Asker players at U17 tournament in Latvia

While some Asker players played their very first local tournament during our own Asker Open 2 weeks back, we have two very experienced U17 players who were selected to play in Latvia. In total, there were eight players, four boys and four girls, who were selected to represent Norway in the RSL Sigulda U17 Open 2026.

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Here we have the Norwegian squad, with coach Javier Bish on the far left in the picture. In addition, we have Asker players Daniel Nguyen (no.2 from right back) and Sarah Zeyu Du (no.2 from right front).

There were many exciting matches played during the tournament, and it is very clear if you look at Sarah’s matches. She ended up playing three long three-setters, one in each category. Of the nine sets she played, five of them also went out in extra time, where perhaps the most impressive was against the 4th seed from Spain, where she eventually lost the match with the numbers 27-25 20-22 13-21.

In doubles, Sarah played with Audrina Ammara Darmawan from Stavanger, and in mixed doubles she played with Anton Hofmann, who represents Bergen. Despite the loss, there have been several strong presentations on the court in Latvia.

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Daniel has a little more momentum going into this tournament, where he and mixed doubles partner Varshini Manikandan from Skrim, beat a Latvian pair in the round of 16, get a walkover in the round of 16 against an Estonian pair, and then make it all the way to the quarterfinals where they lose to the third seed from Lithuania.

Also in singles, Daniel makes it all the way to the quarterfinals! Here he actually gets a walkover in the round of 16, before winning the round of eight, before it gets a few notches too tough in the quarterfinals before the first seed from Estonia.
In the doubles with partner Aksel Stavnes Fossåskaret, it was a little tougher, and they narrowly lost the first round.

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Well done to both of them, and we wish them a lot of good training and good luck towards future competitions and championships, both nationally and internationally.