Ireland had two players competing in Finland last weekend, Aurora McDonnell securing a first-place Junior Open finish in the GU13 and Myles Fitzpatrick finishing fourth in the Masters Open MS60.
There were 85 entries spread across seven junior events, and McDonnell raced through her four matches to the title, defeating three Finnish players and a German 3-0.
She was especially on top of her game in the final, giving her opponent, Stella Monto of Finland, just a single point in an impressive 11-1, 11-0, 11-0 win.
Switching to the Masters, Fitzpatrick, the only Irish player among the 64 entries spread across eight categories, enjoyed a hat-trick of comfortable MS60 Group B wins over a trio of local players to make the semi-finals.
His winning run was halted when beaten by another Finnish opponent, Raimo Yliranta, in straight games.
Fitzpatrick then contested a five-game thriller with Olli Marjomaa, his fifth match against Finnish opposition across the weekend. Having led 2-1, he lost 3-2 after missing out 11-6 in the fifth.
Over in Cairo, Marcelino Cronin placed 43rd in the BU15 at the Egyptian Junior Open. Cronin won four of his seven matches at the tournament, including his five-game round of 128 encounter versus the higher-ranked Khalil Altayeh of Jordan.
