Leinster U15 Open

Matthew Cheung once again outlined his dominance in the under age events this season taking home all 3 titles at the Leinster U15 Open. The current U15 National Champion and winner of the Ulster, Munster & Leinster U17 titles, along with the Ulster U15 singles title already this season continued his high level of play at Balddoyle Badminton Centre , Dublin to make it a clean sweep in the boys singles, boys doubles & Mixed doubles.

Matthew's has developed very well over the last few years and his currently playing level is of a very high quality evidenced with his progression to the final of the boys singles with no player winning more that 8 points in all his matches. In the final he faced Mount Pleasant's Dylan Noble who defeated the 2nd seed, Richard Kong, en route to the final. The first set was evenly matched up to  the mid game interval. Matthew then gained a 3 point lead which he maintained to the end of the set taking it 21-17. the second set Matthew really upped his level and some great badminton and ran away with it, winning 21-8 and his 5th Singles title of the season.

The Mixed Doubles Matthew partnered fell Performance Squad player Chloe Woods. The Ulster pair had a comfortable passage to the final where they faced the 2nd seeded Galway/Ulster Partnership of Richard Kong & Lucy Xu. It was Kong & Xu who started well in the final before Matthew and Chloe gained some momentum just before the mid game interval, in which they continued for the remainder of the set winning 21-15. Having gained confidence from the opening Matthew & Chloe really pushed hard in the 2nd set and won it comfortably 21-7 and the Mixed title.

Matthew partnered Terenure College player Robbie Frost for the Boys Doubles event and after a walkover in the first round faced the strong pair of Eoghan Cooney & singles finalist Dylan Noble. Matthew & Robbie had great focus for the match and won 21-12, 21-17.  The Semi Final seen them face the young Ulster pair of Jeffery Rong & Joshua Tang in which they won 21-6, 21-9. In the final they played the top seeds of the event James Fleming & Richard Kong. The boys won a good opening set 21-16 and continued their good form in the second set winning 21-10 and Matthews 3rd title of the day!

Chloe Woods just came up short in her quest for another title in the Girls doubles losing out in the final. Partnering her younger sister Paige them came through a 3 set thriller 21-12, 18-21, 21-17 in the semi final against Saumya Kothiyal & Aishlinn Murtagh the sisters faced another sister pairing of Neasa & Siofra Flynn. The Flynn sister, who were top seeds for the event proved to strong for the young Woods pairing taking it 21-12, 21-17. A good run to the final for Chloe and Paige.

Paige Woods had a fantastic run in the Girls singles reaching the final, defeating the 3/4 seed Eva Bogosovskaya in the 2nd round en route to the final. Unfortunately to was a match too far for the 13 Year old losing out 21-9, 21-7. Coming away with 2 Silver medals was a very impressive tournament from the young Lisburn Raw Performance Squad player.

For full results click here

Thanks to Leinster badminton for running the event. Next up for the U15's is the Irish National Championships!