Top seeds Connor Green and Tianer Yu duly took the gold medals at the Junior National Cup held at BATTS TTC in Harlow.

The event sees the top 10 players in the rankings play on a round-robin basis over the weekend to decide the medallists.

The champions are pictured above with Table Tennis England President Jill Parker MBE and Director Don Parker.

Girls

Top seed Tianer Yu had an almost perfect record as she won the girls’ event, conceding only two games on the way. Sixth seed Ella Pashley was second with seven wins out of nine, with second seed Sienna Jetha one victory behind to take the bronze.

Yu, who narrowly lost in a deciding set to Tin-Tin Ho in the Women’s Singles semi-finals at the Mark Bates Ltd National Championships last month, started with an 11-3, 11-5, 11-7 victory over 10th seed Rebecca Savage but dropped a game to ninth-ranked Mia Lakhani in the second round, winning it 3-1 (11-5, 9-11, 11-7, 11-4).

She was flawless for the rest of the first day, defeating eighth seed Saskia Key, seventh seed Mabel Shute and then Pashley, and then dropped her second and final game of the competition to fifth-ranked Anna Green in Round 6 on Sunday morning, going on to beat No 4 Maliha Baig and Jonabel Taguibao – who replaced No 3 Scarlett Anders – and then Jetha to complete nine victories.

There were plenty of other close matches across the weekend, including a terrific comeback in Round 2 as Shute turned a 2-0 deficit into a 3-2 (8-11, 7-11, 11-5, 11-4, 11-4) success against Taguibao, who had won her first match but did not taste victory again.

Baig got herself off the mark in Round 3 as she also came from 2-0 down to edge out Green 3-2 (8-11, 7-11, 11-8, 11-7, 12-10).

There was a similar tale as Key defeated Lakhani 3-2 (12-14, 7-11, 11-6, 11-8, 12-10) in Round 4, for her first victory, while Baig won another in the fifth at the same stage, overcoming Savage 11-8, 9-11, 11-13, 11-8, 11-9. Pashley defeated Jetha 3-0 (11, 4, 10) in what turned out to be the meeting between silver and bronze medallists.

Baig continued her five-set momentum into Round 5, this time staving off a fightback as she beat Taguibao 3-2 (11-8, 11-4, 7-11, 8-11, 11-7). Key notched back-to-back 3-2 victories in one of the weekend’s closest matches, defeating Savage 8-11, 11-9, 6-11, 14-12, 13-11. And Jetha had to fight past Green 3-2 (13-11, 9-11, 11-5, 10-12, 11-6).

Into the second day and Yu continued on her merry way at the top, while Pashley was at her best with four wins out of four ensuring she finished with silver.

Shute beat Key in the only five-setter of Round 6 and there was also only one in Round 7 as Savage this time came out on the right side of another of the weekend’s tightest ties, defeating Shute 9-11, 11-9, 11-7, 10-12, 14-12.

Savage followed that up in Round 8 by defeating Jetha 13-11 in the fifth, making the destination of the minor medals clearer with Jetha having to face Yu in the last round, a match she lost 5, 9, 6.

That was the only match which did not finish 3-2 in Round 9, Pashley bagging silver with a 3-2 (11-9, 11-6, 11-13, 9-11, 11-6) win over Savage.

In the other 3-2s, Shute defeated Green, Lakhani beat Taguibao to notch her second win and Key overcame Baig.

Finishing order: 1 Tianer Yu, 2 Ella Pashley, 3 Sienna Jetha, 4 Rebecca Savage, 5 Mabel Shute, 6 Maliha Baig, 7 Anna Green, 8 Saskia Key, 9 Mia Lakhani, 10 Jonabel Taguibao.

Boys

Top seed Connor Green edged out Joseph Hunter to take gold after both finished with six wins and two defeats, while there was also a tie for bronze, with Felix Thomis getting the verdict ahead of Ralph Pattison.

The players each had eight matches due to the withdrawal of third seed Larry Trumpauskas through injury after two matches – his defeats to Jakub Piwowar and Isaac Kingham were expunged from the final record.

Green started with a couple of fairly routine three-game wins over 10th and ninth-ranked players, James Hamblett and Rohan Dani, but he was stunned by Piwowar’s superb comeback in Round 3, the eighth seed from Devon triumphing 3-2 (6-11, 8-11, 12-10, 11-7, 11-9).

It was Green’s only defeat of the first day as he recovered to see off seventh seed Isaac Kingham and sixth-ranked Thomis, though he did drop the second game to Thomis.

It meant Green was top of the standings after five matches, and every player had already won at least one match by the end of the fourth round.

Among the highlights was the 12-10 in-the-fifth victory by fourth seed Naphong Boonyaprapa over Kingham, who had led 2-1, and second seed Pattison’s 3-2 (9-11, 11-4, 12-10, 11-13, 11-6) win over Dani, both in the first round.

As well as Piwowar’s defeat of Green, two other matches went the distance in Round 3, Kingham defeating Pattison 11-4, 9-11, 11-9, 9-11, 11-2 and Bonyaprapa inflicting a first defeat of the competition on fifth seed Hunter – the score in that one 7-11, 11-9, 10-12, 11-4, 11-8.

Boonyaprapa was on the wrong end of a 3-2 defeat in Round 4, as Hamblett won 8-11, 18-16, 11-9, 7-11, 11-7. In Round 5, Kingham beat Dani 3-2 (11-8, 10-12, 11-9, 13-15, 11-8) and Piwowar saw off Hamblett 3-2 from 2-1 down.

Day two started with Green beating Hunter in four – a key result when the final standings were calculated. In the same round, two matches were decided 12-10 in the fifth as Dani defeated Thomis and Kingham overcame Piwowar in one of the closest matches all weekend. The final scoreline was 11-9, 13-15, 8-11, 13-11, 12-10.

Hunter had a 12-10 in-the-fifth win of his own in Round 7, against Dani, while Thomis and Piwowar went the distance before Thomis sealed an 11-9 victory.

Pattison kept his medal hopes alive with a 3-2 (11-9, 11-9, 12-14, 7-11, 11-6) victory over Hamblett in Round 8 and as the players went into the final round, Green was on six victories, Hunter on five and Pattison and Thomis on four.

Hunter sealed a medal with a win over Kingham in three straight, while Pattison had a great win over Green by a margin of 3-1 (12-10, 2-11, 13-11, 11-9).

When Thomis trailed 2-0 to Hamblett, it looked as if the medals were all sorted, but the Reading man came back to win 3-2 (4-11, 10-12, 11-3, 11-9, 11-7) and leapfrog Pattison into the bronze position, having beaten Pattison on day one.

There was another terrific match between Boonyaprapa and Piwowar, edged 12-10 in the fifth by the former.

Finishing order: 1 Connor Green, 2 Joseph Hunter, 3 Felix Thomis, 4 Ralph Pattison, 5 Isaac Kingham, 6 Rohan Dani, 7 Naphong Boonyaprapa, 8 Jakub Piwowar, 9 James Hamblett, 10 Larry Trumpauskas.