 Alice winning her two games.

Semi Finals

Portugal A – Megan stepped up first against Maria Xiao (WR 26) and lost the first two sets very close -9, -8, Maria Xaio had the home crowd on her back and went on to win the 3rd set to give Portugal a 1-0 lead, Alice then lost to Portugal’s number 2 3-2 and Elizabeth lost her match 3-0 which meant another match against Netherlands this time for 3rd place.

3rd Place Playoff

Wales/Guernsey got off to a good start with Alice winning her match and then Megan losing in a close match with Number 1 Alice Barengregt. This meant the match was tied at 1-1, Elizabeth Priest then took to the table and found the going tough and lost 3-0, Alice Loveridge then beat Number One player Alice Berengregt 3-2 in a very close and entertaining match. This meant that Megan had the deciding match again and went up against Kim Vermaas who she lost to in the group stage the day before. This game saw Megan go 2-0 down and fight back and played a more aggressive and attacking game to pull the match back to 2-2. In the 5th set it was Kim who took the lead and went 5-1 up only for Megan to pull it back to 6-6. Kim then had some fortune and got a few edges and nets which frustrated Megan and eventually most the match 11-6.

This meant the girls finished in a very respectable 4th place, the highest finishing British team.

Conor Edwards Singles Cadets

Group 6

Helshan Weerasinghe - England (WR119) - Lost 0-3

Roberto Fernandez – Portugal (UNR) - Won 3-1

Mario Garcia – Spain (UNR) - Won 3-2

Last 32

Anothony Deceuninck – Belgium (190)- Won 3-0

Conor played extremely well and outplayed his opponent in every aspect of the match.

Last 16

Joe Seyfried – France (96) - lost 3-1

This was a repeat of the match in the team event but went the way of the French player, Conor played well but missed some key opportunities and the french player found another gear to win the match.

Megan Phillips Singles Junior

Group 3

Vs Elina Hadziahmetovic – Bosnia (WR127)- Lost 0-3

Vs Lucia Ferreira – Portugal (UNR)- Won 3-2

Last 32

Vs Chantel Mantz – Germany (149)- Lost 1-3

Both players played extremely well and came away with some great results and showed why they should be selected for future tournaments to represent Wales.

Well done Megan and Conor