Na­tion­al youth team play­er Ma­lik Gopaul will be tar­get­ing a suc­cess­ful de­fence of his ti­tle in the Un­der-19 Boys Sin­gles com­pe­ti­tion of the Arawak-spon­sored Trinidad and To­ba­go Ta­ble Ten­nis As­so­ci­a­tion (T&TT­TA) Sil­ver Bowl Age-Group Cham­pi­onships which serves off to­day.

The two-day tour­na­ment takes place at the East­ern Re­gion­al In­door Sports Are­na, Or­ange Grove Road, in Tacarigua, with the first serve from 9.30 am and con­cludes on Sun­day from 9.30 am as well.

The for­mer France-based Gopaul is the top-ranked play­er in the Un­der-19 Boys’ sin­gles and will first come up against Jerell Louis and Kai Joe­field in his three-play­er group. One round-robin se­ries from which the top two play­ers will qual­i­fy.

A mem­ber of the T&T boys’ team which earned bronze at the re­cent­ly held Caribbean Youth Cham­pi­onships in the Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic, Gopaul is ex­pect­ed to face a stern test from his na­tion­al col­leagues in Josi­ah Joseph and Raees Elahie, while Jonathon Cot­toy will al­so be in con­tention for the ti­tle as well.

The sec­ond-seed­ed Joseph will con­test Group Two against Joshua Sim­mons and Kyrell Samuel; Elahie is in Group Four against Ethan Mo­hammed and Jared Si­mon, while Cot­toy will com­pete in Group Five ver­sus Joseph Christo­pher Sama­roo and Ma­teo Mollineau, with Sekel McIn­tosh, an­oth­er ti­tle con­tender, con­test­ing Group Three with Ja­son O’Young and Ju­vante Bap­tiste.

Over­all, there are sev­en round-robin groups in the Boys Un­der-19 Sin­gles from which the top two play­ers will qual­i­fy for the main draw.

The Girls’ Un­der-19 Sin­gles will be hot­ly con­test­ed as well, with T&T’s bronze medal-win­ning team duo from the Caribbean Youth Cham­pi­onships, Jor­dan Thong and Jan­nah Mo­hammed, the favourites along­side top-ranked Ji­nai Samuel.

Samuel has been drawn to head Group One against Mo­hammed and Jemi­ma Joy Ja­cob, while Group Two will fea­ture sec­ond-ranked Lyl­lana Bood­han, Thong and Kim­ber­ley As­tor, from which the top two play­ers will ad­vance to the semi­fi­nals.

There will al­so be com­pe­ti­tion in the Un­der-15, Un­der-11 and Un­der-9 age groups for both boys and girls with na­tion­al youth team stand­outs Mo­hammed (E), Mollineau, Jared Si­mon, Za­y­den Sagram­s­ingh, Eliz­a­beth Ra­jah, Samir Radge Coomar, and Mo­hammed (J). Zuri Radge Coomar, Is­abel­la My­ers and Hi­dayah Mo­hammed are all in the mix for the Un­der-15 and Un­der-11 crowns.