On the opening day of the table tennis youth tournament, WTT Youth Contender saw boys’ categories U17 and U13. No Czech player made it past the Round of 16 in the older category. However, in the U13 competition, there still are Tadeáš Vršovský, Ondřej Morávek, Jan Škalda and Jakub Kabelka.
Elite players arrived at the National Training Centre, including brilliant Asians. And it’s no surprise to see many of them in the fight for a medal. Although in the second round of the U17 competition, fans saw a surprise when Chinese Wang Tingyu lost 1:3 to David Szantosi from Hungary. But his two teammates Chen Yanyu and Huang Youzheng, together with two Japanese youngsters Kazuki Yoshiyama and Sora Matsushima, are among the top eight.
Czech talents mostly managed to get out of the group, but only Štěpán Brhel progressed through the first round after defeating Paul Ignacio Cedeno from Ecuador. After that, Mateusz Sakowicz from Poland proved to be too much as Brhel lost 1:3.
Many fewer participants featured in the U13 category, so two Czech players, Tadeáš Vršovský and Ondřej Morávek, sealed the quarterfinals after a fabulous display in the group stages. Jan Škalda and Jakub Kabelka followed them shortly since they defeated Max Radiven from England and Ivo Quett from Germany respectively.
The tournament will continue on the second day with the group stage phase of the U19, U15 and U11 categories. The big finals of the U17 and U13 competitions were scheduled for the evening.
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