18. Oktober 2015

Lors de cette 2ème étape romande du Wilson Night Tour, le tableau messieurs A était équitablement composé de joueurs francophones et germanophones ayant fait le déplacement. Sans surprise, on eut droit à une finale entre 2 des hommes en forme du moment : Benjamin Hampl et Cédric Junillon. Dans une finale accrochée, ce fut finalement le régional de l'étape Junillon qui s'imposa notamment avec un tennis de grande qualité : 17-21 / 21-16 / 21-15 / 15-9. Un autre français compléta le podium en la présence de Mandrin Mouchet qui progresse lentement mais sûrement en remportant le bronze face à Beat Ladner sans avoir à jouer le tennis.

Adeline Kilchenmann ayant décidé de se mesurer aux hommes (3ème en C), le tableau féminin semblait promis à Dara Ladner et la bernoise s'imposa tranquillement (3v. 0d.), dominant assez nettement sa dauphine Carine Meister, ainsi que 2 nouvelles venues : Fanny Tschäppät et Malika Raposo.

En B, victoire de Julien Meister face à Julien Ming, décidemment maudit qui perd sa 6ème finale en B. Meister qui a découvert le Racketlon assez récemment confirme son potentiel, et devra maintenant passer un palier afin de jouer prochainement les premiers rôles en A.

En C, victoire du favori Yverdonnois Wilfried Leguay dont la place est plutôt en B, face au spécialiste de badminton Benoit Roulet.

Enfin, en D, victoire de Pascal Hügli qui devra désormais clairement jouer plus haut. Il s'est imposé face à un nouveau venu Lionel de Alencastro.

Prochaine étape du Night Tour à Burgdorf (BE) le 14 novembre !

08. Oktober 2015

Only 5 players who live in Switzerland travelled to Malta for the first ever tournament on this beautiful Mediterranean island. The organisers did a great job with the tournament at the Marsa Sports Club and so did the few players from Switzerland.

The Swiss/French Cédric Junillon is successfully back after an injury break and won gold in the Men’s Doubles together with Jesper Ratzer the reigning World champion from Denmark. Junillon also clearly took profit of his doubles victory and reached his first ever world tour final in the Men’s Elite.

Nicole Eisler also reached the final in the Mixed Doubles together with Ray Jordan from England. They lost closely to the Swedish couple. Eisler completed her medal collection with 2 more medals winning the bronze medal match in the Women’s Elite Singles and Women’s Elite Doubles with Kirsten Kaptein (NL).

Another gold medal was won by Astrid Kern. The German squash player who lives in Switzerland was clearly too good for the Women’s B draw.

New in the Racketlon scene, Fabius Bernet had to face the experience with the gummiarm right in his first round. Unfortunately, he lost that final point but won his next match.

Unfortunate was also Graham King. He had to give up during his first match due to his shoulder injury, which is not yet fully recovered. All the best and get well soon!

Apart from that the tournament was great throughout, and this was backed up by an excellent selection of extras and nice touches that come with hosting a tournament on a holiday island – a free sightseeing and cultural tour for all players on Thursday, an excellent location for the players’ hotel in the heart of party-town, a boat trip to Comino on Monday (at the time of writing we haven’t been on this yet!) and an outdoor pool area at the venue for players to use between matches! Even the weather helped us out in the end – huge thunderstorms the day and night before the tournament started caused a bit of panic but James Pope’s dry weekend ‘prediction’ came up trumps and every tennis match was played outside.

Next year the tournament has the potential to be at least twice as big, with more badminton mats being available on the island (these ones came from Poland!), so spread the word and watch this space. I think this unique tournament has been a tremendous success, striking a really good balance between holiday and tournament. See you next year from 23^rd to 25^th September in Malta on the World Tour again!