Junior joy for in-form Jarvis

Riva del Garda, ITALIA, 30 Nov 2017. Singles Groups. Final at the 2017 ITTF World Junior Championships. Photo: ITTF

Skegness athlete Jarvis, who turned 18 on Saturday, got out of his group with two 4-1 victories.

First he saw off Nikhil Kumar of the USA (11-6, 11-9, 12-10, 10-12, 11-8) and then Argentina’s Martin Betancor (11-6, 5-11, 11-9, 11-9, 11-6).

He won his last-64 match 4-2 (11-7, 11-5, 7-11, 11-6, 9-11, 11-7) against Omar Ammous of Tunisia but ran into third seed Niu Guanki of China in the next round and, though he put up a good fight, was beaten 4-1 (13-11, 11-4, 7-11, 11-9, 13-11).

In the mixed doubles, Jarvis was partnered by Madezhda Bogdanova of Belarus and they started with a 3-1 win (7-11, 11-7, 11-3, 12-10) over Egyptian opponents Karin Elhakem and Mariam Alhodaby in the round of 64.

Ranked 20th, the pair then pulled off a good 3-1 (13-11, 11-9, 8-11, 11-8) win over Russian 13th seeds Denis Ivonin and Anastasia Kolish, before their run was ended by the fifth-seeded Chinese pair in the last 16, going down 3-1 (9-11, 11-7, 11-5, 11-8).