Sinan Surensoy and Harrison Hill both reached the last 16 at the WTT Youth Contender Otocec in Slovania.

Neither Hill nor Surensoy currently have a world ranking, while Ramirez Rioja is at No 674 on the Junior list, and all three defeated higher-ranked players in the Under-15 Boys’ Singles.

They all topped their groups with 100% records – Ramirez Rioja beating 11th seed Simon Szigmond (WR 413) of Hungary; Hill defeating 12th seed Albert Czigler (WR 443) of Romania; and Surenosy (pictured above) overcoming Kirill Manalaki (WR 503) of Germany.

Ramirez Rioja then led third seed David Toro (WR 256) of Romania 2-0 in the last 32, only for his opponent to hit back to win 3-2 (9-11, 8-11, 11-6, 11-6, 11-3).

Hill and Surensoy went through to the last 16 with respective victories over Austria’s Daniel Gschanes (WR 392) and Italy’s Leonardo Trevisan – the latter by a 3-2 (11-13, 11-8, 11-9, 5-11, 11-8) margin.

Their runs came to and end in the last 16, Hill losing out to Tommaso Simi of Italy and Surensoy to China’s Lai Hongrui (WR 284), the fourth seed.

In the Under-17s, none of the three were able to win a group match, though Ramirez Rioja can count himself unlucky to have been drawn in the same group as top seed Samuel Michna of Poland, who reached the semi-finals, and eventual champion Zhang Heliang of China. Hill was in the same group as eventual semi-finalist Lai Hongrui of China.

Hill and Surensoy will now relocate to Varazdin in Croatia for the WTT Youth Contender starting on Saturday.

Results

Under-17 Boys’ Singles
Qualifying group 1
Samuel Michna (POL) bt Pablo Ramirez Rioja 3-0 (11-8, 11-5, 11-7)
Zhang Heliang (CHN) bt Ramirez Rioja 3-0 (11-5, 11-7, 11-8)

Qualifying group 22
Ondrej Moravek (CZE) bt Harrison Hill 3-1 (11-6, 5-11, 11-6, 11-4)
Lai Hongrui (CHN) bt Hill 3-0 (11-7, 11-5, 11-5)

Qualifying group 26
Samuel Kuhl (GER) bt Sinan Surensoy 3-1 (11-5, 8-11, 14-12, 11-4)
Wu Jianhui (CHN) bt Surensoy 3-0 (11-1, 11-4, 11-2)
Hubert Kwiecinski (POL) bt Surensoy 3-1 (11-8, 5-11, 11-7, 11-5)

Under-15 Boys’ Singles
Qualifying group 11
Pablo Ramirez Rioja bt Simon Zsigmond (HUN) 3-1 (11-9, 11-6, 2-11, 13-11)
Ramirez Rioja bt Petar Grden (CRO) 3-0 (11-8, 11-6, 11-7)

Qualifying group 12
Harrison Hill bt Albert Czigler (ROU) 3-0 (11-6, 13-11, 11-8)
Hill bt Jan Slavec (ITA) 3-1 (8-11, 11-5, 11-7, 11-9)

Qualifying group 15
Sinan Surensoy bt Maksymilian Ksiazek (POL) 3-0 (11-8, 11-9, 11-8)
Surensoy bt Anze Safosnik (SLO) 3-0 (11-9, 11-7, 11-9)
Surensoy bt Kirill Manalaki (GER) 3-0 (11-5, 11-7, 12-10)

Round of 32
Hill bt Daniel Gschanes (AUT) 3-1 (11-5, 11-6, 6-11, 11-5)
Surensoy bt Leonardo Trevisan (ITA) 3-2 (11-13, 11-8, 11-9, 5-11, 11-8)
David Toro (ROU) bt Ramirez Rioja 3-2 (9-11, 8-11, 11-6, 11-6, 11-3)

Round of 16
Tommaso Simi (ITA) bt Hill 3-0 (11-6, 11-5, 11-3)
Lai Hongrui (CHN) bt Surensoy 3-0 (11-5, 11-7, 11-2)