Anna Hursey had to settle for silver at the World Youth Championships as she and Romania partner Iulian Chirita were defeated by Li Hechen & Qin Yuxuan of China in the Under-19 Mixed Doubles final.

However, the Wales and GB star is into tomorrow’s Girls’ Doubles final alongside Mia Griesel of Germany, and made it safely into the singles quarter-finals on a dramatic day in Cluj Napoca, Romania.

The Europeans came from two games down against Chinese opponents – Wen Ruibo & Zong Geman – in the first round of the Mixed, but that was out of the equation this time as they won the first three points of the final – played between two unseeded pairs – and stayed in front, taking the first game 11-6.

The second saw the lead swap hands but the Chinese pair pulled ahead from 5-5 and brought up three game points. After two had been saved, the left-handed Li look relived after putting away a backhand to level the contest.

There were signs the tide was beginning to turn and that proved to be the case in the third, which the Chinese pair took 11-5 having never been behind, clinching it with four points on the spin.

The blistering backhand receive by Li which made it 3-1 in the fourth prompted the European timeout, but it was immediately followed by Li showing his forehand prowess with another outstanding winner. The score stretched out to 7-1, European counter-attacks missing by millimetres as they tried to get back into it.

From 8-2 down, Chirita & Hursey did claw it back to 8-5 as Li missed a couple of backhands, leading the Chinese coach to call his timeout.

If a few nerves had been creeping in, now was the time for Chirita & Hursey to capitalise, and they won the next two points after the timeout. Li profited from a dead net-cord next point, but in the blink of an eye it was 9-9 on the back of two superb Hursey receives, one unreturnable and one setting up a Chirita attack.

Sadly, it was not to be, as Li put away two more backhand receives to end the contest and clinch the title.

Hursey will have another chance to go for gold in the Under-19 Girls’ Doubles after she and partner Mia Greisel of Germany, with whom she won the European Under-21 title earlier this year, safely negotiated their semi-final earlier in the day.

Up against Hana Goda of Egypt and Ukraine’s Veronika Matiunina, the fifth seeds, Hursey & Griesel got the first game on the board with a run of seven out of eight points from 4-4.

The second was a key game which both pairs had the chance to win – Hursey & Griesel saved three game points at 7-10 but then missed three successive chances of their own before taking the fourth – a final score of 15-13.

In the third, they saved a game point at 11-9 and then missed a match point before their opponents took their opportunity to pull one back.

It was 13-11 in that game and so it was in the fourth as Hursey & Griesel booked their place in the final – they saved two game points and saw another match point slip by before they finally got over the line.

They will face Zong Geman & Qin Yuxuan of China in the final at 5pm UK time on Saturday. Follow the match on the WTT YouTube channel.

Back at the start of the day, Hursey completed a notable hat-trick of singles victories over Ukraine’s Matiunina to move into the quarter-finals.

Hursey had twice defeated Matuinina in gold medal matches on two separate occasions this year – first in the European Under-21 Championships and then in the Under-19 age group at the European Youth Championships.

They met again in the last 16 of the Under-19 Girls’ Singles in Romania, and once again the outcome was the same.

Not that the Wales and GB athlete, the top seed, had it all her own way as she twice had to come back from a game behind before winning in the sixth.

Matuinina pulled away from 7-7 to win the first thanks to winning four out of the next five points, but Hursey hit back to take the second game 11-9 on her second game point.

She also had a game point in the third, but Matiunina won three in a row to take it 12-10 and move back in front.

Hursey lost the opening two points of game four, but from then on changed gear, coasting to victory with eight points in a row from 3-3 to level the match and then taking nine points out of 10 from 4-1 down in the fifth en route to an 11-6 scoreline.

It was also 11-6 in the sixth and this time the key run was five consecutive points from 3-3.

Hursey’s opponent in Saturday afternoon’s quarter-final is Yeh Yi-Tian of Chinese Taipei, the sixth seed.

Results

Under-19 Mixed Doubles
Final
Li Hechen & Qin Yuxuan (CHN) bt Iulian Chirita (ROU) & Anna Hursey (WAL) 3-0 (6-11, 11-9, 11-5, 11-9)

Under-19 Girls’ Singles
Round of 16
Anna Hursey (WAL) bt Veronika Matiunina (UKR) 4-2 (8-11, 11-9, 10-12, 11-3, 11-6, 11-6)

Under-19 Girls’ Doubles
Semi-finals
Anna Hursey & Mia Griesel (GER) bt Hana Goda (EGY) & Veronika Matiunina (UKR) 3-1 (11-5, 15-13, 11-13, 13-11)