Scotland finish 20th at World Junior Team Championships
The young Scots got off to an outstanding start, beating Norway 5-0 without dropping a single set.
But a difficult draw also saw Scotland pitted against a formidable Chinese team and a 5-0 reverse to the second seeds meant Scotland finished second in group H1.
That meant they faced a play-off against Lithuania, the second placed team in Group H2.
Adam Pringle and Rachel Andrew won their opening mixed doubles before Rachel Sugden made the score 2-0 by winning her girls’ singles.
A 3-0 whitewash was rounded off by one of the youngest members of the team, 17-year-old Callum Smith, who was always in control of his boys’ singles match against Danielius Berzanskis.
The supporting team as Scotland won 5-0 against Norway.
Victory over Lithuania meant Scotland finished third overall in Group H and went into the knockout final stages competing for places 17 to 24.
There, a good 3-1 win over New Zealand was secured thanks to wins from Sugden in girls’ singles, Pringle and Michael McGuire in boys’ doubles and Rachels Andrew and Cameron in girls’ doubles after Joshua Apiliga had lost out in a close three-set battle in his opening boys’ singles.
That win set up a match against the USA where Apiliga and Andrew got Scotland off to the perfect start, beating Jacob Zhang and Katelin Ngo 21-17 19-21 21-19 in the mixed doubles.
But the Americans levelled the match when Natalie Chi overcame Rachel Cameron in the girls’ singles.
With the match level at 1-1, Smith stepped on court to face Alexander Zheng, taking the first set 21-17.
Zheng hit back to win the second 21-15 and then broke Scottish hearts in the third, saving three match points before winning it 23-21.
Sugden and Alice Campbell tried to level the match in the girls’ doubles but Ngo and Esther Shi proved too strong, rounding off a 3-1 for the United States with a 21-14 21-18 victory.
That meant Scotland faced a strong Russian team in the play-off for positions 19 and 20 but despite a creditable performance against the joint 5/8 seeds, the Russians proved too strong.
Pringle and Andrew again got Scotland off to a great start by winning the mixed doubles but Viktoriia Kozyreva beat Sugden 21-18 21-17 to level the tie.
Apiliga was forced to retire in the boys’ singles while trailing 21-15 11-5 to Georgii Lebedev before Anastasiia Kurdyukova and Anastasiia Shapovalova beat Cameron and Campbell to secure a 3-1 win and 19th position overall.
Speaking afterwards Adam Pringle said: “The event went well. We placed 20 and we had some good performances against the top teams in the world.
“We managed to get some good games out there and just get a good team moral up.
“I am looking forward to the individual events after this.”
The young Scots will now turn their attention to the individual events which start on Monday.
The full Scotland team, which is being supported by Uplift Forklifts Ltd, is:
Rachel Andrew, 18, Edinburgh
Alice Campbell, 17, Glasgow
Rachel Cameron, 18, Musselburgh
Rachel Sugden, 17, Alexandria
Joshua Apiliga, 18, Glasgow
Michael McGuire, 17, Bothwell
Adam Pringle, 18, Giffnock
Callum Smith, 17, Duns
Uplift Forklifts Ltd is based in the Scottish Borders. The company sells, repairs and hires forklifts and is a franchise dealer for Doosan forklifts.
Full results from the team event are here. To view draws, schedules and results from the individual events, click here.
For live streaming, click here