Notable Names Lead Host Nation’s Challenge for Honors
2015 ITTF-World Cadet Challenge
Courtesy of ITTF
The venue is Sharm El-Shiekh, the country is Egypt and at the forthcoming 2015 ITTF-World Cadet Challenge, which starts on Friday October 23rd, the host nation is most certainly well represented; eyes being very much on Youssef Abdel-Aziz as well as on the twin sisters Marwa and Marian Alhobady.
Pertinently, Youssef Abdel-Aziz was on duty one year ago when the tournament was staged in Bridgetown, Barbados; he finished the Boys’ Singles event in a highly creditable 14th place.
Now the task for the 15 year old is to build on the performance of one year ago; most certainly he has proved himself more than capable.
Outstanding in Mauritius
Alongside, Romania’s Cristian Pletea, he is the one player on duty who has a Boys’ Singles title to his name on the ITTF Junior Circuit.
In Beau Bassin at the Mauritius Junior and Cadet Open in April, he excelled expectations to win both the Junior Boys’ Singles and Cadet Boys’ Singles titles.
Impressively, in the former he accounted for Egypt’s highest ranked player in the age group, Aly Ghallab, having earlier in the Cadet Boys’ Singles final beaten Sweden’s William Apelqvist, the only player in the whole tournament to cause Youssef Abdel-Aziz pain.
Earlier in the proceedings William Apelqvist had beaten Youssef Abdel-Aziz in the final of the Cadet Boys’ Team event; a contest in which Sweden had recorded a three matches to one success. The only success for the vanquished was recorded by Youssef Abdel-Aziz. In the opening contest of the fixture, he accounted for Oskar Danielsson.
ITTF-African Junior and Cadet Championships
Likewise, in the ensuing ITTF-African Junior and Cadet Championships, there was to be notable success for Youssef Abdel-Aziz.
He won the Cadet Boys’ Singles event while partnering Marwan Abdelwahab, who appears in the Egyptian Boys’ Team in Sharm El-Sheikh, to both Cadet Boys’ Team and Cadet Boys’ Doubles gold.
In the southern Egyptian city, Youssef Abdel-Aziz leads the African Team outfit being supported by Tunisia’s Nathael Hamdoun, the player he beat in the Cadet Boys’ Singles final at the ITTF-African Junior Championships, Algeria’s Abdelbassey Chaichi and Marvin Liu Chung Ming of Mauritius.
Impact
Unquestionably in Beau Bassin, Youssef Abdel-Aziz made an impact; so did Marwa and Marian Alhobady.
Together they won the Cadet Girls’ Team title, before Marwa Alhodaby reached the final of the Cadet Girls’ Singles event, where Japan’s redoubtable Miu Hirano halted aspirations.
However, in the ITTF-African Junior and Cadet Championships, it was a somewhat different story.
They combined to win the Cadet Girls’ Team title with Marwa beating Mariam in the final of the Cadet Girls’ Singles event.
Egyptian Teams
In Sharm El-Sheikh, they join forces with Rinad Fathy and Eman Taha in the Egyptian Cadet Girls’ Team; in the counterpart Egyptian Boys’ Team, Marwan Abdelwahab joins forces with Gawad Elberazy, Ahmed Elborhamy and Ammar Attia.
Entries & Tentative Schedule
