Ugandan pre-teenage duo Joseph Sebatindira and Patience Anyango did not win medals at the WTT Youth Contender Helsingborg 2026 but coach Alvin Katumba picked lessons which could be valuable in the coming tournaments especially the African Youth Championships next month.
Sebatindira has won multiple titles at WTT Under 11 championships since the age of nine, but reproducing the same dominance at the Under 13 category may take some more time and hard work. Inside the Helsingborg Arena late last week, Sebatindira won all his three matches in the
U13 Boys’ Singles. He defeated Max Takkavuori of Finland 3-2, Sigge Leigert of Sweden 3-0, and Vilgot Almroth of Sweden 3-1 to lead Group 1 on six points.
But he lost the quarterfinal to 2-3 to Israel’s Ilay Davidov, who would later lose the semi-final 3-0 to eventual champion Hachim Tissafi Idrissi of France.
Sebatindira tried his luck at the U15 Boys’ Singles. He lost Sweden’s to Erik Kogerfelt 1-3 in the group and defeated Luxemborg’s Vincent Schlotthauer 3-1 to reach the Round of 16. He, however, lost 3-0 to Poland’s Hubert Kwiecinski.
Meanwhile, in the U13 Girls’ Singles, Anyango, a two-time and reigning African U12 champion, finished third in a group of four, thus failing to qualify for the next round.
Anyango first lost to Finland’s Kamilla Kadar 0-3 and to France’s Alyssia Bataille 2-3, rendering her 3-0 victory over Sweden’s Nina Lazic useless in the qualification bid as Kadar and Bataille advanced with six and five points respectively.
This was quite an opportunity missed because unlike the boys’ U13 singles category which had four groups, the girls’ entries were only seven, split into two groups. That means reaching the knockouts was just inches loser to the medal bracket.
In the U15 Girls’ Singles, Anyango defeated Sweden’s Alice CHEN 3-0 and France’s Lisa Zhao 3-0 to lead Group 3 on four points. But she lost the Round of 16 tie to Spain’s Eloisa Barreda 3-1.
Sebatindira and Anyango defeated the Swedish pair of Erik Kogerfelt and Alicia Enbom 3-2 in the groups of the U15 Mixed Doubles but lost to another Swedish pair of Emil Ellermann and Siri Benjegard 3-1.
‘The performance was good but not the best as we expected,’ Coach Katumba told Daily Monitor. ‘We picked up some lessons that as we improve, others also improve, and thus we must keep working 100%. Plus, some players are not technically gifted but are tactically good in game situations. So, we need to focus more on our tactics.
‘Thirdly, the losses came at a time when we have a training camp here, though it is short, but at least it gives us room to improve on our weak areas and also sharpen our players in the game situation as we prepare for the Africa Youth Championship next month.’
U13 Boys’ Singles – Group 1
Sebatindira 3-2 Max Takkavuori (FIN)
Sebatindira 3-0 Sigge Leigert (SWE)
Sebatindira 3-1 Vilgot Almroth (SWE)
Quarterfinal
Sebatindira 2-3 Ilay Davidov (Israel)
U15 Boys’ Singles – Group 7
Sebatindira 1-3 Erik Kogerfelt (SWE)
Sebatindira 3-1 Vincent Schlotthauer (LUX)
Round of 16
Sebatindira 0-3 Hubert Kwiecinski (POL)
U13 Girls’ Singles – Group 2
Anyango 0-3 Kadar (FIN)
Anyango 2-3 Bataille (FRA)
Anyango 3-0 Lazic (SWE)
U15 Girls’ Singles
Anyango 3-0 Lisa Zhao (FRA)
Round of 16
Anyango 1-3 Eloisa Barreda (SPA)
U15 Mixed Doubles – Round of 32
Sebatindira / Anyango 3-2 Kogerfelt / Enbom
U15 Mixed Doubles – Round of 16
Sebatindira / Anyango 1-3 Ellermann / Benjegard