Sixty junior players hailing from 20 European countries took part in the VLTC Kettle Chips European Junior Tournament organised by the Vittoriosa Lawn Tennis Club in collaboration with the Malta Tennis Federation.

This tournament was a Category 3 tournament under the Tennis Europe Under 14 Tour.

The competition produced high quality and entertaining tennis as a strong contingent of players from Russia left their mark, conquering most of the titles at stake.

The event also offered valuable experience for the local junior players who competed against some highly skilled and aspiring players from other European countries.

Katrina Sammut reached the quaterfinals in the singles event, beating Tatsiana Burdyka of Russia in an enthralling match before succumbing to the top seed Ekaterina Korzhova.

The boys singles final was between Vasileios Iliopoulos of Greece and Finn Bass of Great Britain. This final was a beautiful show of the future of the men’s game combining the power of strokes with the finesse of the volley. Both boys played exceptionally well, however the Greek emerged the winner with a 6-4, 6-3 score.

At the girls singles final, played on the Atlas Insurance Court, Kristina Kamskaya of Russia engaged her compatriot Ekaterina Korzhova in a thrilling encounter characterised by steady ground strokes from either player. Showing more consistency, Kristina went on to win 6-4, 6-4.

The boys’ doubles title went to the duo Salvador Bandeira (Portugal)/Alvaro Regalado (Spain) who had the better of the Russian tandem Timiur Igamberdyev/Nikita Potapov 6-1, 6-3.

The girls doubles event was a total Russian encounter which saw Kristina Kamskaya and Ekaterina Korzhova defeat their compatriots Varvara Kuksina and Maria Smoylar 6-3, 6-0.

The Maltese duo Katrina Sammut and Rebecca McCarthy reached the semi finals where they lost to top seeds and eventual winners Kristina Kamskaya and Ekaterina Korzhova 6-2, 6-2.

Twanny Camilleri, the Secretary of the VLTC, presented trophies to the winners and runners-up in the presence of Francis Sciberras, the VLTC Director of the European tournaments.

The organisers thanked Mr Carlos Cluett, representative in Malta of Kettle Chips, the tournament’s official sponsors, for their support, and Farsons, for providing San Michel table water during the week-long event.