2nd IWT Latvian Open

13 Juillet 2016

Already at the arrival the players could feel the Latvian hospitality at the Enri Tenisa Club in Riga. The organizers were very welcoming and the organisation perfect, so all the players could fully focus on their matches (or/and to get to know the Baltic spirit).

Even though there were only 5 Swiss players taking part in this highly recommended tournament they brought home 3 medals!

Nicole Eisler managed to reach the finals of the Women Elite draw by having taken revenge on Natalie Paul in the semis to whom she had lost at the Swiss Open. Izzy Tyrrell was a number too big and celebrated a great comeback after many surgeries due to her several injuries. But Eisler was happy with silver and made a great performance, especially in squash.

She almost won another silver medal. Together with the Swede Anna-Klara Ahlmer, they were only missing one point against Natalie Paul/Lieselot De Bleeckere in the semis. With winning bronze they proved that this new pair is ready for the doubles World Champs at the end of this month.

The third medal was won by Roland Schmid. In the finals of the Men’s B competition he unfortunately lost to Tobias Daneels from Belgium. His final was a bit of a roller-coaster ride with several ups and downs in all of the sports, but after three closely contested sports, he had to finally admit defeat in tennis, just a few points missing for gold.

Graham King, playing 10 years below his age category, missed the bronze medal in the +50’s to the Russian badminton specialist, who is now living in Geneva, and will be joining the Swiss circuit later. Playing 20 years below in the +40’s was simply a bit too hard, losing to the 3-times Polish seniors champion in the first round, in which his shirt was ripped open in Clark Kent/Superman style!

Lukas Spring and Christian Schäfer had a tough draw against the local matador (gummi-arm!) and rising English stars in the Men’s Elite. Anyway, they could win a few matches in the draw.

Conclusion: Great tournament, great people, great city. And the Latvians have already requested another IWT for next year, so anyone who missed out this year should try to include this one in their 2017 agenda, if they want to experience Racketlon at its best!

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