(by: Sanuka Herath)
Earlier in the year we planned to compete at back-to-back WTT Youth Contender competitions at Lignano, Italy and Szombathely, Hungary as I played the same two events last year as well. Last time I traveled with my father but this time I had to travel alone and my coach in Italy.
I landed in Venice, Italy a day before the competition after about 15 hours of flying from my home city Edmonton, Canada. I took a flight to Toronto first and had 4 hours of layover. Then flew to Venice directly from Toronto. In Venice I was greeted by WTT officials and took me to the hotel where I met my coach, Hasitha Samaraweera.
The next day I warmed up before my first match of Boys under 13 against the top seed player of the event and unfortunately, I lost it 3-0. My next match was about an hour later, so we had time to work on some of the things my coach noted in the first game. I won the next match qualifying to the knockouts. My first game in knockout was against a player from Italy and I won it 3-1. Next was the pre-quarterfinal against a high rated Yeongjun Ma from Korea. I was able to win that game quite convincingly 3-1 qualifying for the quarter finals. The quarterfinals were scheduled for the next day.
However, before the quarterfinals, I had to play my other event, Boys under 15. Again, I lost my first game in the event 3-0 to a player from Italy. My next game in U15 was against a player from Slovenia. I played the same player last year loosing 3-0, but this time after a hard-fought game I won 3-2 qualifying to knockouts. Next match for me was U13 quarterfinal against a player from France. I won it 3-0 advancing to the semifinals. My semifinal match was against a player from The Czech Republic, which I won 3-1 advancing to the finals. My opponent in the finals was Chen Kai from Chinese Taipe whom I met in the first game I played in group stages. I lost the final 3-0, making me the runner-up. The award ceremony was held on the same evening. U15 knockouts were held on next where I lost the pre-quarterfinal to my friend from World Hopes Danilo Faso from Italy.
The next day was very interesting day where I had my breakfast from Italy then had my lunch in Slovenia and dinner in Hungary. We took official transport from Lignano, Italy to Szombathley, Hungary to play the next WTT World Contender.
Competition began on the day following our arrival at Szombathley. I played players from Poland, Hungary, England and Spain in group stage and was able to beat them all to reach the knockouts. I had tough matches against against players from Hungary and Spain, but I was able to win both the games 3-2.
My first game in knockouts was against a player from Bulgaria. It was also a very challenging game, but I won 3-1 advancing into the quarterfinals. On the next day I had my U15 matches before the quarterfinal match. Unlike in Italy, in U15 I didn’t play to my potential and lost both matches in group stage and could not make into knockouts. Then came the quarterfinal match of U13. This time I met the same player from Korea Yeongjun Ma. This time I won 3-1 advancing to the semifinals. My opponent in semifinal was Amir Essid from Tunisia. Unfortunately, I lost that game 3-1. That ended my dream WTT Youth Contenders.
Since I did not have any games on the next day, me and my coach explored Szombathley for a bit and packed our bags to go back home. My coach travelled to Vienna airport where I took my flight to London and my coach took flight to go to Sri Lanka.
It was a dream trip for me as a 12-year-old to travel alone half of the globe and make it into the final of a WTT Youth Contender. Also, the 10 precious days that I spent with my coach Hasitha Samaraweera to whom I owe a lot to him for all the coaching and looking after me as his own kid.
Photo by: ITTF
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