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French Open or Masoala Hall Open?

A hand full of brave Swiss souls went to the first ever Paris Open. The heat was on to win some medals. And as if they had forgotten to switch off the heating, the players had to make sure to drink enough in the 40 degree hot venue. The Paris sun was on fire.

 

So was Nicole Eisler. Not only did she win gold in Women Doubles A with her former partner and comebacker Izzy Bramhall, but she also won gold in the Mixed Elite draw with another English player, Dan Busby.

 

Mounir Benheddi also stood on the highest place on the podium together with partner Julien Lévêque-Claudet from France in the Men’s Doubles C.

Cédric Junillon, our 100% Swiss (and 100% French as he mentioned it in the interview), won a Doubles medal: Silver with Arnaud Genin (FRA) in the Men’s Doubles Elite!

 

He also showed a strong performance in the Men’s Elite singles. Fighting like a tiger in the semis against Morten Jaksland (DEN) and later winning bronze in the "little final".

 

Another bronze medal was won by Eisler in the Women’s Elite singles with a solid victory over Kirsten Kaptain (NL).

 

Valentin Henin and Nicolas Lenggenhager also survived in the heat and were a bit unlucky, either narrowly  losing matches, or even just missing the podium. Henin ended 4th in the Men’s Doubles C. Lenggenhager lost his first round in Men’s Elite singles by only 1 point and a later match also only by a close margin.

 

The tournament was well organised and can be recommended for next year when it will change its status from a challenger to a normal IWT tournament. 

 

Let’s just hope that the temperature will be a bit cooler next year! This year‘s tournament was a successful and cool event, despite the heat! ;-)

 

Nicole Eisler

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  Cette adresse email est protégée contre les robots des spammeurs, vous devez activer Javascript pour la voir.  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!

doubles wc 45

Draw

Nicole Eisler

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Tournois prochains

FSR-Rankings courants (1er novembre 2020)

Messieurs
1. Benjamin Gränicher
2. Cédric Junillon
3. Patrick Casanova-Lorenz
4. Christian Schäfer
5. Yannic Andrey
6. Nicolas Lenggenhager
7. Magnus Ekstrand
8. Michael Strässle
9. Nico Hobi
10. Niki Schärrer

Dames
1. Nicole Eisler
2. Valeria Pelosini
3. Adeline Kilchenmann

Les rankings actuels vous trouvez ici.