Colette Sultana continued her progress in Europe with a well deserved 5th place at the 2011 Austrian Junior Open in Vienna.

Sultana managed to win three of her four matches, losing only to the Hungarian Csenge Kiss-Mate 7-11, 13-15, 13-15 in 3 very close games.

The Maltese Junior champion faced stiff opposition from the emerging players from Eastern Europe with tough matches against Sabina Mozina, Slovenia, Barbora Krejcova, Czech Republic and Gabriella Csokasi, Hungary. Sultana remained focused throughout and was able to secure 3 excellent victories and gain valuable points that should see her moving into the top 20 in the under-17 European rankings.

Kimberly Cauchi, playing in her first tournament outside Malta, put in a very good performance in all of her games.

Cauchi lost two very close matches against Veronika Bendova and Karin Velicka, both Slovakia. Against the number 1 seed Kristyna Fialova, Czech Republic, Cauchi was able to see how much work is required to be able to compete at this level. Cauchi fought well but was unable to trouble her opponent losing 3-0.

In her final match Cauchi played extremely well to defeat Julia Potoczka, Slovakia 3-0 to finish seventh overall.

Playing against older and more experienced players Cauchi showed that she has true potential and given the correct support is one to watch in the future.

Marsa coach Paul Lake accompanied the two youngsters in Vienna and was pleased with the overall performance.

Lake commented “given the lack of opportunity that Kim has had to take part in junior events she performed extremely well. Colette put in a solid performance but is now in a much tougher age group and needs to put in more work off-court to be able to physically compete in the under-17 age category.”