Silver for Siri Benjegård in the U15 singles. This was the most sensational result among the compass supported players as the European Youth Championships continued in Malmö, Sweden with the singles and doubles events.

Flavien Coton also had an impressive tournament. He won medals in all four U19 categories – silver in singles and doubles, bronze in mixed and teams. Danilo Faso took bronze in the U15 doubles.

In total, compass won nine medals at the championships.

The most spectacular performance came from Siri Benjegård in the U15 category. The reigning European U13 was seeded 42nd in the tournament and had to qualify for the knockout stage where 32 players were seeded. Throughout Saturday, her matches were so exciting that her closest friends and some of her fans were glad that there were plenty of defibrillators around the venue. Just in case. Siri was really challenging the nerves of those around her.

Leading 3:0 against Ukraine’s Diana Kuliennkova, she suddenly lost three games in a row! But in the decider, she played again with determination and won straight away.

In the round of the last 16, she was up against former compass sponsored player Nina Skerbinz of Austria, who was ranked in the top eight. Trailing 2:3 and 7:10, Siri won five straight points to take the game and after that also the decider.

But that was only the beginning.

In the quarter-final against the defensive Lisa-Sophie Wang of Germany, Siri struggled to get past Wang’s safe and solid defence. Slowly Siri found a more varied and winning strategy and managed to win two games. But in the sixth game, Wang was up 10:5 and had five match points to win. But in this extraordinary situation, Siri managed to win seven points in a row. After the break, she took a 4:0 lead in the decisive game. Eleven points without a miss! At this point, Wang was broken and Siri took the seventh game 11:3.

“I never gave up,” said Siri in her post-match interview. “I could see that my opponent was getting nervous when I saved a couple of match points. It had been a while since I had played a real defensive player and I think I did very well. I had a lot of confidence when I walked out to play Mariia Lytvyn.”

That was clear. Sunday at noon, she made the process short with Lytvyn, winning in straight games after a solid performance based on stability and determination, which allowed her to control the structure of the match.

Finally, Siri met the defending champion Hanka Kodetova, born in 2010, who will be eligible for the next EYC U15 event for another year. In the final, Siri started a little nervously, knowing that she would have to step up her game to beat the 2010 born Czech. But after an epic fourth game with several high quality rallies and about five missed set points, some of which were won by Siri, she managed to win 18:16. 2:2 in games and the match was wide open.

Siri led 7:5 in the fifth game, but that was the end of the incredible journey in Malmö. The safe and solid Kadetova kept her level and Siri dropped back a little, which was enough for the Czech to become the U15 European Champion for the second time in a row. There were no more match points for Kodetova that Siri could have saved. The Czech won 11:9, 11:8, 9:11, 16:18, 11:7, 11:4.

“I was not nervous at all, but I was stressing a bit in my shots, although I was not stressed in my head. It was a fun match. And that one particular amazing rally was a lot of fun to play.”

Danilo Faso, who dominated the team competition at the start of the tournament, lost to Poland’s Aleks Pakula in the quarter-finals of the U15 singles. Danilo was leading 2:1 and 5:3, but suddenly the level of his game dropped.

“I lost my concentration and Aleks was able to come back into the match, which made me nervous,” Danilo explained afterwards.

The young Italian played all the matches in the team event, reaching the last eight in the U15 mixed doubles with Germany’s Koharu Itagaki and the semi-finals in the cadet boys doubles with his compatriot Francesco Trevisan, which probably left him a bit tired after ten days of intense matches and warm-up sessions.

Flavien Coton, born in 2008, won four medals in the U19 category, where some of his opponents were three years older. Flavien won bronze in the team event and in the U19 mixed doubles with compatriot Leana Hochart. In the boys’ doubles, he teamed up with compatriot Nathan Lam.

In the singles, he beat top seed Iulian Chirita of Romania (who he had lost to in the semi-finals of the team event) 4:1. In the last eight, he had a long and spectacular battle with Andre Bertelsmeier of Germany, winning 4:3 (11:4 in the decider). In the semi-finals, he defeated Istrate from Romania 4:1 before losing 2:4 to Darius Movileanu, also from Romania, in the final.

compass supported Lizett Fazekas, Hungary, Ivo Quett, Germany, Ladimir Mayorov, Spain and Görkem Öcal also played U15 doubles and singles.

Fazekas reached the last 32 in the U15 mixed doubles with Danilo Faso’s team partner Francesco Trevisan of Italy. In the singles she lost to Renata Shypsha of Spain, also in the last 32. Ivo Quett reached the last 16 in doubles with Lukas Wang. Ivo also reached the last 32 in singles after losing to Aleks Pakula, the same Pakula who defeated Danilo Faso. Ivo won two games but lost four. Ladimir Mayorov, born in 2013 and four years younger than the oldest in the U15 category, had his best result in the mixed doubles with his compatriot Eloisa Barreda. The team won two matches. In singles, Ladimir reached the knockout stage before losing 4-1 to Faso’s doubles partner Trevisan.

Finally, Görkem Öcal of Turkey reached the quarter-finals in the doubles with compatriot Karen Kahraman. In the singles, Görkem, who was born in 2011, made it to the round of the last 16 where he lost to Poland’s Samuel Michna 4:2.

In summary, compass supported players won

• 2 gold medals – Josi Neumann and Danilo Faso in U15 teams
• 3 silver medals – Siri Benjegård in U15 singles, Flavien Coton in U19 singles and doubles
• 4 bronze medals – Flavien Coton in U19 teams and mixed doubles, Görkem Öcal in U15 teams and Danilo Faso in U15 doubles

A total of 2 gold, 3 silver and 4 bronze medals = 9 medals.

European Youth Championships 2024