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Champions League Draft 2018

Posted on January 19, 2018 | by fir | Leave a Comment

This Monday at 21.30 (CET), the Champions League Draft for Division 1, will take place LIVE on the FIR Facebook Page. We will have a panel of experts on hand to discuss and analyse all the picks. The captains of the 8 franchise teams from London, Switzerland, Malta, Vienna, Copenhagen, Sweden, Oudenaarde and Berlin will pick their squads for this year’s tournament. So all players who have registered to play Champions League this year, make sure you tune into Facebook this Monday evening to see which international team you get picked for! Each Team Captain has been able to keep 2 players from last year’s squad, so they will each have 3 picks in this year’s Draft. The Champions League will be played over 2 weekends: Feb 23rd in Malmo and August 3rd in Nussloch!

Duncan Stahl

Record Prize Money at Vienna Classics

Posted on January 9, 2018 | by fir | Leave a Comment

Lukas Windischberger (Fotocredit RFA: podium with Busby and Dickert) and Christine Seehofer defend their titles at 8th Vienna New Year Classics from 5th to 7th January in Austria. The best players in the FIR World Rankings also win the mixed doubles together and Lukas even takes men doubles with Michi Dickert. The only elite title not won by Austria, goes to Germany with women doubles by Svenja Kleb and Ann-Katrin Pfeifer. Total prize money at this International World Tour event sponsored by ASKÖ Wien and VICTOR Austria was raised to a record of 1300 Euro with all double winners included. In total 124 players from 15 countries were responsible for 184 entries in no less than 20 draws. All winners on fir.tournamentsoftware.com

First titles for Korer, Harca, Strecha and Afghanistan

The first titles in World Tour history were won by Ersoy Korer in Seniors +40 doubles together with Marcel Weigl and for Afghanistan by the refugees Zabi Arabzada and Reza Mohammadi in juniors u21 doubles. Three more gold medals went to Germany thanks to Paul Sach, Markus Kugel/Ottmar Neidhardt and Ann-Kathrin Pfeifer in Men, Men Doubles and Women B. Peter Sakovics was responsible for two victories for Hungary in Seniors +50 and Mixed B – Amateur Doubles with his daughter Virag. Seniors +45 was won by Swedish legend Rickard Persson. All the other titles stayed in Austria. Juniors u13 and Seniors +40 in the Wagner family by Alexander and his father Tom. Seniors +55 to old star Michael Tesar. Juniors u16 gold medal and Men E First Timer went to newcomers Florian Harca and Nikolaus Strecha.

Apart from the head referee Michael Steiner 4 approved referees were on the centre courts (one in each sport), during the whole weekend doing an excellent job refereeing, counting and typing in the total scores on TV monitors for the spectators.

You can photos taken at the tournament here!

Thank you to all the helpers, sponsors and players to make this tournament such a success and see you back at the Super World Tour event Austrian Open – World Tour Finals from 23rd to 25th November 2018 in Austria.

RFA-Executive President
Marcel Weigl
weigl@racketlon.at

Champions League 2018

Posted on January 6, 2018 | by fir | Leave a Comment

ADD YOUR NAME TO THE PLAYER’S LIST AND WAIT TO SEE WHICH TEAM YOU GET PICKED FOR IN THE LIVE DRAFT!

PLAYERS FROM THE 2017 CHAMPIONS LEAGUE LOVED THE EXPERIENCE OF PLAYING FOR DIFFERENT INTERNATIONAL TEAMS AND HAVING TEAM-MATES FROM ALL AROUND THE WORLD!

Who Can Play in the New Champions League?

Champions League is open to all FIR registered players. It will be played on the Friday (23rd Feb) at the Swedish Open and on the Friday (3rd Aug) at the German Open.
You can choose to play only in Germany, or only in Sweden or in both!
Division 1 is mainly for Elite and high “B” players and Division 2 will be for low “B” and “C” players.

How Do I register to play Champions League?

Go to the normal FIR Tournament Software page: www.fir.tournamentsoftware.com and you will see an entry called “Champions League, Player Registration” Go to this page and register yourself here stating whether you are available to play Champions League at the Swedish Open or at the German Open…or ideally at both tournaments! Deadline for registration is 15th January 2018!

NB To enter the IWT Swedish Open or IWT German Open, please go to their separate entry pages as normal.

What are the Teams and which Team will I play for?

All the players who register to play Champions League will be put into a large pool of players and then on 21st January 2018 there will be a Live Draft where the 8 team captains from Division 1 and all the captains from Division 2, will select their squad of players. This will create very even strength teams to compete for the 2018 Champions League titles in both divisions.

