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Gränicher spielt sich in Cham an die Spitze

Dank einem souveränen Turniersieg in Cham wird Benjamin Gränicher die neue Nr. 1 im Swiss Racketlon. Er löst Ende Monat Patrick Lorenz ab, der sich 17 Monate in Folge an der Spitze behaupten konnte. Gränicher war bereits im November 2016 für einen Monat die Nr. 1. Wie lange wird er dieses Mal seine Führung verteidigen? Für eine Überraschung sorgte in Cham Nicolas Lenggenhager, der im Halbfinal Lorenz im Gummiarm bezwingen konnte. Diese Leistung bringt ihn neu unter die Top Ten. Bronze ging an Nico Hobi, der seinerseits im Ranking auf Platz vier vorrücken wird.

Das gleiche Schicksal wie Lorenz ereilte Arno Graf in der Kategorie B. Er verlor im kleinen Final gegen Youngster Léon Mamié. Der Däne Michael Holm nutzte diesmal seine Wildcard optimal aus und konnte sich im B als Sieger feiern lassen. Nachdem Stefan Faschauner in Burgdorf die Kategorie C dominiert hatte, gelang ihm in Cham gleich der Finaleinzug im B. Holm, Faschauner und Mamié sind zweifellos drei Spieler, die sich im Ranking weiter nach vorne orientieren werden. 

Keine Überraschungen gab es in der Kategorie C, zumindest in Bezug auf die Setzliste. Leonard Ladner vor Roland Frei und Esther Dübendorfer - so lautete die Ausgangslage und auch das Endresultat. Bei den Junioren konnte Cédric Keller seinen Turniersieg von Kriens wiederholen. Er setzte sich vor Liam Altorfer und Leo Weber durch. Für Newcomerin Victoria Dübendorfer blieb trotz drei knappen Spielen Platz vier.

Am 7. Juli folgt in Kriens der nächste Saisonhöhepunkt mit der Interclub-Meisterschaft. Spielerinnen und Spieler, die noch kein Team gefunden haben und trotzdem teilnehmen möchten, sollen sich direkt bei Swiss Racketlon via  Diese E-Mail-Adresse ist gegen Spambots geschützt! JavaScript muss aktiviert werden, damit sie angezeigt werden kann.  melden. Alle Teilnehmer müssen sich bis Sonntag, 1. Juli 2018 auf der Online-Plattform von Swiss Racketlon (www.racketlon.ch) eintragen.

Beat Ladner

Of Kings and Queens

This year 9 Swiss Racketlon players attended the 27th edition of the King of Rackets. Some players went in to the tournament with high expectations others had to lower their expectations due to sickness. Even though there was no Swiss Queen or King in the end, the Swiss team went home with some medals. 

Friday started as usual, with the doubles and mixed categories. Esther Dübendorfer had a really frustrating start losing both her Women‘s Doubles and her Mixed Doubles in the famous Gummiarm. At the end of the day she at least won her second women-s doubles match against Susan Rutschman and Dara Ladner.

In the Elite Doubles event Benjamin Gränicher and Cédric Junillon paired up together. After losing their semis against Hougaard/Jaksland they went on an secured the bronze medal. Gränicher was close to win a second bronze medal in the Mixed Doubles with Zuzana Severinová; still they got a good 4th place. Nicole Eisler was the second Swiss playing in the Elite Mixed, losing her first match with her partner Dan Busby by only one point against the later finalists. But, she got a little consolation by winning the bronze medal in the Women‘s Doubles.

In the Mixed B doubles, Nicolas Lenggenhager put on a strong performance with his Russian partner Maria Morozova, only losing against the eventual winners. Valentin Henin reached a respectable fourth place with his German partner Tobias Hausen.

On Saturday the singles events started, where the Swiss team wasn’t as successful. Gränicher reached the quarter finals in the Elite Singles with a win against Ternon, but then lost against squash star Dan Busby. 

In the Women‘s Elite, Nicole Eisler had hopes to end the tournament with a podium. But, those hopes were squashed by a strong-playing Bettina Bugl in the quarter finals. In the Women‘s B, Esther Dübendorfer showed a strong performance, even though she didn’t arrive fully fit to the tournament. She started her singles campaign with no ambition, but still ended up in the final, where Maria Morozova was waiting. Unluckily, her illness became too much, and she wasn’t able to play the final. Still, that silver medal was a big success and was in fact the only singles medal for a Swiss player. Valentin Henin, Cédric Junillon, Graham King (not to be confused with „The King“, as the tournament is lovingly known), Dara Ladner, Nicolas Lenggenhager and Susan Rutschmann all fought for a win in their singles, some with more, and some with less luck.

