World Championships 2022 in Vienna/Graz

02 Septembre 2022

This year's World Championships held in Vienna and Graz promised to be the biggest event in the history of Racketlon. Nearly 500 participants from 35 countries have competed in 12 team, 28 Doubles and 31 singles categories (total 71!) to achieve a place on the podium. The competition has lasted over ten intensive days including the juniors (from u10 to u21), the seniors (from +40 to +70) and the elite draws.  Therefore, this was a great challenge for the organization team, which was only possible with the help of many volunteers and sponsors. However, gaps in the schedule and delays were unavoidable.

First up were the juniors and the seniors in Vienna. The Swiss team participated with one u16 (Andreas Kotala and Lucas Mateo Moreno) and one +55 team (Manfred Grab, Giovanni Gentile, Graham King, Beat Ladner and Gregor Meyer). Despite their small numbers, they managed to win several medals and showed some good results. The juniors team finished 7th place after losing against the later winners from Czech Republic. The seniors felt similarly as they lost to a strong team from Great Britain by only five points and also ended up 7th. In singles the most successful swiss player was Graham. Together with the englishman Julian Clapp he won the +65 doubles and became 2nd in the +65 singles after a contested final against his double partner. Congrats also to Manfred and Giovanni who become 3rd in the +50 doubles and only lost by one point in the +55 doubles final. Also worth mentioning is the 7th place of Andreas and the 9th place of Lucas in the u16 as well as the 4th place of Manfred in the +55 singles.

Andrea Kotala and Lucas Mateo Moreno                  

Graham King, Giovanni Gentile, Gregor Meyer, Beat Ladner, Manfred Grab

After a one-day break the competition continued with the elite in the Racket Sport Center in Graz which sadly turned out to be way too small for such a big event. Nicole Eisler, Oliver Bühler, Nicolas Lenggenhager, Noah and Léon Mamié represented Switzerland in the team World Cup. The number four seeded faced a very strong team from Germany in their first round. After a tough fight and some spectacular ball exchanges they lost by 25 points in the end. Anyway, that turned out to be a good result as the Germans won both the semifinal and the final by only one point to become the winner of the World Cup for the first time. In the end, the Swiss delegation finished 7th after being beaten by the Czech Republic by two points and having defeated the Netherlands in their last game. It should also be mentioned that they developed a very good team spirit during the tournament. With the team shout "geile Schuss" they had lots of success and confused many opponents. ;)

Léon Mamié, Noah Mamié, Oliver Bühler, Nicole Eisler, Nicolas Lenggenhager

In the singles and doubles most Swiss players unfortunately dropped out of the tournament in the first round. Noah and Léon Mamié were the only participants from Switzerland who got through the first round in the Men B draw. On the bottom half of the draw, Noah later lost to Jakub Svec in a competitive quarterfinal match. Jakub then went on to win the tournament in an impressive style. On the other side of the draw, his brother Léon managed to get to the semifinal, where he was defeated by a strong competitor from India. However, Léon beat Guidi Weijel in the bronze medal match to become 3rd without even having to use his tennis racket once!

As you probably have recognized from this report, this year's event was a bit too big. For that reason, the doubles and singles World Championships will be split next year. The singles competition will be held in Rotterdam and the doubles in London.

LM

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