Alyssia Bataille is the French U11 champion. This is a strong achievement for the compass-supported French athlete, who was born in 2015. This means she has two more years in the event. Danilo Faso and Jeffrey Wei also performed well at the WTT Youth Contenders in Prishtina, Kosovo. The same goes for Siri Benjegård and Joel Isaksson at the national youth championships in Sweden.

Alyssia Bataille was seeded fourth in the Benjamin event, the French Championships for players born in 2013 or later, which took place in Lille. She defeated the number one, Dirmen Nunez, in the semi-final and Alessandra Muller 3:1 (11:9, 11:9, 5:11, 11:5) in the final.

“A strong performance by Alyssia,” commented her coach, Nicolas Baudoux. “She plays a mature game for her age. Instead of going for the safer chop like most of her opponents, she tries to attack offensively on all long balls. She is also mentally strong and focused.”

Alyssia won the first two games 11:9, 11:9. She lost the third 5:11 and was disappointed and dejected when she spoke to her coach during the interval.

“During the break before the fourth game, I started talking to her about music and the songs she likes. Just to break her negative associations.”

It was a smart move by the French coach. Alyssia came out relaxed for the fourth game and won it 11:5. Afterwards, she fell to her knees and covered her eyes in a deeply moving gesture.

Danilo Faso performed well in Prishtina. Born in 2010, he made it all the way to the U19 finals, competing against players four years his senior. He defeated Leon Benko of Croatia, a U19 medallist at last summer’s European Youth Championships, 3:1. Even more sensationally, Danilo then succeeded against the top-seeded Japanese player, Kazuki Yoshiyama, winning 3:2 with a decisive fifth-game victory of 11:5. In the semi-final, he faced Samuel Arpas of the Czech Republic, achieving another impressive win in straight games. However, in the final, the Italian boy lost in straight games to Kwon Hyuk from the Republic of Korea.

“Danilo was 6:2 up in the first game. If he had won that, maybe the rest of the match would have been different,” commented his father and coach, Marco Faso.

In the U17 semi-finals, Danilo got off to a good start, but ultimately lost 8:11 in the decider to Kawakami, his teammate in Italy.

“Danilo was leading 5:2 in the decider, but lost in a very even game,” Marco continued.

‘We are happy with how this tournament went, and now we are focusing on preparing for our school exams. It’s a busy time.”

Jeffrey Wei, who was born in 2012, achieved his best international performance to date by reaching the finals in the U15 event, where he was pitted against opponents who were two years older than him. He defeated Krasen Savov from Bulgaria 3:1 in the quarter-finals and Emil Hasselbach from Denmark 3:1 in the semi-finals. In the final, he faced another Dane, Malik Severinsen, who won in three tight games: 11:9, 11:8 and 17:15.

In the U13 event, Jeffrey reached the quarter-finals, losing to Dimitar Dimitrov of Bulgaria 3:1.

“After not playing well in the U13 event, Jeffrey managed to return to his usual standard in the U15 event, proving that he can already compete with older players despite his young age”, commented his personal coach and Compass Expert Coach, Oliver Alke. “All in all, it was a good tournament for Jeffrey, which will give him important experience for the future.”

At the national youth championship in Sweden, Siri Benjegård won both the U14 and U16 singles events. In the semi-finals, she beat Laurynne Cabardo, a compass alumna, and in the finals, she beat Angelina Bebawy.

“I played well at the end of each event. I was relaxed and played my best,” said Siri after her decisive victories.

She also won the gold medal in the U14 mixed doubles with Emil Ellermann. This means that Siri has now won ten titles at the Swedish Youth Championships, plus two in the U20 category. She also has four wins in the Pingisiaden, an unofficial U12 Swedish championship. That makes 16 gold championship medals in total, one more than her age!