Three English youngsters reached the last 16 stage on the first day of the WTT Youth Contender Szombathely in Hungary – two of them beating seeds along the way.

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A total of 16 English athletes are competing at the event, which began with the Under-17 and Under-13 age groups. Lusio Wen reached the last 16 of the younger category, and Pablo Ramirez Rioja (pictured above) and Abraham Sellado matched that performance in the older bracket.

Sellado won his Under-17 Boys’ Singles group with three 3-0 victories and continued his run of 3-0s in the first two knockout rounds, first against Pietro Campagna of Italy and then against Ma Yeongjun of South Korea – two wins against higher-ranked players, with Ma the 12th seed. He will next face third seed Mark Gergely of the host nation.

Ramirez Rioja beat the higher-ranked Martin Ratajsky (CZE) 3-2 (11-9, 8-11, 8-11, 11-4, 11-3) in the group stage, then advanceed against Eric Chiraches of Romania 3-2 (11-7, 8-11, 8-11, 11-9, 11-6) in the last 64. That set up a match against ninth seed Erik Paulina of Italy, and Ramirez Rioja won it in four. He next faces fifth seed Jakub Kabelka of Czechia.

Six of the seven from England had made it through the group stage. The one to miss out was Zihan Lin, who was a little unfortunate not to make it a clean sweep, beating the group winner Daniel Gschanes of Austria, but missing out 16-14 in the fifth to Bence Stefan of the host nation in a four-player group.

Oscar Nikolli and Jake Davidson went out in the round of 64 to higher-ranked players – Nikolli in four to Alexander Uhing of Germany and Davidson 11-8 in the fifth to Benjamin Girlinger of Austria.

Kai Lun Chow and Max Radiven exited in the round of 32, Chow going out in four to Gergely and Radiven, who was seeded seventh, in four to lower-ranked Hsu An-Pao of Chinese Taipei. Radiven had defeated Ireland’s Peadar Sheridan in the first round, while Chow beat the higher-ranked Israeli Yhali Zagori.

In the Under-17 Girls’ Singles, Soraya Rahmani-Walentynska went out in the group stage. She will later compete in the Under-15 age group.

In the Under-13s, Lusio Wen reached the last 16 without dropping a game across his three matches on the day. He will face top seed Allen Mao of the USA later on Friday.

Sebastian Li and Jonty Barnes both reached the knockout stage and Li won his first-round match against Ryan Li of Ireland to reach the last 32, where he was defeated by Nicolae Bucur of Moldova in four. Barnes went out in the last 64, also in four, to Vadym Lunehov of Ukraine. Hayfield Lam was eliminated in the group stage.

Barnes, Li and Lam will all compete in the Under-11 Boys’ Singles later in the competition.

Results

Under-17 Boys’ Singles
Qualifying group 4
Louis Fegerl (AUT) bt Jake Davidson 3-1 (6-11, 11-6, 11-7, 17-15)
Davidson bt Denis Barbu (MDA) 3-0 (11-8, 11-6, 11-6)

Qualifying group 7
Max Radiven bt Nikolay Chernozubov (KAZ) 3-0 (w/o)
Radiven bt Eric Chiraches (ROU) 3-1 (8-11, 11-7, 11-8, 11-5)

Qualifying group 22
Pablo Ramirez Rioja bt Martin Ratajsky (CZE) 3-2 (11-9, 8-11, 8-11, 11-4, 11-3)
Ramirez Rioja bt Ionut Ceausescu (ROU) 3-0 (11-6, 11-3, 11-7)

Qualifying group 23
Rija Warin (FRA) bt Kai Lun Chow 3-0 (11-2, 11-6, 11-8)
Chow bt Kirill Bernikov (KAZ) 3-2 (11-4, 12-14, 9-11, 11-6, 11-9)

