Category: World Tour

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

The third edition of the Antwerp Open was the first time at International World Tour level. This brought a no less than 120 players to the venue of Tennis Club Hove. In the Men Elite, the first match already brought a first surprise. First seed Kasper Jønsson had to withdraw after only 2 points of squash due to a knee injury. In the other matches the seeded players Peter Duyck, Cedric Junillon and Dan Busby did what was expected of them. Even if we must say that Richard Middleton gave Peter a hard time, pushing him to a thrilling tennis match. Peter had no more than a 2 point margin in the end. The fourth semi-finalist was Mohammed Tarik Koubaa. After the withdrawal of Kasper he demonstrated his skills with a win before tennis against Korbinian Heim to face Belgian start Duyck in the semifinal. The final was a replay of last year’s final. Peter Duyck against Dan Busby. Would Peter be able to win the Antwerp Open for the third time? As expected Peter was strong in the table tennis and took a 21-10 win. Smart and solid badminton brought Dan back with a 21-17 win. Peter fought for all he was worth in squash, but could not salvage more than 7 points. Peter knew it was going to be hard to keep Dan under 15 in Tennis. It was a tight game, but at 16-15 Busby could celebrate his first Antwerp Open victory.

In the Womens elite First seed Lieselot De Bleeckere was going for home victory. Wins over Hélène Lechemolle and last year’s winner Anastasiya Bruzgina brought her to the final. In the other half of the draw second seed Nicole Eisler moved to the final with comfortable wins over Jennifer Schmitz and Anouk Dols. Everybody knew this was going to be an exciting and tight final. Table tennis could have gone either side, but Lieselot managed to take the smallest margin with a 22-20 win. In Badminton she showed that she has made a lot of progression with a 21-9 victory. Nicole started a comeback with 14-21 win in squash. She managed to win her first world tour title of 2017 with a 21-11 tennis win.

Mixed doubles was won by Lieselot De Bleeckere and Kasper Jønsson. Women’s doubles title went to Anastasiya Bruzgina and Jennifer Schmits, winning by just one point agains Kirsten Kaptein and Nicole Eisler. Men’s doubles victory was for Peter Duyck and Dan Busby, beating surprise finalists Guus Van De Burgt and Alwin Krist. Youngsters Luka Penttinen and Senne Blommaert showed them that they are getting closer to the top by taking third place. All results are online on fir.tournamentsoftware.com

 

Hans Abbelos
Tournament Director

Sweden made a clean sweep by winning all the Elite draws in the Finnish Open in Helsinki. In the Men’s Elite  3rd seed Sebastian Hedlund first beat wild card Alexander Lipczynski of Sweden and then 1st seed Benjamin Hampl of Switzerland. While Luka Penttinen defeated Sweden’s Michael Persson, then had a walk over and beat Arturs Zaicevs of Latvia in the semis. The final was well contested match where the Swede had the upper hand and took the Finnish title by 5 points. (credit: Racketlon Finland)
The Women’s Elite saw a surprise winner in unseeded Swede Emmie Danielson who beat topseeded Esther Dübendorfer of Switzerland after having lost squash by 1-21. All draws are online on fir.tournamentsoftware.com

Men’s Elite doubles was a tight affair, but again Sweden drew the longer staw when Ola Emriksson and Michael Persson clinched the titel with a 3 points victory over topseeded Benjamin Hampl and Luka Penttinen.

The Mixed produced the only double winners of the tournament when Emmie Danielsson and Michael Persson took the title. Switzerland’s Esther Dübendorfer and Benjamin Hampl took the second place.

Men’s B was won by Oliver Bühler from Switzerland and Women’s 40+ by Esther DübendorferI. In all other classes there was a Finnish winner.

 

Poku Salo
Tournament Director

On 27th and 28th October Murau was the location of the last international tournament of Racketlon in Austria this year. Michael Wölfl, the president of the Racketlon Team Murau, was glad to welcome more than 30 participants. As last year Christine Seehofer and Lukas Windischberger took the first place in the Elite Events. All results are online on fir.tournamentsoftware.com

Christine Seehofer, the world number one, won all her matches without playing Tennis. 2nd place reached Bettina Bugl and Elisabeth Seehofer completed the podium with taking the 3rd place. Newcomer Jacqueline Mariacher closed the Woman A event with the 4th place.

The big favorite in Men A was Lukas Windischberger because Michael Dickert had to cancel his participation due to an illness. The world number one played almost a perfect tournament. Luki was able to win all his 3 matches before tennis. Surprising Matija Mikac from Croatia took the Advantage of a good draw in the lower half for reaching the 2nd place. The small final was played between Bernd Jaschke and Frank Eichkitz. In the end Bernd Jaschke was happy to take the bronze medal. (credit: Tournament Director)

In Men B the 4th seeded Patrick Flandorfer surprised with his first victory in Murau. In the final Horst Schwarzenberger had no chance, but he was very satisfied with his 2nd place. Kim Niederhausen from Germany was the winner of the small final against the croatian Marijan Stepan.

