Ruse tennis players with a worthy performance at WTT Youth Contender Panagyurishte 2025
Monday, 19 May 2025
From May 15 to 18, the World Table Tennis Cup WTT Youth Contender 2025 was held in the city of Panagyurishte, which brought together over 150 competitors from 40 countries. The Ruse participation was worthily represented by Anita Petkova, Vladimir Raykov and Stelan Lavchiev - competitors of the "Dunav Ruse" Table Tennis Sports Club and graduates of the "Major Atanas Uzunov" Sports School.
Anita Petkova, part of the Bulgarian national team under 19, took part in the under 17 and under 19 categories for girls, as well as in the mixed doubles tournament. In the under 17 girls, she passed the group stage without a hitch and in the main draw recorded a victory over the strong Romanian Andreea Baiasu. In the battle for a place in the eight, Petkova lost to the representative of Korea Kim Eunseo.
In the under 19 category, Anita was one step away from two prestigious victories. Against the current European doubles champion Bianca Mei-Rosu from Romania, the player from Ruse showed character, led in the games, but lost after a reversal. In her second match against Shriya Anand from India, Anita led 2:0 in the game, but after a contested game, she allowed a reversal and lost 2:3.
In mixed doubles, Anita partnered with Stefan Dimitrov. The two were eliminated in the main draw after losing to the Ukrainian tandem.
Vladimir Raykov participated in the U-13 and U-15 categories. In the U-13 category, he managed to pass the group stage with better game indicators. In the main draw, the draw assigned a Ruse derby against his teammate Stelan Lavchiev. Raykov won dramatically with 3:2, but then lost to Filip Nagy (Slovakia). In the U-15 category, he failed to overcome the group stage, despite his efforts against rivals from Chinese Taipei and Slovakia.
Stellan Lavchiev participated in the under-11 and under-13 categories. In the latter, he was in a group with the leader in the rankings Koh Wei Yeow (Malaysia) and a player from Kazakhstan, whom he defeated, but lost to Raykov. In the under-11 category, Lavchiev showed a high level and reached the quarterfinals. After three wins in the group and a loss to the Ukrainian David Drobov, who later became second, Stellan was stopped by the future champion Mark Voronoi (Ukraine).
Participation in the prestigious tournament was an important stage in Anita Petkova's preparation for the upcoming European Championship, as well as a valuable "clock check" for the young Ruse table tennis hopefuls.
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