Štěpán Brhel Dominates the Last Ranking Tournament of 2024

This past weekend marked the final Youth Ranking Tournaments (BTM) of the 2024 calendar year. Among our players, Štěpán Brhel delivered the strongest performance, celebrating victories in both the singles and the doubles — the latter alongside his regular partner Martin Šíp.

The STOTEN Grand Prix in Liberec saw nearly all of the country's top youth players compete across all age categories. In the oldest category, three of our players took part. Alongside the aforementioned Štěpán Brhel (pictured), Oliver Vincenec and Dmytro Opanasiuk also competed. Of the two, only Dmytro managed to reach the main draw, where he unfortunately lost in the first round to eventual medalist Martin Slaný from Havířov.

Štěpán's road to gold was anything but easy. In the very first round, he faced the unpredictable Matyáš Kolečkář from SKST Havířov, and in the final, he met his doubles partner Martin Šíp from Kotlářka Prague.

"I'm more than satisfied with the result. I had a pretty demanding week before the tournament, so I'm glad I managed everything well. Surprisingly, the toughest match for me was against Matyáš Kolečkář, who I believe was leading 1:0 and 10:7," Štěpán commented.

In doubles, the boys dropped just two sets in total, clearly asserting their dominance in the U19 category.

"Martin and I have been playing together for ages. We're like brothers — both at and away from the table. That makes it even harder to play against him because we know each other so well, and we always want to beat one another. I'm glad it worked out for me this time, but honestly, it's always 50/50 between us," added Štěpán.

In the younger categories, our sole female representative Elen Galetková also competed. In the U13 category, she advanced to the main draw, but fell short in the medal rounds against Linda Ratajská (KST Olomouc). In the older age group, she didn't make it to the main draw, but managed to reach the consolation final, where she finally met her match.