8 Players participated in Men C Event which was dominated by Björn Sattler. He won the final against his Tennis colleague Alexander Bogensperger. A happy Daniel Lercher took the 3rd place.

At the price giving ceremony,which was held by the former World Champion Christoph Krenn, Michael Wölfl, said “Thank you” to all participants for coming. A big honor to all supporters, sponsors and helpers for executing this tournament. The Racketlon Team Murau is looking forward to seeing al lot of players at the next international tournament in Murau.

 

Michael Wölfl
Tournament Director

80 players from 17 different countries travelled to the 3rd IWT Malta Open from 6th to 8th October in search of a great Racketlon experience – as the Malta Open (alongside its cousin the Club La Santa Open) are unique events on the FIR World Tour. They offer the players far more than just a tournament. They offer a mix of serious Racketlon competition, beautiful surroundings, great facilities, perfect weather and the chance to enjoy a true holiday experience. All results are now online on fir.tournamentsoftware.com

On Court

On the court, the women’s elite draw saw two time defending champion Amke Fischer from Germany suffer an ankle injury during the badminton set of her first match against the quickly improving Zuzana Severinova from the Czech Republic. This immediately opened things up resulting in a final between Zuzana (who also defeated GB’s rising star Hannah Boden) and Astrid Reimer-Kern, who had come past Nicole Eisler and Katrin Maldre.

In the final Astrid nicked the TT 21-18, before Zuzana came back with a solid 21-14  win in the badminton. In order to give herself a chance Zuzana needed to try and somehow make things awkward on the squash court for Astrid to try and leave Astrid needing double figures at tennis (Zuzana’s best sport).

However Astrid’s prowess on the squash court was simply too much and the 21-3 win left her only needing 8 at tennis which she reached with the scores 8-8 to record a very well deserved Malta Open title.

In the Men’s Elite draw, the opening rounds all went with the seedings, as the top 4 seeds all reached the semi finals which saw Morten Jaksland play Dan Busby and Kresten Hougaard (credit:tournament organisation) play tournament director Duncan Stahl. In the first semi, Morten played a very solid opening two sports winning 21-12, 21-18 leaving Dan with a lot to do and even a 21-7 win at squash still left Dan needing 19 at tennis which proved 5 points too many as Morten won 21-14 to move into his first Malta final.

At various points over the years, Kresten and Duncan have both beaten each other at all 4 sports and generally their matches have always come down to just a few points – so their matches are famously very hard to predict! However, this time around Kresten was too sharp in their Sat evening match winning 21-14, 21-16, 21-17, 6-9 to set up an all Danish Sunday final against Morten.

Once again Kresten, who is now based in Malta, looked very sharp in the Sunday lunchtime Final taking the first 3 sports 21-18, 21-12, 21-18 leaving him just 7 points to win the title. Kresten made light work of what could have been a tricky 7 points to win and at 7-7, the Malta Open title was his.

Two all French finals in both the Women’s and Men’s B saw Loic Cencig overcome compatriot Jean-Brice Montagnon and Helene Lechemolle beat Dorothee Gazeau. The Men’s C saw Volker Sach (in what might have been his 33rd match of the weekend) triumph over the irrepressible French dynamo, Fabien Mauroy.

In the vets, the mighty Rickard Persson (who by the way has now played a Racketlon tournament in 17 different countries – can that be beaten?) was too strong winning the 40+ with ease, while Radu Ionescu won a very tight final against Manfred Grab in the 50+ final.

There were other notable wins for Dan Busby and Hannah Boden in the Mixed elite doubles (on a gummi arm) and for Phil Todd and Steffen Neumann in the Men’s B doubles.

Off Court

As is traditional at the Malta Open, all the extras around the tournament are a real highlight: with players able to relax under palm trees by the huge pool area in between their matches, enjoy a Fri BBQ, a player’s party until the sun came up on Sunday morning , a traditional Sunday lunch and an amazing all day boat trip to the beautiful island of Comino and the Blue Lagoon.

All reasons why the Malta Open remains the friendliest, most sociable and enjoyable tournament on the World Tour!

 

Duncan Stahl
Tournament Director

On 27th and 28th of October 2017 Murau in Austria will be the location of the second international Racketlon Challenger. The Racketlon Team Murau hosted several national tournaments in the last years and is once again Murau looking forward to welcome many international participants at the end of October. Register now on fir.tournamentsoftware.com

Due to the support of the local town and some private supporters the organization team prepared an extensive welcome bag for every player. The tournament will take place in Tennishalle Murau West (http://www.tennishallemurau.at/) and a special price for accommodation for each player will be guaranteed for the players at Hotel Lercher (http://www.hotel-restaurant-lercher.at) and at JUFA Hotel Murau (murau@jufa.eu). If you need any other information about Murau and the surroundings, the staff of tourist information (http://www.murau-kreischberg.at) will help you. The players party will be held at one of the biggest events in Murau, the Bockbieranstich of Brewery Murau.

