French Tested as Belgians Suffer at Russian Hands in Vern sur Seiche

Diogo Pinho causing the host nation problems. Photo By: Courtesy of FFTT 5/15/2009 French Youth Open - ITTF Junior Circuit Represented by Thomas Le Breton, Victorien Le Guen and Romain Lorentz; France I completed their group stage matches in top place in the Boys’ Team event at the French Youth Open in Vern sur Seiche on Friday 15th May 2009. Similarly it was a successful day for their colleagues Quentin Robinot, Benjamin Brossier and Stéphane Quaiche, representing France II. However, there were testing times for the top two seeded French teams and for the third seeds, Belgium, life was even tougher. The trio of Lauric Jean, Julien Indeherberg and Emilien Van Rossomme suffered defeat at the hands of Russia’s Taras Merzlikin, Sergey Martyukov and Maxim Belikov. Hampered Hampered by the absence of Lauric Jean, the Belgians suffered a three-one defeat, with their sole victory coming from Julien Indeherberg in the second match of the proceedings over Sergey Martyukov. The Russians completed the group in first place with Belgium second, both teams overcoming the Luxembourg trio of Timo Wagner, Jan Thews and Stéphane Lenert. Close Call Defeat for the third seeds and it was a close call for the top seeds. No problems against the New Zealander trio of Kevin Wu, Martin Murdoch and Thom Nguyen but again Denmark’s Jonathan Groth, Tobias Lau and Jonathan Stoner it was a much different scenario. Romain Lorentz, the winner of the Boys’ Singles title one day earlier, was beaten by both Groth and Lau; the exertions of the gold medal run seemingly having taken its toll. However, to the rescue came Thomas Le Breton. He accounted for Groth and Lau whilst in the vital third match of the duel Victorien Le Guen defeated Jonathan Stoner. Portuguese Ask Questions A tough call for the leading Frenchmen and it was not all plain sailing for the second team. They suffered an early reverse in their contest against Portugal with Benjamin Brossier losing to Diogo Pinho but wins for Quentin Robinot over Pinho and Diogo Carvalho plus success for Stéphane Quache in opposition to Luis André Freitas secured a French win. France II finished the group in first place with Portugal second. Top Three in First Place Meanwhile, in the Cadet Boys’ Team event, the top three seeded teams all finished their group matches in first place. Top seeds Korea (Kim Dong Hyun, Kim Min Joo) finished ahead of Russia II (Maxim Shatalkin, Egor Timin) in their group; whilst second seeds France (Antoine Hachard, Tristan Flore) and third seeds Russia I (Philipp Kuimov, Nikita Kirillov) ended the day at the top of the list. There were few problems for the Koreans but that was not the situation for the French or the Russians. Full Distance Fixtures Antoine Hachard and Tristan Flore lost to Chiu Chung Hei in the contest against Hong Kong whilst Philipp Kuimov and Nikita Kirillov experienced a similar fate when facing France II. Both suffered defeat at the hands of Mehdi Bouloussa. Three matches to two score lines were the end result with Hachard and Flore both overcoming Daryl Hung and teaming to win the doubles; whilst Kuimov and Kirillov both accounted for Alexandre Robinot and combined to win the doubles. Success for the third seeds but it was close; the two wins against Robinot both went the full five games distance. Format Note: In the Junior Team events it is five singles matches; in the Cadet Team events it is four singles and one doubles.