Rosner & Wee Wern take Pioneer Open titles

There were major upsets in the Pioneer Junior Open  when Germany's tenth seed Simon Rosner claimed the men's U19 title and Malaysia's Low Wee Wern, the 16th seed, secured the women's U19 crown in the established European Squash Federation Junior Circuit event in Cologne, Germany (although quite how Rosner, in particular, came to be seeded tenth is something of a mystery!).

Rosner, the 18-year-old European Junior Champion from Wurzburg, made his breakthrough in the quarter-finals when he despatched top-seeded Dane Kristian Frost Olesen 9-2, 9-5, 9-3.  After defeating England's Lewis Walters, the fifth seed, in the semi-finals, Rosner went on to crush sixth seed Bart Ravelli, from the Netherlands, 9-0, 9-4, 9-1 in the final.

The victory will boost Rosner's confidence for next week's Prince World Junior Championship in New Zealand, where he is the fourth seed.

The other U19 event saw the collapse of reigning women's European Junior champion Camille Serme, the top seed and runner-up in Cologne last year. The 17-year-old from France was unable to capitalise on a two-game lead against Low Wee Wern, who went on to win 7-9, 1-9, 9-7, 9-6, 9-6 to reach a surprise quarter-final.

Low, a 15-year-old from Penang who became the Asian Junior (U19) Champion last month, was taken to four games by two English opponents – Deon Saffery and Emma Chorley – in the next two rounds before triumphing 9-3 9-4 9-6 in the final against Hong Kong's unseeded Annie Au.