General News
Scianimanico doubles up amid English success
Feb192024
Melvil Scianimanico defended his boys' Under-19 French Junior Open title but it was English youngsters who tasted most success in Wambrechies last weekend.
Scianimanico, who was top seed at the ESF Gold event and semi-finalist at last month's British Junior Open, was a straight-games winner against England's Alexander Broadbridge in the final in just 25 minutes. He became the third Frenchman in 13 years to win two boys' Under-19 French Junior Open trophies.
The girls' U19 title went to Wales' Ellie Breach who won in four very tight games against England's unseeded Megan Light, who had surprisingly beaten top seed Renske Huntelaar in five games in the group stage on Saturday.
Amir Khaled-Jousselin was France's other gold medallist, following up his boys' U15 victory last year by sweeping to victory in the U17 with five straight-sets wins, including a breezy 3/0 against Czech Republic's David Linhart in the final.
The girls' U17 final was a much lengthier affair with two Englishwomen, Charlie McCrone of Lancashire and Reka Kemecsei of Sussex, doing battle - McCrone ultimately taking it 11-6, 10-12, 11-6, 9-11, 11-9. Millie Breach of Wales won the bronze.
Harriet Broadbridge in the girls' U15 and Jacob Askey in the boys' U11 were the other two English gold medal winners, while there was a first ever French Junior Open gold medallist from Kuwait as Abdullah Ali overcame England's George Griffiths in the boys' U15 final.
Egypt took both honours in the U13 as Yassin Fouda beat Qatar's Omar Farag in straight games to take the boys' crown and Lana Fathallah won all four of her matches in straight games, including the final with Elia Grossi of France. Khadija Mohamed Elmarakby made it three Egyptian golds in the younger age categories by beating Heidi Hales of Wales 11-4, 11-5, 11-3 in the U11.
Overall, England took three golds, five silvers and two bronzes, Egypt three golds and France two golds, two silvers and six bronzes. Wales ended with one medal of each colour.