To compensate for the lack of success in the singles classes, some Swiss players were really able to enjoy the great players‘ party on Saturday evening. One might enjoyed it a little bit too much, which meant that some players set a new world record for the across-Brussels-Airport 500m sprint, trying to reach their plane.

Dara Ladner

The Biggest Question

And where are the World Champions in Women +45 mentioned? 

Here, in an extra report! ;-) Esther Dübendorfer together with Izzy Bramhall (GB) were unstoppable in this category! With a solid victory over the silver medal winners from England (Dianne Baker and Jo Shelly) our Swiss/English pair took home the title. Congratulations for this impressive performance!

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Draw

Nicole Eisler

The Big Question

How many medals did little Switzerland bring home from the big Racketlon Doubles and Mixed World Championships in Nussloch (Germany)? To say it straight away, the small delegation brought 4 big medals across the border and one victory over the World Champions.

How is that possible? Benjamin Gränicher (for not up-to-date people known as Hampl) together with his partner Dan Busby (GB) competed in the Men’s A Doubles in a group of 5 teams. They unfortunately lost to the later silver and bronze medal winners, but managed to win as the only team against the German pair (Thorsten Deck and Christian Wiessner) and later World Champions. Consequently, our Swiss/English pair finished 4th. This is just another example that a lot is depending on the different profiles.

The situation was much clearer in the Women’s Elite Doubles. The winners of 2016 – Christine Seehofer (AUT) and Natalie Paul (GER) World Championships could defend their title quite comfortably. The big question in this draw was more about silver. Will it be the comeback team or our Swiss/Austrian pair? Nicole Eisler and Bettina Bugl unfortunately didn’t win big enough in table tennis. Even though they played an excellent badminton together they lost in the end by only 4 points ­– but were also happy with bronze and the victory over the German team.

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Two more bronze medals were won by our youngest and the most experienced player: Dara Ladner paired up with another junior, Oskari Laiho from Finnland. The pair seemed to get on well on the court even though they haven’t met before and were happy to end on the podium in the Juniors Mixed U21 category. Graham King stood on the podium as well together with Julian Clapp (GB) in the Men’s +60 Doubles. Rumours say that the secret of his success lies in the fact that he was wearing a right sock for his left foot.

On top of the 3 bronze medals Esther Dübendorfer, together with Bruce Shepherd (GB), won the only silver medal. Comfortably having made their way to the finals they only lost this last match to the clearly dominating pair from England/Hungary (Izzy Bramhall (former Tyrrell)/Levente Nandori).

doubles wc 45doubles wc x45

After 2 intense days of playing the Doubles World Championships some players went home and some new players came to compete at the IWT Nussloch Open held at the same venue.

Léon Mamié was still fresh and won bronze in the U21 category. He was only 3 points away from winning silver and was a bit disappointed. The way he is focused and skilled with his hands is promising for the future, though.

Bronze seemed to be the most popular colour of the Swiss team this weekend: Nicole Eisler (Women A), Benjamin Gränicher (Men A) and Beat Ladner (Men B) all reached the semifinals and played for bronze in the end ... and won it!!! The clearer it was with Eisler against Anna-Klara Ahlmer (SWE), the tighter it was with Gränicher against FIR president Kresten Hougaard (DEN) (+4) and Ladner with only +1!

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Was there no Swiss gold medal? Luckily this big question Esther Dübendorfer answered with a clear yes: She won in the Women +40 the only Swiss gold medal of the long weekend.

Not only the players have to recover from this event, but also all the mostly young helpers and organisers who did a great job. A very modern venue with an excellent gastronomie and physiotherapie service make definitively worth a visit, even if you don’t win a medal.

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Results Doubles and Mixed World Championships

Results Nussloch Open

Nicole Eisler

Swiss Racketlon Partner

Turniervorschau

Aktuelle Rankings (1. Dezember 2024)

Herren Einzel
1. Oliver Bühler
2. Nicolas Lenggenhager
3. Christian Schäfer
4. Yannic Andrey
5. Noah Mamié
6. Joshua Zeoli
7. Léon Mamié
8. Cyril Hohl
9. Magnus Ekstrand
10. Patrick Casanova

Damen Einzel
1. Nathalie Vogel
2. Nicole Eisler
3. Fabienne Dony
4. Adeline Kilchenmann
5. Linda Rohrer

Die gesamten Rankings findet ihr hier.