Sultana and Cauchi back from Vienna Open

Colette Sultana continued with her progress outside Maltese shores with a creditable fifth placing at the 2011 Austrian Junior Open, in Vienna, last weekend.

Sultana managed three wins from four matches, losing only to Hungarian Csenge Kiss-Mate (7-11, 13-15, 13-15) in a very balanced match.

The Malta junior champion faced stiff opposition from emerging Eastern European players with tough matches against Sabina Mozina (Slovenia), Barbora Krejcova (Czech Republic) and Gabriella Csokasi (Hungary).

Sultana remained focused throughout and was able to secure three useful victories that earned her valuable points in the Under-17 European rankings. She should now move into the top 20 in her category.

Kimberly Cauchi, playing in her first tournament outside Malta, produced a fine showing in all of her games. She lost two very close matches against Veronika Bendova and Karin Velicka, both Slovakia.

She could do little against top seed Kristyna Fialova (Czech Republic) but did much better in her match against Julia Potoczka (Slovakia) which the Maltese debutante won 3-0 to finish seventh overall.

Cauchi played against older and more experienced players but showed she has true potential and given the correct support will soon become one to watch in the future.

Marsa coach Paul Lake accompanied the two youngsters in Vienna and was pleased with the overall performance.

“Given the lack of opportunity that Kimberly has had in junior events, she performed extremely well in Vienna,” he said.

“Colette played solidly through-out but is now in a much tougher age-group and needs to put in more work off-court to be able to physically compete in her new European category.”