Sixty players from 20 European countries have just taken part in the Kettle Chips Euro junior tournament organised by the Vittoriosa Lawn Tennis Club in conjunction with the Malta Tennis Federation.

The event was a Category Three tournament from the Tennis Europe Under-14 tour.

Competition was of a high quality as a strong contingent of players from Russia left their mark.

The tournament was also of valuable experience to the local juniors who tested their wits against players with higher rankings in Europe.

Katrina Sammut reached the quarter-finals in the singles, beating Tatsiana Burdyka, of Russia, in an enthralling Last-16 match before succumbing to top seed Ekaterina Korzhova.

The finalists in the boys singles were Vasileios Iliopoulos, of Greece, and Briton Finn Bass.

This match pitted together two players for the future. They combined power strokes with the finesse of the volley with Iliopoulos eventually emerging the winner 6-4, 6-3.

The girls singles final, played on the Atlas Insurance Court, saw Russia’s Kristina Kamskaya engaged in a thrilling encounter with compatriot Korzhova,

Showing more consistency in her game, Kamskaya went on to win 6-4, 6-4.

The boys doubles title went to Salvador Bandeira (Portugal)/Alvaro Regalado (Spain) who had the better of the Russian tandem Timiur Igamberdyev/ Nikita Potapov 6-1, 6-3.

The girls doubles event was an all-Russia affair, Kamskaya and Korzhova beating Varvara Kuksina and Maria Smoylar 6-3, 6-0.

Sammut and Rebecca McCarthy reached the semi-finals but succumbed to eventual winners Kamskaya and Korzhova 6-2, 6-2.

Twanny Camilleri, Vittoriosa Lawn Tennis Club secretary, presented the trophies in the presence of Francis Sciberras, the VLTC European Tournaments Director.

The organisers thanked Kettle Chips for their sponsorship and Farsons for providing San Michel water during the week-long tournament.