Zac Greenhough and Ella Pashley won the headline junior singles events at the Cleveland Junior 4* All-Comers Championships, as the tournament drew more than 160 competitors from most parts of the UK.
Table Tennis England reported that both winners represented Cleveland. Greenhough took the Junior Boys’ Open Singles title from the third-seeded position, while top seed Pashley won the Junior Girls’ Singles.
The results also matter for this season’s qualification process. Table Tennis England said matches in the junior and cadet categories count towards leaderboards which provide a qualification route to the respective age-group National Championships this season. Eligible event winners are automatically invited, while players receive points according to their progress in the competitions.
Greenhough overturns top seed on way to title
Greenhough’s run included a victory over Sussex player Finley Aitken before he met Nottingham’s Rohan Dani, the top seed, in the semi-finals. Table Tennis England said Greenhough defeated Dani in four games, having recorded what it described as his best win of the event.
Lincolnshire player Ryan Holland came through the other half of the draw, reaching the final after a straight-games win over Essex competitor Harrison Hill. Holland won the opening game of the final, but Greenhough responded by taking the following three games to secure the title.
Holland also completed an unbeaten U17 Boys’ Open Singles campaign. As the top seed, he won the title without dropping a game, according to Table Tennis England. Sixth seed Dimitar Dimitrov had reached that final by defeating Zihan Lin and Hill, but Holland won the final in three games.
Dimitrov also claimed the Cadet Boys’ Open Singles title. The Essex player, who was top seed, recovered after Lin won the first two games of their final. Table Tennis England reported that the next three games were closely contested, with Lin losing both the fourth and fifth 11-9.
Pashley takes girls’ final in four games
Pashley began as the leading seed in the Junior Girls’ Singles and reached the final with a straight-games semi-final victory over Cambridgeshire’s Hannah Saunders. Norfolk’s Eva Eccles, the second seed, progressed from the bottom half after beating Wales player Lily Walters.
In the final, Pashley beat Eccles 3-1. Table Tennis England said Pashley lost only the third game, by 11-8, as she added the principal girls’ singles trophy to Cleveland’s home success.
Saunders was also among the tournament’s multiple winners. She won the U17 Girls’ Singles after coming from 2-1 down against fellow Cambridgeshire player Amber Lemmon, taking the final two games 13-11 and 11-8. Saunders then won the Cadet Girls’ Singles, beating Scotland’s Alexandra Hart 3-1 in the final.
The team competitions produced different winners. Archway Club of Peterborough, represented by Kai Lun Chow and Zihan Lin, beat Crosby High A 3-0 in the Junior Boys’ Open Team final. The doubles was the closest match, with Archway winning the deciding game 11-6.
Grantham won the Junior Girls’ Team event through the pairing of Pashley and Eccles. They beat the Wales team of Lilly Walters and Penny Muil 3-0 in the final, with the doubles the only rubber to require a fourth game.
With updated cadet and junior leaderboards due to appear on the relevant Nationals pages, the Cleveland results have given Greenhough, Pashley and the other leading performers points in the season’s qualification race. The event contributed to the qualification leaderboards for the age-group Nationals. The 160-plus entry and qualification-linking leaderboard points underline the competitive value of the leading finishes. Table Tennis England said the updated leaderboards would be published on the respective Cadet and Junior Nationals pages in due course.