Colette Sultana twice managed to come from behind to win two tough matches in the Swiss Junior Open that was held last weekend at the Tennis and Squash Centre Sihltal in Langnau am Albis, Zurich.
The tournament was strongly contested by nearly 200 participants hailing from more than 25 countries.
In her first match Sultana was drawn against Oceane Wadoux. The French girl dominated the first two games 11-8 and 11-2 and seemed to be well in control and cruising to victory.
The Maltese junior champion, however, reacted well under pressure. Playing with greater accuracy and by varying her shots well, she regained control of the centre of the court and with Wadoux now doing most of the running around the court, Sultana managed to take the third game 11-5 and get back into the match.
The fourth game proved to be the closest and most crucial. Wadoux had a match ball on 10-9 which Sultana managed to neutralise. On at least two occasions towards the end of this fourth game, the French girl played what appeared to be winning shots.
Colette showed how much the coaching and hard work over the past few months have improved her game. Extending her limits to recover difficult balls she managed to turn this game round to 12-10 in her favour. Sultana proceeded to win the fifth deciding game with relative ease – 11-6 – to claim a place in the quarter-finals.
The draw against Fiona Murphy for the next match and for a possible place in the semi-final could not have been worse for Sultana who lost 3-0 to the Welsh girl, the eventual winner of the tournament.
Sultana faced another strong opponent in the third match. Sacha Cocks, also from Wales, had overpowered the second seeded player of the tournament in a previous match.
Cocks went ahead 11-5 with Sultana striking back 11-1 in the second game. The Welsh girl was back in the lead taking the third game 11-7 but Colette once again levelled the match with the fourth game 11-6.
Cocks was leading the final game but Sultana took over and maintained the lead from mid-way through the game to win 11-8 and secure the match.
In the final match of the tournament Colette lost out to Marie Stephan of France 11-3, 11-5, 11-9 to finish in sixth place overall from 22 participants contesting the Under 15 category.
This is a great improvement for Sultana on the 15th place obtained in the Nordic Junior Open last September – her previous European ranking tournament – where the competition was of similarly high standard.
In fact with this good placing in the Swiss Junior Open, Colette will receive the highest number of European ranking points she has ever achieved in this category. This will see her move up from 21st place in the current rankings to a top 20 position in Europe.
Colette Sultana is a member of the MOC Centre of Excellence and is receiving support through the MOC Youth Athlete Scheme, Malta Squash and the Marsa Sports Club. Colette is sponsored by Wilson and coached by Paul Lake.