38 countries took part in the U15 team event at the European Youth Championships in Malmö, Sweden from 12.-21.07. The best of the 38 was Italy, who beat Romania 3:1 in the final. And the best player on the court was compass-supported Danilo Faso, who won both his singles and the doubles with Francesco Trevisan in the final.

“In my first match (3:0 against Mihai Nagy) I felt confident but I still did not play very well,” said Danilo after the final. “In the doubles it was tougher, but Francesco and I managed to win some crucial hard rallies and finally won 3:1″.

Victory in the doubles made it 2:1 to Italy when Danilo met Romania’s number one Robert Alexandru Istrate, who had defeated Francesco Trevisan in four games earlier in the final.

Danilo Faso came out on top in the first game, winning 11:5. The second might have been the deciding game as the match went to 16:16 before Danilo closed it out to win 18:16.

“I knew I was playing against a strong opponent and I was very focused and concentrated in my actions at the table,” Danilo continued. “I played at my highest level and I am really happy that I could do that in such an important event.”

This seemed to break Istrate, who could not recover from the long second set. He only managed to win three points in the fourth game.

With match point at 10:3, Danilo spread his arms in a final victory gesture. He turned to his teammates on the bench, who ran onto the court to greet their hero and themselves as a team.

“It was a great moment of total joy and happiness,” said Danilo. “We fought well together because we’re also very good friends. That’s why I’m so happy about this tournament and this victory. Very, very happy. Now I will do my best to play up to my level in the upcoming singles events.”

compass supported Josephina Neumann is also European Youth Champion in the U15 teams. The 14-year-old (who, like Danilo, was born in 2010 and will be in the U15 category for another year) won the U15 team event with Germany for the second year in a row, beating Poland 3:1 in the final.

After topping their group, they went on to meet Turkey, Austria and Portugal, all of whom they defeated 3-0. Due to a shoulder injury, Josephina played only doubles and no singles. She and her partner Koharu Itagaki won five out of five doubles matches before losing the sixth to Poland’s Maja Lakoma-Katarzyna Rajkowska in the final, but with Itagaki winning both her singles matches and Lisa-Sophie Wang winning one, Germany were crowned U15 European Team Champions once again.

compass supported Görkem Öcal won a medal in the U15 team event. His Turkey lost 3:0 to Italy after beating England in the quarter-finals, a match in which Görkem, the U13 European singles champion, contributed by beating Abraham Sellado 3:2 and the doubles together with Kenan Kahraman in straight games against Sellado and former compass player Kacper Piwowar.

compass supported Flavien Coton also won a bronze medal for France, who beat Austria 3:0 in the round of sixteen and Hungary 3:1 in the quarter-finals. In the semi-finals, France lost 3:1 to Romania, a match in which Flavien Coton defeated Andrei Istrate in straight games and lost 3:2 to Iulian Chirita to leave Romania 3:1 up.

ETTU article – U15 girls

ETTU article – U15 boys