Qualifying group 27
Zsombor Vary (HUN) bt Oscar Nikolli 3-1 (11-4, 3-11, 11-5, 11-2)
Nikolli bt Yali Mor (ISR) 3-0 (11-4, 11-8, 11-7)
Nikolli bt Moritz Jordan (GER) 3-0 (11-7, 11-9, 11-4)

Qualifying group 29
Abraham Sellado bt Bennet Juergens (GER) 3-0 (11-1, 11-8, 11-3)
Sellado bt Albert Czigler (ROU) 3-0 (11-6, 11-4, 11-6)
Sellado bt Gabor Szarka (HUN) 3-0 (11-3, 11-5, 11-5)

Qualifying group 31
Mihai Iordan (ROU) bt Zihan Lin 3-1 (11-4, 4-11, 12-10, 11-5)
Bence Stefan (HUN) bt Lin 3-2 (3-11, 11-6, 11-9, 6-11, 16-14)
Lin bt Daniel Gschanes (AUT) 3-1 (11-9, 9-11, 11-9, 11-5)

Round of 64
Ramirez Rioja bt Eric Chiraches (ROU) 3-2 (11-7, 8-11, 8-11, 11-9, 11-6)
Chow bt Yhali Zagori (ISR) 3-2 (11-4, 11-13, 16-14, 6-11, 11-9)
Sellado bt Pietro Campagna (ITA) 3-0 (11-4, 11-6, 11-3)
Radiven bt Peadar Sheridan (IRL) 3-1 (11-6, 8-11, 11-3, 11-6)
Alexander Uhing (GER) bt Nikolli 3-1 (5-11, 11-2, 11-4, 11-8)
Benjamin Girlinger (AUT) bt Davidson 3-2 (11-7, 6-11, 8-11, 11-6, 11-8)

Round of 32
Ramirez Rioja bt Erik Paulina (ITA) 3-1 (8-11, 12-10, 11-7, 11-7)
Mark Gergely (HUN) bt Chow 3-1 (11-8, 12-14, 11-7, 11-8)
Sellado bt Ma Yeongjun (KOR) 3-0 (11-9, 11-5, 14-12)
Hsu An-Pao (TPE) bt Radiven 3-1 (10-12, 14-12, 11-4, 11-8)

Under-17 Girls’ Singles
Qualifying group 15
Kariss Serban (ROU) bt Soraya Rahmani-Walentynska 3-0 (11-6, 11-7, 11-5)
Valeria Cravcenco (MDA) bt Rahmani-Walentynska 3-0 (12-10, 11-8, 11-6)

Under-13 Boys’ Singles
Qualifying group 5
Vladimir Filimon (ROU) bt Jonti Barnes 3-0 (11-2, 11-5, 11-6)
Barnes bt Aron Bernek (HUN) 3-2 (9-11, 11-5, 13-15, 11-5, 11-3)

Qualifying group 9
Dulat Yeralkhan (KAZ) bt Hayfield Lam 3-0 (11-8, 11-4, 12-10)
Luca Hu (ITA) bt Lam 3-0 (11-4, 11-6, 11-7)

Qualifying group 12
Dagir Daniyarov (KAZ) bt Sebastian Li 3-1 (11-9, 13-11, 7-11, 11-8)
Li bt David Manescu (ROU) 3-0 (11-5, 14-12, 11-1)

Qualifying group 15
Lusio Wen bt Ioan Popescu (ROU) 3-0 (11-3, 11-5, 11-1)
Wen bt Mattia Somaini (ITA) 3-0 (11-6, 12-10, 11-6)

Round of 64
Li bt Ryan Li (IRL) 3-0 (11-9, 12-10, 11-5)
Vadym Lunehov (UKR) bt Barnes 3-1 (8-11, 11-3, 11-2, 11-7)

Round of 32
Wen bt Juan Echavarria (COL) 3-0 (15-13, 11-8, 11-8)
Nicolae Bucur (MDA) bt Li 3-1 (11-6, 6-11, 11-8, 11-8)