Kacper Piwowar heads to the World Youth Championships in Romania convinced he can challenge the best under-15 players in the world.
The Devonian is one of only 32 young athletes to have qualified from around the world and earned a spot based on his Junior world rankings.
Piwowar is ranked 21st in the field but said this week during a pre-season camp at the Elite Training Center in Sheffield that he goes in with the mindset of seizing the opportunity.
“I feel very good and I am very proud to participate in this tournament,” he said. “I don’t really have a goal, I want to do my best because you don’t always get these opportunities and I want to try to make the best of it
“I just want to enjoy the moment and play my best game and see what happens. I think when it’s my day and I’m feeling good and I’m in the right head space and playing my right game – being smart and staying close – obviously I think I can give anyone a good game.”
“There will be a lot of good players there, but hopefully when I get there I feel good and can play at my best.”
Piwowar has labeled the WTT Youth Contender in Norway in June as a crucial event that earned him points in the world rankings to qualify – but he was one point away from elimination before getting through.
Facing Mobin Amiri from Iran – who will also compete in Romania – Piwowar was behind 2-0 and 11-10, but won that match and fought back to take the decisive fifth 12-10, after saving a match point in that match. He went on to win another match and reach the quarter-finals.
“If I hadn’t won that match, I wouldn’t have qualified for the World Cup,” he said. “I didn’t know it at the time, I just tried to play my game and I won.
“I won another round to advance to the quarterfinals and I knew I had good (ranking) points and that it would really help me. But I didn’t know until after the match (against Amiri).”
Piwowar trained in Sheffield with Paul Drinkhall and Gavin Evans, and sparred with partners including his older brother Jakub, who is a national junior champion.
The tournament also features doubles: Piwowar will team up with Mark Gergely from Hungary in the Boys’ and with Mariia Lytvyn from Austria in the Mixed.
He has had success on the WTT circuit this year, winning gold with Italy’s Maria Picu in Kosovo, and with Poland’s Natalia Wszolek in Serbia, plus silver with the latter in Norway. Besides Abraham Sellado, he has also won a number of bronze medals.
Now that Gergely has won bronze at the European Youth Championships, the pair will be hopeful of progressing in the competition in Romania – although Piwowar admits doubles is not something he has always focused on.
“I think I’ve had some good results in the last year, but normally I wouldn’t say I was a good doubles partner,” he said. “I always hated doubles and never wanted to play doubles, but my father just told me to try it because when I get older in big tournaments I will have to play doubles anyway.
“So I did my best and just found a flow and played really well at a few tournaments. And I got some good results.”
“I treat it more like singles now, I take it a bit more seriously. Of course the results help!”
Both partnerships are new and Piwowar added: “Me and Mark have played in singles a few times, so we both know we are very good players, and hopefully we can try to do something at the World Championships because he is also a very good doubles player. And I play with Maria in Mixed. It’s good to try something new and we will do our best.”
Piwowar is the only English player there, but Wales’ Anna Hursey plays in the Under-19 competitions. She is the top-ranked player in singles as she aims to add a world title to the double European Under-21 gold and European Under-19 singles title she won earlier this year.
She will again team up with Germany’s Mia Griesel in the girls’ doubles – with whom she won the under-21 title – and join Romani’s Iulian Chirita in the mixed.
Piwowar said it was inspiring to have Hursey on the same GB journey: “I think she’s a very good player, and she’s always so calm and she plays a game that I wish I could play, very close and fast. And she’s always composed.”
The World Youth Championships start in Cluj Napoca on Sunday with the team events, with the singles and doubles kicking off next Tuesday.
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