Kacper Piwowar and his partner Maria Picu of Italy won gold at the WTT Youth Contender Kosovo in Prishtina.

Seeded second, they made their way through the early rounds for the loss of only two games, including one in the semi-final, where thewy beat Jeffrey Wei (GER) & Kalina Stefanova (BUL) 3-1 (11-5, 10-12, 11-6, 11-4).

Their opponents in the final were top seeds Jacob Huang of Australia & Li Jen-Yueh of Chinese Taipei and it looked as if they would come off second best when they lost the first game 11-1.

However, they hit back strongly and edged the next three games 11-9 to take the top step on the podium.

It is Piwowar’s second Under-15 Mixed Doubles title of the season, having won gold at the WTT Youth Contender Zrenjanin in Serbia, alongside Natalia Wszolek of Poland.

In the singles events, Abraham Sellado reached the quarter-finals of the Under-17 Boys’ competition, beating the higher-ranked Tobias Tischberger of Austria in the last 16. He was defeated by second seed Kwon Hyuk of South Korea in the quarters.

Piwowar got through to the last 16, where he was defeated by Jonas Rinderer of Germany, ranked three places above him at No 200 in the Junior world rankings.

In the Under-19 Boys’ Singles, both Sellado and Piwowar went out in the round of 16 to highly-ranked Japanese opponents.

Piwowar, who took world No 38 Junior Samuel Palusek of Slovakia to a decider in the groups, where he led 2-0, then beat Tischberger in five in the last 32, before exiting 3-0 (11-7, 11-8, 11-6) to top seed Kazuki Yoshiyama, ranked No 12 in the world.

Sellado reached the same stage, missing out 3-0 (11-6, 12-10, 11-6) to second seed and No 25-ranked Junior, Ryuusei Kawakami.

Results

Under-15 Mixed Doubles
Round of 16
Kacper Piwowar & Maria Picu (ITA) bt Daniel Ganev (BUL) & Kleio Madesi (GRE) 3-1 (11-3, 12-14, 11-5, 11-9)

Quarter-finals
Piwowar & Picu bt Olti Behluli & Sara Hoxha (KOS) 3-0 (11-7, 11-5, 11-1)

Semi-finals
Piwowar & Picu bt Jeffrey Wei (GER) & Kalina Stefanova (BUL) 3-1 (11-5, 10-12, 11-6, 11-4)

Final
Piwowar & Picu bt Jacob Huang (AUS) & Li Jen-Yueh (TPE) 3-1 (1-11, 11-9, 11-9, 11-9)

Under-19 Boys’ Singles
Qualifying group 6
Samuel Arpas (SVK) bt Abraham Sellado 3-0 (11-8, 11-8, 11-7)
Sellado bt Manoe Jasinski (BEL) 3-1 (11-13, 11-5, 11-5, 13-11)

Qualifying group 8
Samuel Palusek (SVK) bt Kacper Piwowar 3-2 (10-12, 9-11, 11-1, 11-5, 11-2)
Piwowar bt Simon Vonebjerg (DEN) 3-0 (17-15, 11-5, 11-5)

Round of 32
Piwowar bt Tobias Tischberger (AUT) 3-2 (8-11, 11-8, 12-10, 6-11, 12-10)
Sellado bt Boris Bonchev (BUL) 3-0 (11-8, 11-9, 12-10)

Round of 16
Kazuki Yoshiyama (JPN) bt Piwowar 3-0 (11-7, 11-8, 11-6)
Ryuusei Kawakami (JPN) bt Sellado 3-0 (11-6, 12-10, 11-6)

Under-17 Boys’ Singles
Qualifying group 9
Kacper Piwowar bt Ari Krasniqi (KOS) 3-0 (11-4, 11-1, 11-1)
Piwowar bt Boris Bonchev (BUL) 3-1 (13-11, 5-11, 11-7, 11-7)

Qualifying group 11
Abraham Sellado bt Grini Popova (KOS) 3-0 (11-4, 11-2, 11-5)
Sellado bt Samuel Kuhl (GER) 3-1 (11-4, 11-6, 8-11, 11-4)

Round of 32
Sellado bt Malik Severinsen (DEN) 3-2 (7-11, 14-12, 5-11, 16-14, 11-4)

Round of 16
Jonas Rinderer (GER) bt Piwowar 3-0 (11-7, 11-7, 11-4)
Sellado bt Tobias Tischberger (AUT) 3-2 (11-8, 11-7, 6-11, 7-11, 11-3)

Quarter-finals
Kwon Hyuk (KOR) bt Sellado 3-0 (11-6, 11-9, 11-7)