In the Women's Singles event at the Salwa Cup Kuwait Open, players born in China were dominant on Friday 14th March; however, in the Under 21 Women’s Singles event, Europe roared back with vengeance on the morning of Saturday 15th March 2008.

The Romanians Daniela Dodean and Elizabeta Samara emulated their younger colleagues Cristiba Hirici and Bernadette Szocs, who one day earlier had booked their places in the semi-final stage of the Junior Girls' Singles event at the Doha Junior Open and, like Daniela Dodean and Elizabeta Samara, meet to determine who progresses to the final.

Pride of Place
Fine performances but in Kuwait pride of place must go to Russia's Yulia Prokhorova; she excelled in the Women's Singles event beating both Egypt's Bacent Osman and Daniela Dodean before losing to China's Li Xiaoxia; in the Under 21 Women's Singles competition, she excelled again.


At the quarter-final stage she was outstanding; in seven games she beat Singapore’s talented Yu Meng Yu, the number two seed.

Impressive
Yulia Prokhorova is one of two young Russian ladies who in Kuwait have impressed; the other is nineteen year old Elena Troshneva.

She lost by the very narrowest of margins to Daniela Dodean but underlined emphatically that she is moving in the right direction.

Technically Better
Both Yulia Prokhorova and especially Elena Troshneva are faster with their footwork than when previously seen on international duty. Furthermore, their strokes are shorter, quicker, more efficient; more Asian in style that traditional Russian.

However, the forte of Elena Troshneva is her backhand attack, a Russian without a strong backhand is quite unthinkable, the difference with Elena Troshneva is that the stroke is more compact than that extolled by many of her predecessors.

Torrid Time
Certainly, she gave Daniela Dodean a torrid time and showed splendid mental qualities; she lost the first three games, won the next three, then in the seventh saved two match points before succumbing to her slightly more experienced adversary by the narrowest of margins.

"I didn't have too many problems in the first three games against Elena", said Daniela Dodean. "This morning I felt tired when I woke up, not fresh and when Elena started to fight back then I became nervous."

Positive
Certainly, Elena Troshneva was the more positive player in the fourth, fifth and sixth games.
"Here I'm not in the right mood, maybe I need to change the rubbers on my racket", continued Daniela Dodean. "I don't know, I need to do something, I keep losing concentration."

Focus
A loss of concentration, that was also apparent in the contest between Elizabeta Samara and Korea's Park Young Suk. The Romanian won the first three games; then lost the next two before securing victory.

"I kept looking across to see how Daniela was doing", admitted Elizabeta Samara. "I just lost my focus in the fourth and fifth games."

Win for Turkey
Success for Romania and Russia and also for Turkey; in the one remaining quarter-final duel Hu Melek accounted for the defensive skills of Russia’s Maria Zelonova.

The young lady from Turkey maintained her patience to beat the stalwart defender.

Impressive Czech
Meanwhile, in the Under 21 Men’s Singles event the Czech Republic’s Lubomir Jancarik was very much the man to keep the European flag flying high at the quarter-final stage. He was in most impressive form to beat Singapore’s Ma Liang, the number three seed, in five games and now meets top seed, Korea’s Lee Jin Kwon in the semis.

In the quarter-finals Lee Jin Kwon accounted for Ukraine’s Kou Lei whilst at the same stage Austria’s Feng Xiaoquan defeated second seed, Russia’s Kirill Skackov and Singapore’s Liu Zhong Ze overcame Korea’s Han Ji Min.

Articol publicat de Ian Marshall pe pagina oficiala a Federatiei Internationale de Tenis de Masa, www.ittf.com.