Singapore’s U11 Boys finished the WTT Youth Contender Senec 2024 in Slovak Republic with one silver and one bronze, courtesy of Neo Cheng Ming and Miguel Liew respectively.

This was Neo’s second runner up title on the WTT Youth series, also having finished 2nd in the same event at the WTT Youth Contender Vientiane in September, while Miguel Liew clinched his first podium finish of the year.

While Neo and Liew clinched medals, the rest of the U11 Boys team were exceptional as well. 5 out of 6 players qualified for the knockout stage, and all 5 – Neo, Liew, Ang Ray Teng, Nathaniel Lim and Kaspar Ching – made the quarterfinals.

The quarterfinals saw two all-Singapore match ups, Liew taking on Ching and Neo facing Lim, with Liew and Neo prevailing by scores of 3-2 and 3-1 respectively.

In the first semifinal, England’s Dimitar Dimitrov proved too strong for Liew, with the Singaporean losing in straight sets, 4-11, 6-11, 7-11. The second semifinal saw world No.52 Neo come from behind to beat Ukraine’s David Drobov, 3-2 (11-13, 8-11, 11-6, 13-11, 11-7).

However, Dimitrov proved too strong again for Singapore as he powered past Neo in the final, winning 11-8, 11-6, 9-11, 11-4.

A fantastic result for the boys, and testament of the hard work put in the boys during their daily training and by the Junior Development Squad coaches.