Double Delight For France At ESF European U19 Individual Championships

France celebrated their second 'double' ever at the ESF European U19 Individual Championships as Amir Khaled-Jousselin and Lauren Baltayan won the titles in Prague.

Men's top seed Khaled-Jousselin, who is only 16, wore down Belgian opponent Maddox Moxham, the 9/12 seed, in a high-class 45-minute final which finished 11-2 9-11 11-6 11-3.

Earlier, top seed Baltayan made amends for her defeat to England's Amelie Haworth in last year's women's final in Bucharest by defeating Englishwoman Emily Coulcher-Porter 11-5 11-3 11-4 in just 24 minutes.

It's only the second time France has won both titles at the European U19 Individuals; the first was when Gregoire Marche and Camille Serme took the trophies in Stavanger in 2008.

Khaled-Jousselin had smoothly reached the men's final without dropping a game, including a dominant performance against England's 3/4 seed and European No.1 Alexander Broadbridge in Monday's semi-finals.

Moxham's route to the final had seen him beat three higher-seeded players, Oriol Salva Ripoli of Spain [5/8] and Poland's Jan Samborski [3/4], then Czech home favourite Jan Samborski [2] in the semi-finals in four games.

There was no apparent fatigue in Moxham's legs in some thrilling long early exchanges, and after Khaled-Jousselin took the first, the New York-based player battled back to claim a thrilling second.

The tide turned towards the Nancy-born starlet in the third and fourth, however, and he celebrated becoming the fourth French winner of the men's title (after Gregory Gaultier, Gregoire Marche and Victor Crouin) since the event began in 1989.

Khaled-Jousselin said: "It was a very tough final. There's lot of emotion for me because I have been thinking about this for a year. Maddox played a great second game, but my coach told me to go more attacking in the third and it worked."

After the victory, Jousselin put on a t-shirt which paid tribute to his French team-mate Ilyes Hammouche, who tragically died two weeks ago. "He was a really good friend and I'm really happy to win this title for him," said the champion.

Earlier, 17-year-old Baltayan showed all her hard-hitting, street fighting qualities and never allowed England's unique 'hand-swapper' Coulcher-Porter to settle in the women's final.

Cairo-born Baltayan became the first French winner of the European U19 Individual women's title since Camille Serme in 2008 - and the pair will be team-mates in Wroclaw in two weeks' time when they line up for France at the ESF European Team Championships.

Baltayan had progressed to the final without dropping a game, whereas 13/16 seed Coulcher-Porter had to battle past 3/4 seed Renske Huntelaar in four games, her compatriot Olivia Owens in the quarter-finals and second seed Maya Weishar of Germany in the semis.

"It's a title I wanted to win my whole life," said Baltayan. "I have been preparing for this for four years. It's a dream of mine to win this title against all of the top European players.

"I knew I was well prepared but what I felt was most important was to show that my body language was very good, that I was confident, that my shots are good and that I'm in the right place."

The players now get one day's rest before the ESF European U19 Mixed Team Championships begin. France will be bidding to retain the title they won last year in Bucharest.

"With the new format [two boys, two girls] it's going to be a new challenge for the French team," said Baltayan. "We have very good team spirit, which is what's most important for us."