 

Michael Wölfl
Tournament Director

The Racketlon season may be drawing to a close, but the inevitable sadness that this bring is tempered by the knowledge that it involves a return to the glorious island of Malta. The Malta Open represents a holistic Racketlon experience with fantastic facilities and a wealth of opportunities to socialise off the court. However, you are not reading this for me to wax lyrical about the benefits of playing the Malta Open, but for the sport itself. Sport loves an undefeated player or team. Arsenal in 2003/04, the boxer Rocky Marciano, Jesper Ratzer’s final seasons and this coming winter the Australian cricket team*. However, it is one thing to be undefeated, it is another thing to put your undefeated record on the line, and at the 2017 Malta Open, Amke Fischer is doing just that. Make has never lost a Racketlon match, singles or doubles in Malta and she is back for a third year running, looking for further glory and also to further extend that run. She’ll be facing stiff competition in all three draws, with the Malta Open offering a full programme of sporting events for the Racketlon community, which can be viewed on fir.tournamentsoftware.com

Amke’s Aims

If Amke is to maintain her Maltese record, she will face competition from 5 other challengers in the Ladies A, which has been split into two box leagues of 3 players. Amke is top seed and heads Group A, while second seed Nicole Eisler heads Group B. Amke faces the future, both her opponents young in years, but steeped in Racketlon experience, as she faces Hannah Boden and Zuzana Severinova. Riding in Amke’s favour however is recent victories over both these ladies, at the German Open (Zuzana) and European Championships (Hannah). In Group B, Nicole faces the challenge of wildcard Katrin Maldre, whom she may not know a huge amount about, but her second opponent she knows a lot more about, fellow Swiss Army Knives captain and friend, Astrid Reimer-Kern. The box league format means these ladies are guaranteed to enjoy the Marsa Sports Club’s fabulous tennis courts in glorious sunshine, it also brings in the element of uncertainty, a spurious result that can set the cat amongst the pigeons, something Amke will be seeking to avoid.

 

Morten Keen For More Fun In The Sun

Morten Jaksland is top seed in the Men’s A and having taken the Men’s A title earlier in the season at the other Racketlon island paradise of Lanzarote, he will be keen to once again earn victory in sun, sea and sand surroundings. Morten, and fellow seeds, Kresten Hougaard, Dan Busby and Duncan Stahl all get a round off in this 12 man monrad draw, but it is unlikely to be plain sailing for the seeds in this event once they do get going. Keen to make his mark on this draw will be the Men’s B European Champion, Jorn Sultrup who opens up against Adolphe Fernandez-Diez while the only active members of the 2015 Malta Open podium, Cedric Junillon (2 nd ) and Rickard Persson (3 rd ) face each other in the first round. Once the seeds enter in the quarter-finals, they’ll be thinking about making those semi-finals, a task that may be fractionally tougher in the bottom half of the draw.

 

Fewer Brits, More Maltese, More Everyone

The 2017 Malta Open sees its smallest contingent of Brits at the event, yet with its ever growing popularity around the rest of the tour nations and an increasing number of local entries, the entry is the same as in previous years. This reduced number of Brits is most evident away from the elite draws with only 2 in the Men’s B and 2 in the Ladies B, however it is probably the brace of French men (JB Montagon & Loic Cencig) and women (European Ladies B Champion Helene Lechemolle and Dorothee Gazeau) in each of these draws who will be favourite to take home the titles. In both draws top seeds Ersoy Korer (Men’s B) and Dianne Baker (Ladies B) will be hoping to stand in their way. The Men’s C features a geographically broad range of entries from Malta to South Africa, however a host of experience campaigners including top seeds Hans Van Daele and Fabian Mauroy who will be hoping to conquer the rest! After the appearance of Jurgen Melzer at the European Championships, hearts went aflutter at the Malta Open HQ when a Belgian named Vandamme entered, however Cristof not Jean-Claude will be hoping to make an impact in the Men’s D. He’ll be joined by 11 others, including 3 male Brits who will be hoping to avoid the wily fox, Dianne Baker, who is looking for a Ladies B-Men’s D Double, the seedings headed by Ray Ryan and Harry Courtney as 1 and 2 respectively. Away from the open singles there is the usual collection of doubles and Vets draws to ensure no one misses out on the maximum amount of Racketlon fun in the sun.

