With over 200 players from 35 different countries, the Croatia VALAMAR Junior Open 2022 celebrated a great event of young talents from 16 to 19 June.
Another strong edition with good numbers for the Croatian Junior that took place in Dubrovnik 16 to 19 June 2022. Over 200 players from as many as 35 countries entered the competition. The strong Asian side dominated having a large number of players competing and with a quality that was difficult to match. How strong the tournament was is shown by the fact that the young Thai player Pitchamon Opatniputh, who was crowned the champion of the Denmark Masters just ten days earlier, was defeated in the semifinals.
As many as four of the five gold medals went to Japan — in the men's doubles competition, Japan won bronze while Singaporeans Nge Joo Jie/ Johann Prajogo won in the final against Poland’s Bartosz Krajewski/ Dominik Kwinta.
In the women’s singles final, Hina Akechi won against Sora Ishioka, whereas in the men’s singles competition Shun Saito defeated Koya Iwano. In women's doubles, Rui Kiyama/ Kanano Muroya won the final to get the gold as Maya Taguchi/ Nao Yamakita settled for the silver, and in the mixed doubles final, Daigo Tanioka/ Maya Taguchi were defeated by Shunya Ota/ Kanano Muroya.
The Japanese player Daigo Tanioka took the bronze in the men's singles, the silver went to the Malaysian Jan Jireh Lee. Malaysian player Ong Xin Yee and Thailand’s Pitchamon Opatniputh won bronze in the women’s singles competition. In the women's doubles, the bronze medals went to Japanese duo Hina Akechi/ Sora Ishioka and Malaysian pair Ong Xin Yee/ Carmen Ting. The Japanese pair Koya Iwano/ Shunya Ota took the bronze in the men’s doubles and so did Indonesia’s Adrian Pratama/ Ariella Naqiyyah.
Out of a total of 20 medals, three were won by Europe, two of those in men’s doubles. In addition to the silver of the Polish duo, one of the men’s doubles two bronze medals went to Ukraine’s Volodymyr Koluzaiev/ Nikita Yeromenko while in mixed doubles, one of the bronze medals went to the Spaniards Rodrigo Sanjurjo/ Nikol Carulla.