Who are the Franchise Teams and captains?

Division 1

Technifibre Copenhagen – Team Captain: Morten Jaksland
Bergahain Berlin Boasters – Team Captain: Amke Fischer
iPro London – Team Captain: Duncan Stahl
KoR Oudenaarde – Team Captain: Lieselot de Bleeckere
Three Percent Malta – Team Captain: Kresten Hougaard
Swedish Vikings – Team Captain: Anna-Klara Ahlmer
Swiss Eagles – Team Captain: Benny Hampl
Kloteneuerberg Racketlonshop Austria: – Lukas Windischberger

Division 2

iPro London 2 – Johnny Bispham
Three Percent Malta 2 – Michael Pedersen
KoR Oudenaarde 2 – tbc
Swedish Vikings 2 – Christian Hellberg
Swiss Eagles 2 – Dara Ladner
Berghain Berlin Boasters 2 – Jenny Schmitz

What’s the Format of the New Champions League?

Champions League 2018 will be in a league format, where every team plays each other once. Each Division 1 team will play their first 3 matches in Sweden (23rd Feb) and their remaining 4 matches in Germany (3rd Aug).
Div 2 will play 2 matches in Sweden and 3 matches in Germany (as there are only 6 teams in Division 2).

Team Match Format

Each match will consist of 3x Men’s singles, 1x Women’s singles, 1x Men’s doubles and 1x Mixed doubles (all to 11up), but the singles players are also able to play in the doubles matches, meaning a team only needs a minimum of 3x men and 1x women per match.

The Draft

The Draft will be done LIVE via various social media platforms at 21.00 CET on 21st January so that all players can see what team they get picked for!
Nb Each team captain will be free to pick any player from any country.

Team Fees

Each team will pay an entry fee to the Tournament Director (this would be made up of payments from each individual team member).

For any Champions League questions – please contact: duncan.stahl@aureus-sv.com

Duncan Stahl

Babolat Thailand Open 2017: Great tournament but few participants

Posted on January 5, 2018 | by fir | Leave a Comment

The first racketlon tournament in South East Asia was the last one of the year 2017: The Thailand Open in Pattaya was proceeded by the German Racketlon Federation, since Thailand has (not yet) an own Federation. Tournament director Frank Kleiber was a bit dissapointed over the number of entries (26) although the tournament was online since November 2016. The duration was cut from 3 to 2 days, and the number of courts was reduced from 4 to 2, and at the end of the day it was a successful tournament leaving all participants happy with the conditions.

An airport pickup was organised for all players coming to Suvarmabhumi Airport, the tournament hotel (Ambassador City Jomtien) granted very special room rates although it is high season, and finally we had a nice players party with free beer and Karaoke.

The interesting thing was that this time the participating countries had a different profile than with usual tournaments held in Europe or Canada. There was a group of good Hongkong players, the very first Thai participant ever, an Australian who lives in Thailand, a Mexican that lives in Germany, and finally the winner in Men A and in Seniors 40 was from India: Ashutosh Pednekar (credit:TD) won both categories, marching his way unstoppable to the top of the Senior world ranking, if he continues to play tournaments. All results are online on fir.tournamentsoftware.com

Discussions are ongoing, whether the Thai player Nattawee would also co-host a possible tournament in next winter. If talks are successful, we will have the second Thailand Open in next coming December again.

Here in Asia we also will have talks with the Hongkong Racketlon federation for a possibility of a tournament there, and maybe an Asia tournament series (2 or 3 tournaments in December), and we are looking very much forward to the first tournament in India during this year.

Frank Kleiber
Tournament Director

Year starts with 8th Vienna Classics

Posted on December 29, 2017 | by fir | Leave a Comment

Traditionally the FIR Racketlon World Tour starts with the Vienna Classics into the New Year. From Friday 5th to Sunday 7th January the International World Tour event will be held in the European Championship venue City & Country Club Wienerberg. With 178 entries of 121 different players from 14 countries in 19 draws the expectations were more than met. Defending champions Christine Seehofer and Lukas Windischberger are the favourites for the elite titles once more. Friday is doubles day, all singles start on Saturday on four courts parallel including a centre court in all sports with approved referees. All draws and the time schedule are now online on fir.tournamentsoftware.com

Afghan refugees will participate

For the first time 10 refugees from Afghanistan including two girls from the RFA integration project will actively take part in the tournament. The youngsters will help with the tournament organisation like at the European Championships and participate in the u21 juniors and Men C – Amateur draws for the first time. Sport is lived integration and Racketlon wants to show this.

