The European Tournament for Under-14 players, sponsored by Kettle Chips and played at the Vittoriosa Lawn Tennis Club (VLTC), came to a close recently.

There was a high level of com-petition in most of the decisive matches with Italy’s Filippo Moroni claiming the boys’ singles title and Russian Maria Krupenina winning the final for girls.

The boys’ competition was dominated by two youngsters, Moroni and Russian Andrey Uvarov. Both were determined not to return home without the winner’s medal.

They made it to the final but in the end the balance tilted in Moroni’s favour after a hard-fought encounter as the 7-6 7-5 scoreline clearly indicates.

The girls’ title match, contested by two Russian players, namely Krupenina and Valeriya Olyano-vskaya, was a less daunting affair with lots of lobs and occasional hard-hitting shots.

Krupenina easily won the contest in straight sets – 6-2 6-2 – as she was in control for most of the encounter, giving Olyanov-skaya little chance to settle down and mount a comeback.

The Maltese players who took part in the tournament were Miguel Galea, Shaun Borg, Liam Delicata and Alexander Bortoli (boys), and Helene Pellicano and Martina Demanuele (girls).

Pellicano did well to reach the singles semi-finals and the doubles final. However, she was forced to withdraw from both matches due to fever.

In the quarter-finals, Pellicano had the better of Lithuania’s Vik-torija Banaityte 6-3 6-0 but then the unlucky youngster had to pull out before her last-four match against Olyanovskaya.

Lino Scicluna, the VLTC vice-president, thanked the sponsors and helpers of the tournament before presenting the trophies to the winners and runners-up.