A lot of presents...

03 Avril 2017

...from the La Santa Open for the Swiss

La Santa actually means the saint in Spanish and has nothing to do with christmas. Leaving the foul word plays aside, the first Racketlon tournament in Spain on the island of Lanzarote was a phenomenal success. Arguably one of the best sport resorts in Europe, the tournament venue included free use of padel, swimming pools, golf, minigolf, windsurfing, kitesurfing, beach volley ball and whatnot. Armed with that knowledge some players opted to stay there for a whole week to test all the facilities and get into perfect shape before the thournament. Some even overdid it a bit, like Oliver Bühler who tried to play a Racketlon match against each of the Zeoli family the day before the tournament. So when the day of the first B match came, he was just a bit too tired and lost by only one point in a very close first round match. But having recovered he won all his consolation matches. After some success in women B, Esther Dübendorfer tried her luck the first time in women A but had to concede that some more training is needed. Graham King and Benjamin Hampl both got 4th in their respective single categories.

As all of the Swiss players are very good team players, pairing them in doubles seemed to work wonders. Beni and Oli were only stopped in Men A by the Zeoli brothers in the final. Graham teamed up with Steve Kneller in the Seniors +45 to rack up another second place for Switzerland. Even better were Beni and Esther in Mixed B, winning the whole thing and taking revenge in the semi-finals against the third Zeoli sibling (Nathalie, former women world champion).

It is not sure yet if the tournament will be back in 2018 but in case it is, I personally strongly recommend everyone to take a few days of and try go the tournament. It stands to reason that it might be the best Racketlon tournament outside of Switzerland on the tour (except maybe for the legendary King of Rackets in Oudenaarde).

Benjamin Hampl

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