Josh Bennett in action in Metz (ITTF photo)

Leete and Bennett show French polish

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Publish date: February 16, 2017

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Matt Leete and Josh Bennett reached the last 16 of the Junior Boys’ Doubles at the French Open – and both also reached the main draw of the singles.

The English pair won through two rounds of the doubles before being defeated in four sets by a Polish pair in Metz.

In the singles, Leete was in great form in the group stage, winning all three matches including a marathon against Japan’s Jo Yokotani in which he twice recovered from losing tight sets to triumph 3-2 (12-14, 11-6, 15-17, 11-9, 11-6).

Bennett won two of his three matches to finish second in his group behind French joint 18th seed Vincent Picard to join Leete in the knockout stages. However, both were beaten 4-1 in the last 64 by higher-ranked opponents.

James Hobson won one of his three group matches and aquitted himself well in the others, including against joint 18th seed Kakeru Sone of Japan, to go through to the consolation event, where he reached the last 16.

In the doubles, Hobson and partner Jakub Krzywniak of Poland were beaten in the first round.

The team competition starts on Friday, with England in a group alongside USA, Japan A and Singapore-Lithuania.