Of Kings and Queens

10 Juin 2018

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

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