Faraji bags historic bronze at Europe Youth Smash
Iranian table tennis wonderkid Benyamin Faraji claimed a historic bronze medal at the prestigious Europe Youth Smash event in Malmö, Sweden, on Saturday.
The teen prodigy secured five successive victories before suffering a 4-3 defeat (7-2, 6-7, 7-2, 4-7, 7-6, 5-7, 7-5) against Japan’s Ryuusei Kawakami in the U19 boys’ singles semifinals, finishing joint third alongside Colombia’s Emanuel Otalvaro at the second WTT Youth Grand Smash of the season.
Faraji opened his campaign with a 4-2 (7-5, 6-7, 7-5, 5-7, 7-2, 7-3) victory over Italy’s Francesco Trevisan on Friday before making quick work of France’s Antoine Noirault in straight games (7-4, 7-3, 7-1, 7-6).
A 4-2 win (3-7, 7-5, 7-3, 6-7, 7-5, 7-6) against Denmark’s Dominykas Samuolis saw Faraji win Group 6 and advance to the last 16, where he defeated Hung Che-Yen of Chinese Taipei 4-2 (7-3, 6-7, 7-3, 4-7, 7-5, 7-1).
Faraji then defeated Portugal’s Tiago Abiodun 4-0 (7-5, 7-6, 7-2, 7-1) to set up a last-four clash with Kawakami, who won the U19 boys’ singles title at last year’s ITTF World Youth Championships.
Faraji, who also won the U19 boys’ singles title at the latest WTT Youth Contender event in Vientiane, Laos, earlier this month, will be part of the Iranian squad at September’s Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games.
Iran will look to emulate the impressive success of Hangzhou 2022, which yielded men’s doubles and team bronze medals – the country’s first table tennis medals at the multi-sport event in 65 years.
The winner of Iran’s maiden and, to date, only medal at the World Youth Championships – a bronze in the U15 category in 2024 – Faraji will aim for further international glory when he takes part in the upcoming Summer Youth Olympics, starting Oct. 31 in Dakar, Senegal.