 

Beyond The Court

The Malta Open is much more than just three days of Racketlon. Aside from the glorious weather synonymous with the island of Malta, tournament director Duncan Stahl has made sure that the Malta Open offers plenty of opportunities for players to experience more than just a fantastic on court experience. Supported by now Maltese resident, FIR president Kresten Hougaard, the 2017 Malta Open features a presidential penthouse welcome party, in addition to the regular bonus events of the Friday night BBQ at the Marsa Golf Club, Sunday Roast and the Monday boat trip to the iconic Blue Lagoon. With the players party situated conveniently close to the Tournament Hotel, the Malta Open really is one of the most rounded Racketlon experiences. A great weekend awaits all the players, with sunshine very much on the cards, good luck to all the players!

*I owe this to Leigh Sands.

 

James Pope
UK Racketlon

To finalize the 2018 tour is a long process and is taking a bit longer this year than in previous years. To prepare the community for the upcoming year, we have decided to publish the part of next year’s tour that is now confirmed. More tournaments should come, but there is still a bit more work to be done with them before they can be confirmed.

First tournament on the calendar is taking place in Austria as usual. The City and Country Club in Wienerberg that just hosted the European Championships, will be hosts of the Vienna Classics. Swedish Open then again returns to Malmö in the last weekend of February and is followed up by last year’s very popular event hosted by Racketlon Denmark at Club La Santa on the Canary Island of Lanzarote. Note that this tournament is played from Saturday to Monday and is played only one week after Swedish Open.

The tour continues a month and a half later with the traditional Czech Open in Prague. Then the first of the confirmed challengers take place in Northampton in Massachusetts, USA, for the second straight year. May is without a tournament so far, but King of Rackets in Belgium will take place in the first weekend of June as always. A newcomer to the tour will take us to Paris in the last weekend of June for a challenger, which will be followed by the popular stop in Riga for Latvian Open in mid-July. A completely renovated Racket Center in Nussloch will then host the German Open two weeks later before the highlight of the year will take place in Vitis Club in Zürich, Switzerland in August. Last confirmed tournament of the year is the SWT World Tour Finals Austrian Open in Vienna November.

Finnish Open, Malta Open and British Open is not yet on the calendar, but it is very likely that all of these will take place in 2018 too. The locations for Champions League is yet to be confirmed and will be decided on a council voting between the applicants when the calendar is final. Also, World Champs doubles is yet to be confirmed. This will be played on the same weekend as an existing tournament that will be extended to a 4-day tournament.

Kresten Hougaard
FIR President

 

Below is the 2018 World Tour as it looks as of now.

5-7/1	IWT	Vienna Classics	Vienna, Austria
23-25/2	IWT	Swedish Open	Malmö, Sweden
3-5/3	IWT	Club La Santa Open	Lanzarote, Spain
20-22/4	IWT	Czech Open	Prague, Czech Republic
28-29/4	CHA	Massachusetts Rackets Masters	Northampton, MA, USA
1-3/6	SWT	King of Rackets	Oudenaarde, Balgium
29/6-1/7	CHA	French Open	Paris, France
13-15/7	IWT	Latvian Open	Riga, Latvia
27-29/7	IWT	German Open	Nussloch, Germany
22-26/8	WC	World Champs Teams and Singles	Zürich, Switzerland
23-25/11	SWT	World Tour Finals Austrian Open	Vienna, Austria

 

 

 

The entry deadline for this year’s IWT Malta Open is in two week’s time on Monday 25th Sept– please register quickly on fir.tournamentsoftware.com if you want to come to the most unique tournament on the FIR World Tour!

Apart from the excellent Racketlon facilities, the palm trees, the sun, the huge outdoor pool and bar area, the cheap flights and the incredible nightlife, there have been a few new, recent developments to tell you about:

Accommodation

If anyone might be interested in sharing a self catering apartment at some extraordinarily cheap prices: maybe as low as 15-25euros per person per night…then please get in touch very quickly with duncan.stahl@aureus-sv.com

Welcome Party

A free party/BBQ is being hosted by myself and the FIR president, Kresten Hougaard in his penthouse apartment in St Julian’s on Thurs night (5th October). All players and guests are invited.

Kresten tells me that “he sets the international standard for Penthouse BBQ Parties – something that will quickly become obvious to everyone who attends. I also invite anyone to ask for any advice on how to successfully hold such parties.”

Free Cisk (local beer)

Free Cisk for all players at the Fri night BBQ on the Royal Malta Golf Club Terrace and also on the island boat trip on Monday.

Bag Drop Area By the Pool

The bag drop area (open to all nationalities, even Denmark) will be by the large outdoor pool area at the Marsa Club where the sun loungers and outdoor bar await the players in between their matches.

Player’s Party

Free entry and 5 free cocktails per player at the Sat night player’s party in Fuegos, St Julians.

There are still some very good flight options to Malta.

We look forward to seeing you in the sun…

Duncan Stahl
(Tournament Director)