(by Steve Hopkins)
Thirteen year-old Miwa Harimoto (younger sister of Top 10 Men’s player Tomokazu Harimoto) was the biggest story in Berlin. She entered only the U19 and U17 Girls events, and won both. In the U19, she played 5 matches and only lost one game (15-1) and in the U17 event, she played 5 matches and lost only three games (15-3) – so she was 30-4 for the tournament dominating from start to finish.
In the U19 Boys event, Maciej Kubik was the top seed, but Kubik won onely one match before losing to Korea’s Park Changgeon in the Round of 16. Park fell in the Semis to another Korean player, Oh Junsung. And it was Junsung that went on to win the event, with a 3-1 win over Japan’s Sora Matsushima.
Miwa Harimoto topped Lee Daeun 3-0 in the U19 final and dominated Sachi Aoki 3-0 in the U17 final. The U15 girls event went to Korea’s Yoo Yerin and the U13 firls title went to Germany’s Josephina Neumann.
Japan dominated the U17 Boys event, with Matsushima beating Yoshiyama in the Final. Yoshiyama also reached the Final in the U15 Boys event, where he topped Czech Republic’s Jindrick Moravek 3-0. Two Puerto Rican players were the top seeds in the U13 Boys event, but Enrique Rios and Steven Moreno each met the same fate – tight losses in the Round of 16. In the end, it was Korea’s Lee Seungsoo over Japan’s Ryuusei Kawakami 3-2 in the Final.
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