Last week, from Friday to Sunday, Dubrovnik (Croatia) held the Croatia Valamar Junior Open 2022, with the Andalusian participation of the two athletes from Granada, Daniel Franco and Rubén García, along with Salvador Franco, also a CB Granada coach. The Andalusians completed a good participation, highlighting the quarterfinals reached by Franco and García in the DM.
IM
Starting with the singles, Daniel Franco began his career in the modality by defeating the Scotsman in two very close sets (21-17/21-19), thus achieving the pass to the second round, in which he also resoundingly prevailed over the other Scottish midfielder in two sets (21-9/21-11), to continue the victorious path beating Aaron Bai also in two games (21-18/21-16) and sneak into the round of 16, a round in which planted when falling in two sets against Lee Jan Jireh (21-15/21-14).
For his part, Rubén García was able to beat the Hungarian Csanad Horvath in the first round in a three-set duel (21-15/12-21/21-9), but was later defeated in the second round by the Luxembourgish Jerome Pauquet also in three games (21-18/16-21/21-12).
DM
In the DM Daniel Franco and Rubén García managed to advance to the quarterfinals, staying on the verge of bronze. They began their journey by beating the Poles Franczak and Golas (21-19/21-16) in the second round, to reach the quarterfinals after emerging victorious in the round of 16, defeating the German duo made up of Eckerlin and Gatzche (20 -22/21-18/21-17). Already in the quarterfinals they perished before the Indonesian couple made up of JJ and Prajogo (21-9/21-14).
DX
In the mixed modality, Daniel Franco formed a couple as usual with Elena Payà from Alicante. The Alicante-Andalusian duo stood up in the second round, where they met in a tense three-set match against the Estonian duo formed by Kilk and Berik, with the Spanish coming out victorious overcoming the first adverse set (13-21/22-20 /21-16). After this duel they reached the round of 16, where they lost in two games against the Japanese Ota and Muroya (21-13/21-9), one of the favorite couples of the event.
On the other hand, Rubén García together with the Galician Lucía Rodríguez achieved a performance similar to that of his teammate. In the second round they defeated the Poles Butkus and Wojcik (21-15/21-15), and reached the round of 16, losing against the Japanese Tanioka and Taguchi (21-14/21-15).