Late entries

Currently all draws are full, but late entries for the waiting list are possible per e-mail to tournament director Fabian Hofmann hofmann@racketlon.at

RFA-President
Marcel Weigl

Start the New Racketlon Year in Vienna

Posted on December 25, 2017 | by fir | Leave a Comment

The annual kick-off of the FIR World Tour will traditionally take place in Austria with the Vienna New Year Classics from Friday 5th to Sunday 7th January 2018. The International World Tour Event will be held in the European Championship Venue City & Country Club and will offer four courts in each sport as well as Arion City Hotel as official tournament hotel in walking distance. Registration deadline is Christmas day, Monday 25th December. It is possible to enter with the FIR license 2017 on fir.tournamentsoftware.com

Defending Champions all Austrian
In 2017 all victories in the elite classes went to Austria. The top players in the current FIR world rankings Lukas Windischberger and Christine Seehofer won the elite singles as well as mixed doubles together. In women doubles Christine Seehofer paired with her sister Elisabeth to take gold, while Lukas Windischberger won the title with Michi Dickert.

Tournament Website http://racketlon.at/vc2018/

Contact Tournament Director Fabian Hofmann hofmann@racketlon.at

Tournament Director
Fabian Hofmann

Tournament Draw Process

Posted on December 20, 2017 | by fir | Leave a Comment

FIR always strives for consistent tournament quality across all FIR Racketlon events. This serves not only to set expectations of what kind of matches players can expect when entering tournaments, but also that appropriate ranking points are awarded.

One important aspect is that an Elite class is filled primarily with Elite players and does not contain a large number of truly „B“ players e.g. as a result of the tournament’s location or timing. This can be achieved for singles events by selecting a draw-size which results in a draw „cut-off“ having a relatively consistent World Ranking. For Mens A event, the cutoff World Ranking in the range 60-80, for Womens A events, generally with far fewer entries, a cutoff of around 20-25 is typical, as shown by the the cut-off graphs for all 2017 FIR tournaments.

Although the uppermost goal is to achieve the best possible player experience for all tournaments, this is often not possible without concessions or compromise, resulting in some players being disadvantaged. Sometimes the rules cannot easily be applied to exception cases and a subjective judgement call is necessary.

Our goal is nevertheless that the tournament draw process follows a rule-based, objective system as far as is possible. The main driving force is to set deadlines to ensure that the tournament draws and schedules can be made on time and in accordance with the rules. Especially with the new rule introduced in 2017 that Elite draws should be broadcast live, this demands a more rigid timeline with some advance planning, so that players are able to know when to tune in to Facebook. When the rules are not easy to apply, we strive for clarity on how to deal with it.

An equally important aspect is to ensure that decisions are taken on a neutral, unbiased basis, and consistently across all tournaments. This must be accompanied by the need for fairness towards the players, to avoid e.g. that some players are consistently forced into classes they are unhappy with, or that late entries are allowed by some tournaments but rejected by others.

Making a tournament draw can often be a very challenging process. In an attempt to facilitate it, the FIR Council has discussed and approved a Tournament Draw Process, which is now available on http://www.racketlon.net/content/tournament-support .

Your feedback is welcome – we will be happy to improve it further, where this is possible.

World Tour 2018

Posted on December 5, 2017 | by fir | Leave a Comment

Next season’s World Tour calendar has been finalized. A lot of work have been put in to get the last few tournaments on the list, but we are happy to now announce a total of 14 World Tour tournaments plus another 2 challengers. There can easily be more challengers coming in 2018 as the deadline for applying for one of these is just 4 months prior to the tournament.

The Tour will as usual start in Vienna in the first weekend of the year. The City and Country Club in Vienna, which hosted the European Championships this year, will host the Vienna Classics. In February Swedish Open returns to Malmö including the first leg of the 2018 Champions League. This is followed only one week later by the Club La Santa Open in Lanzarote, Spain, hosted by Racketlon Denmark. April includes the traditional Czech Open and the first challenger (confirmed) challenger of the year, the Massachusetts Racket Masters in USA.

Two tournaments in Nussloch, Germany

In May the World Doubles Championships will be hosted at the popular venue of Racket Center in Nussloch. This will be hosted along with IWT Nussloch Open and will be a 4-day tournament. Thursday and Friday will be the World Doubles Championship and Saturday and Sunday will the IWT, which will only be a singles tournament. Nussloch will also host the traditional German Open like the many past years. Like last year the second leg of the Champions League will be hosted on the Friday of this weekend. Note that FIR and Racket Center Nussloch have decided to move it into start August instead of on the normal date at the end of July.

