European Youth Championships | 20 Jul 2024

Siri BENJEGARD Performs Superbly to Book a Spot on the Medal Rostrum

In the semifinal of the Under 15 Girls Singles event tomorrow at the European Youth Championships in Malmö, top-seeded Hanka KODETOVA of Czechia will face Koharu ITAGAKI of Germany, while host nation Sweden will be represented by Siri BENJEGARD, who will play against Mariia LYTVYN of Austria.

Siri BENJEGARD, ranked only 42nd in the seedings, performed superbly to reach the penultimate stage. In her match against 4th seed Lisa-Sophie WANG of Germany, Siri maintained her patience to overcome the defending skills of the favorite (-11, -7, 9, -6, 12, 10, 3). In the fifth and sixth games, she faced eight match balls and saved them all. After securing the sixth game, Siri made ten points in a row and stormed through the seventh game.

"I never gave up, and I saw that my adversary was getting nervous when I took some match points from her. It had been a while since I played a real defensive player, and I think I did very well. I have a lot of self-confidence now, and I'm really looking forward to the semifinal," said Siri BENJEGARD.

Seeded 47th, Alexia NODIN of France reached the quarters and was even 3-1 ahead, but LYTVYN found her way through and beat the rock-solid defense of the French player (-4, 10, -11, -10, 6, 8, 11).

"I am really, really happy right now. Before, I never thought that I would win this game. I have never won against NODIN before, so now I am happier than ever," said Mariia LYTVYN.

In the quarterfinal, 3rd seed ITAGAKI easily prevailed against Eva LAM of France (8, 4, 4, 3).

"I knew I had to play well to win, and so I did. I didn't make any easy mistakes, and my tactic was to have a big variation in my serves. I'm very happy to reach the semifinal, which was my goal before the Championship," said ITAGAKI.

KODETOVA performed another remarkable recovery against Julia LEAL of Portugal. After being 0-2 down, she won the next four games with ease (-4, -8, 7, 5, 4, 4).

"I was down 0-2, so I am really happy that I won. Leal played really well, and we always have close matches against each other. In the next match, I will face Itagaki, and it is the same thing there," said KODETOVA.

Previously, Under 13 European champions had a blast in the Round of 16. Reigning Under 13 champion from Bucharest, Siri BENJEGARD overcame 7th seed Nina SKERBINZ of Austria (-4, 7, 9, 5, 4). Last year's Under 13 European Champion from Zagreb, Alexia NODIN of France, prevailed against 10th seed Sophie BARCSAI of Hungary after seven long games. The French player, with her defensive style, succeeded after being down three games to none (-10, -4, -7, 6, 10, 9, 6).

Also in the Round of 16, 2nd seed Katarzyna RAJKOWSKA of Poland faced an early exit. Mariia LYTVYN prevailed in a long-distance match 4-3 (-7, 6, -6, 9, -8, 6, 4).