Titles go to Indonesia and Romania at the Bahrain Junior Open

Indonesia’s Ficky Supit Santoso and Romania’s Elizabeta Samara won the Boys’ and Girls’ Singles titles respectively at the Bahrain Junior Open on Sunday 4th February 2007.

In the Boys’ Singles final Ficky Supit Santoso beat colleague Achmad Marufin in a tense seven games thriller whilst in the counterpart girls’ competition top seed, Canada’s Zhang Mo, in four straight games.
Elizabeta Samara and Irina Hoza, Girls' Doubles champions at the 1st Bahrain Junior Open

Ficky Supit Santoso won 8-11, 11-8, 11-9, 6-11, 4-11, 11-7, 11-9 whilst Zhang Mo prevailed 11-7, 11-8, 11-6, 11-9.

Semi-Finals
At the semi-final stage of the Boys’ Singles event Achmad Marufin accounted for Iran’s Noshad Alamiyan 11-2, 11-4, 11-7, 7-11, 13-11, whilst Fickyy Supit Santoso overcame the third Indonesian player to reach the semi-finals, Gilang Maulano.

The champion elect won 4-11, 11-3, 14-16, 11-8, 11-9, 12-10.

Girls’ Singles
Meanwhile at the penultimate stage of the Girls’ Singles event Elizabeta Samara overcame Sim Kai Xin 11-5, 11-6, 11-9, 11-9 whilst Zhang Mo defeated Romania’s Irina Hoza 11-8, 11-13, 11-8, 11-4, 11-5.

Doubles Success
Success in the singles events for Ficky Supit Santoso and Elizabeta Samara and there was also success in the doubles events for both players.

Ficky Supit Santoso and Gilang Maulana combined to win the Boys’ Doubles whilst Elizabeta Samara and Irina Hoza were crowned Girls’ Doubles champions.

Impressive
The Indonesians beat Ahmed Al-Mohannadi and Ahmed Ahmed Mothana of Qatar in the semis 11-8, 13-15, 11-9, 13-11 before accounting for Singapore’s Goh Yi Long and Pang Xue Jie in the final in impressive style.

They won 11-5, 11-4, 11-7. Goh Yi Long and Pang Xue Jie defeated Iran’s Noshad Alamiyan and Karn Asadi Pooya at the penultimate stage.

Equally Impressive
An impressive performance by the two Indonesians and the Romanians were equally impressive in the Girls’ Doubles.

Irina Hoza and Elizabeta Samara overcame Singapore’s Isabelle Li and Canada’s Zhang Mo in the semis 11-5, 11-8, 11-9 before defeating Singapore’s Heng Wei Chen and Sim Kai Xin in the final 12-10, 11-5, 11-9.

Cadets
At the semi-final stage Heng Wei Chen and Sim Kai Xin had accounted for Finland’s Hanna Nyberg and Mill-Marie Vastavuo 11-7, 11-5, 11-4.

Meanwhile Pang Xue Jie from Singapore won the cadet singles title beating Bahrain’s Mohd Bilak in the final whilst Isabelle Li captured the Cadet Girls’ Singles crown overcoming Maryam Alqasimi in the final.beaten HENG-SIM also in straight games.

The finals on Sunday 4th February 2007 brought the 1st Bahrain Junior Open to a close and a successful close.

Highly Satisfactory
“It’s not very easy to find a tournament where all coaches and delegates were completely satisfied with the organization”, said Raul Calin, the ITTF Competition Manager. “This happened in Bahrain.”

The finals created a great deal of interest, the Minister of Sport attended as did television and the full range of the media.

A very successful first ever Bahrain Junior Open.