Flavien Coton won the U19 mixed doubles event of the WTT Youth Star Contender in Tunis pairing with his compatriat Charlotte Lutz.

And for the first time, a pure compass mixed doubles team has won a WTT Youth Star Contender event. Josi Neumann and Steven Moreno defeated Choi Seoyeon/Lee Seungsoo from South Korea 3:1 in the final of the U15 Mixed at the WTT Star Contender Tunis, which was held from 31 January to 4 February. Both Josi and Steven won the girls’ and boys’ U15 doubles respectively.

French compass talent Flavien Coton showed his skills in the doubles: at just 15 years old, he won the U19 mixed doubles together with his compatriot Charlotte Lutz. The French team defeated Choi Nahyun/Kim Gaon South Korea in the quarter-finals and Nicole Arlia/Andrei Istrate (Italy/Romania) 3:1 in the semi-finals. In the final, Coton/Lutz faced Cheng Pusyuan/Chang Yu-An from Chinese Taipei and also won 3:1 – 11:5, 9:11, 12:10, 11:8.

Josi Neumann from Germany and Steven Moreno from Puerto Rico had never played together before Tunis. But they are both good at winning. In the U15 event, they defeated the hosts Ela Saidi/Youssef Aidli without dropping a set. In the final, the strong Koreans Choi Seoyeon/Lee Seungsoo won the second game, but then Josi and Steven managed to take gold with two even games – 11:9, 14:12.

compass newcomer Danilo Faso also made it onto the podium – with Germany’s Koharu Itagaki. The Italian-German team lost 3:1 to Choi/Lee in the semi-finals.

Both Josi and Steven showed their skills as doubles partners by also winning the U15 girls’ doubles and the boys’ doubles respectively. Josi played together with Koharu Itagaki and they won all their matches without losing a single set. In the final, they prevailed against Elee Abassi/Ela Saidi – 11:7, 11:4, 11:7.

Steven partnered his compatriot Enrique Rios and they had a more difficult path to gold. A 3:1 win against Francesco Trevisan and Danilo Faso from Italy in the quarter-finals was followed by a 3:2 win against Ma Yeongmin/Lee Seungsoo from the Republic of Korea. In the final, the team from Puerto Rico defeated Axel Bossis and Sandro Cavaille from France 3:1 – 11:9, 11:6, 9:11, 11:7.

Josi and Steven were also quite successful in the U15 singles. Josi made it to the final after defeating the reigning U13 European champion Alexia Nodin from France and Katarzyna Rajkowska from Poland, among others. In the final, Nina Guozheng, also from France, was too strong: 10-12, 8-11, 3-11.

Steven Moreno also followed Josi here. He defeated another compass player, Görkem Öcal from Turkey (3:1) in the quarter-finals and Aleks Pakula from Poland (3:0) in the semifinal. Lee was too strong in the final – 3:11, 9:11, 10:12.

Danilo Faso also played a very good tournament. The reigning U13 European champion reached the semi-finals, where he lost 3:1 to the eventual winner Lee Seungsoo.

In the U19 singles, Flavien Coton lost to Romanian Iulian Chirita in the last 16. Steven Moreno also took part in the U19 event, but finished last in his group and failed to reach the knockout phase. Josephina Neumann finished third in her group in the U19 singles and also failed to qualify for the knockout phase.

In the singles competition, Görkem made it through to the round of 16 in the U17 age group. In the U15 age group, he beat Noah Genart from Belgium and Parham Golestani from Iran before losing 3:2 to his compatriot Berk Oztorak in the semi-finals. Görkem led 2:1, but lost the last two sets 5:11 and 8:11.

compass player Alexander Malov also took part in Antalya. He did not make it past the group stage in the U15 event and lost to Faraz Shakiba in the first round of the knockout phase in the U13 event without winning a set.

WTT Youth Star Contender Tunis 2024

Article of the German Table Tennis Association