In between the two tournaments in Nussloch there are three stops on the tour, which will take us to Belgium, France and Latvia. Oudenaarde in Belgium is as always the host of the most popular tournament on the tour, the King of Rackets. In Paris the second (confirmed) challenger of the year, which will take place and Latvia returns for the third straight year with an IWT in Riga.

World Champs in Switzerland

The Team and Singles World Championships will take place in Vitis in Zürich, Switzerland. This venue last hosted the World Champs back in 2013 and is to date still the biggest racketlon tournament ever hosted. The Finnish Open in Helsinki will follow before the tour again goes to Malta for some sun in October. The tour will end in Austria with the World Tour Finals in Wiener Neudorf close to Vienna. Beneath a full overview of the 2018 FIR World Tour. See also fir.tournamentsoftware.com, where all the tournaments have been published.

Date	Type	Tournament Name	Country	Tournament Director	Delegate
5-7.1	IWT	Vienna Classics	Austria	Fabian Hofmann	Radu Ionescu
23-25.2	IWT + CL	Swedish Open	Sweden	Markus Borg	Kresten Hougaard
3-5.3	IWT	Club La Santa Open	Lanzarote, Spain	Kresten Hougaard	Luke Barnes
20-22.4	IWT	Czech Open	Czech Republic	Svatopluk Rejthar	Kirsten Kaptein
28-29.4	CHA	Massachusetts Racket Masters	USA	Andy Stenson	TBC
10-11.5	WC dbl	WC Doubles	Germany	Matthias Zimmermann	Hans Van Daele
12-13.5	IWT	Nussloch Open	Germany	Matthias Zimmermann	Hans Van Daele
1-3.6	SWT	King of Rackets	Belgium	Hilde van Onderbergen	Morten Jaksland
29.6-1.7	CHA	French Open	France	Josselin Gadé	Johnny Bispham
13-15.7	IWT	Latvian Open	Latvia	Zigmars Puikevics	Johnny Bispham
3-5.8	IWT + CL	German Open	Germany	Matthias Zimmermann	Kresten Hougaard
22-26.8	WC	WC Singles	Switzerland	Esther Dübendorfer	J. Bishop / R. Middleton
22-26.8	WC	WC Teams	Switzerland	Esther Dübendorfer	J. Bishop / R. Middleton
14-16.9	IWT	Finnish Open	Finland	Poku Salo	TBD
12-14.10	IWT	Malta Open	Malta	Duncan Stahl	Kirsten Kaptein
23-25.11	SWT	World Tour Finals Austrian Open	Austria	Fabian Hofmann	Richard Middleton

Kresten Hougaard
FIR President

For The First Time: Thailand Open 2017

Posted on December 5, 2017 | by fir | Leave a Comment

The last tournament of the year will be held at the end of this month. The Thailand Open will take place on 28th and 29th December. Originally it was planned as a 3 day tournament, but the number of registered players is making it possible to finish it in 2 days only.
Although Tournament Director Frank Kleiber is very disappointed about the low number of participants as he advertised this tournament since November 2016, he will give his very best to make this tournament unforgettable for the players that come to play. You can still register on fir.tournamentsoftware.com! Entry deadline is on 15th December.

The tournament will be held at the 10th biggest hotel worldwide, the Ambassador City Jomtien near Pattaya. Here you can find 4 table tennis tables, 6 badminton, 8 squash and 2 outdoor tennis courts. Players enjoy very special low rates at the hotel although it is prime travelling time here.

The players party will be held after the tournament, so that no one has to play the other day and can enjoy the evening. We will be serving traditional Thai food at the players party, and later the night everybody can prove their singing skills at the Karaoke machine.

Furthermore we have planned a new year´s eve party, where we get together for Thai food in a cozy restaurant, and finally we will enjoy the fireworks on the famous Walking Street of Pattaya.
Frank Kleiber
Tournament Director

EUR 10 surcharge for tournament registration in last month

Posted on December 2, 2017 | by fir | Leave a Comment

Don’t forget about the new rule allowing the Tournament Director to charge players an additional EUR 10 if their first registration was within the last 4 weeks before close of registration. As we already reported on 17th October, the objective of this new rule is to improve the visibility of players participating in the tournament, not as an additional source of revenue for Tournament Directors (though this may well be a by-product).

Given the timing of this new rule, Vienna Classics has generously allowed this deadline to be extended from Monday 27. November to Monday 11th December. If you were thinking of playing Vienna Classics next month, right now would be an excellent time to go online and register, to make sure you don’t have an unpleasant surprise at the tournament desk on arrival.

As for the following tournaments, please don’t expect this extension to be granted again, as the new Regulations should be published in January for all to see. Why wait? Just register!