Choi Deok Hwa wins the 2011 Junior Boy’s title at the Guam Open
The finals of the Junior Boy’s Singles of Calvo Enterprises Guam Junior and Cadet Open were contested on the April 25, at Mangilao a small town in Guam. The finals result was a surprise for all the table tennis lovers all over the world. Koki Niwa from Japan,
who is the top seeded player, was defeated by Choi Deok Hwa from Korea.
The final hurdle of the match extended to six games. Choi Deok Hwa played excellent topspins and focused on his serves. Most of the points he won were on his services and the chopping of the ball with his forehand made him move ahead of the Japanese player,
Koki Niwa.
The score-line of the final match was 6-11, 11-8, 13-11, 7-11, 11-4 and 11-8. Choi Deok Hwa said, "I was happy having reached the final, so maybe I started playing with no pressure at all, a silver against Koki Niwa would have been good but I was not going
to just to conceded defeat."
Choi Deok Hwa is on the fifth number in Korea among the junior players. He is looking forward for the upcoming qualification rounds for the Asian Junior Championship this year. Later, in October he will be competing to make a place in the team for the 2011
Volkswagen World Junior Championship. His current feat has made his way easier towards both of the championships.
It was indeed a major upset for Koki Niwa to be defeated by a player who is on the 110 seed on the ITTF Under-18 World ranking. Koki Niwa is at number one in the ranking and he won Under-21 Men's Singles at the 2011 German Open earlier this year. In 2008 he
won the title of ITTF Junior Circuit Finals of Junior Boy’s Singles category at Sweden.
In the semi-final there were three Korean players; Min Tai Hong, Choi Deok Hwa and Oh Woo Taek. Koki Niwa marked a straight victory against Min Tai Hong scoring 11-5, 11-1, 11-4 and 11-8. Whereas Choi Deok Hwa only gave away one game to his compatriot, Oh
Woo Taek, with a match score of 4-11,9-11,10-12,11-8 and 6-11.
At the quarter-final stage Koki Niwa won over Ocean Belrose from Tahiti, in a straight four-game match, scoring 11-3, 11-6, 11-3 and 11-7. The Korean player also defeated his opponent Zhiyang Cheng from New Zealand with the same match score of straight games
4-11, 11-13, 7-11 and 6-11.
Choi Deok Hwa concluded the day with his confident win against Koki Niwa, who did not give away a single game on his way to the finals. It was the first ITTF event to be staged at Guam.
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