With coronavirus restrictions and international travel guidelines continually changing across all countries, the FIR will release regular updates on the very latest news about our World Tour tournaments including the Singles and Doubles World Championship so that players can start to make plans for the rest of the year.
Here is our latest update…
Changes, Cancellations & a new World Championships Confirmed
Please see the latest World Tour update below, where you will see that the situation for planned tournaments over the summer is looking difficult including various date changes and cancellations to the Tour.
However, the situation from September onwards is looking much more positive. We have provided the contact details below for each of the tournament directors who will be happy to answer any questions and be able to give you the very latest tournament information.
I’m particularly delighted to announce that we have managed to organise a brand new date and venue for a Singles World Championship: 21-24 October (more details in the update below). With the Doubles World Championship recently confirmed for November in Prague, we now have two big world championship tournaments to look forward to in what will hopefully be a very busy last quarter of the year!
Many thanks to Esther Dubendorfer, the Swiss Racketlon Federation and to the Sihlsports venue in Zurich for working with the FIR to help us put together these big world championships plans at such short notice. I know having a world championship is something that will provide some much-needed focus and inspiration to the worldwide Racketlon community after such a difficult year – which is why it’s been such a big priority for us to try and make this happen.
Current 2021 World Tour Update:
IWT Swiss Open: 25-27 June
Tournament Director: esther.duebendorfer@racketlonswissopen.ch
While many restrictions on sport within Switzerland have now been lifted, it is still not possible to play squash as normal, so there remains a doubt about whether the tournament can take place. A final decision will be made about the Swiss Open on 26th May (after the latest Swiss government announcement). If it is decided that the Swiss Open cannot take place in June, we have arranged for the tournament (at the same Vitis venue) to be moved to the new date of 20-22 August.
IWT Latvian Open: 9-11 July
Tournament Director: zigmars.puikevics@gmail.com
Unfortunately, the Latvian team have had to take the difficult decision to cancel this year’s tournament. Many restrictions on international travel into Latvia still remain making it impossible to plan and organise the tournament. We all look forward to going back to Riga in 2022.
IWT London Open: 23-25 July
Tournament Director: duncan@dwsevents.com
With the Roehampton Club in London having only opened their doors to their members very recently, having been shut for over 12 months, the Club has cancelled all tournaments involving non-members. Therefore, we will not be able to host the tournament this year. The Club are however very keen to bring Racketlon back in 2022 which is great news as we will once again be able to enjoy playing at one of the UK’s most famous sports clubs. It is possible that an alternative venue could be found for the tournament this summer and we will publish more news about this in the next few weeks.
IWT German Open: 6-8 August
The continued uncertainty of the coronavirus situation across Germany has meant the tournament will be impossible to stage on the planned date in August. However, Deutscher Racketlon Verband along with the team at the Nussloch Racketcenter are currently planning to move the tournament to 3rd – 5th September 2021 – as soon as this date change is confirmed we will publish all the details.
World Championships in Vienna/Graz: 20-29 August
Tournament Director: steiner@racketlon.at
This has been cancelled as previously announced. These world championships (teams, singles and doubles) will now take place in Vienna & Graz from 19-28 August in 2022.
CHA Spanish Open: 17-19 September
Tournament Director: mccrackenathome@gmail.com
With Spain gradually opening up to tourists from June onwards, the organisers are very hopeful that the first-ever Spanish Open will take place this September in Elche, Alicante. With a great venue in the beautiful, historic city of Elche/Alicante, right by the sea with fantastic Mediterranean weather, this is set to be a hugely exciting addition to the World Tour.
SWT Austrian Open (Graz): 24-26 September
Tournament Director: steiner@racketlon.at
The only SWT of the year has now been moved to this new date in September and will be played at the venue for the 2022 world championships in Graz. More details will be released as soon as it becomes clear whether this will have to be an elite only category tournament – because of coronavirus restrictions – or if other categories will also be possible.
IWT Rotterdam Open: 1-3 October
Tournament Director: duncan@dwsevents.com
Another brand-new addition to the world tour this year, the fantastic facilities of the Victoria club with its all-glass, show squash court in the easily accessible city of Rotterdam is going to be a high-class tournament.
With international travel within the EU beginning to open up and restrictions within the Netherlands beginning to relax, we hope to see the Tour return to Holland! An update on this tournament with the latest information will be released in the next few weeks.
2021 FIR Singles World Championships (Zurich): 21 – 24 October
Tournament Director: esther.duebendorfer@racketlonswissopen.ch
With all normal junior, senior and open singles categories available, we are excited to be able to bring Racketlon’s biggest and most prestigious tournament of the year to the wonderful Sihlsports venue in Zurich.
With fantastic facilities, we look forward to welcoming everyone to Switzerland to crown our world champions for 2021 this October. Many more details will be released on this tournament soon.
IWT French Open, Paris: 29-31st October
Tournament Director: gadejosselin@orange.fr
With the announcement of the Singles World Championships in Switzerland taking place less than a week before the planned IWT French Open, a joint decision has been made between the FIR and Racketlon France that the French Open will not take place as an IWT tournament on the world tour but will now be a national tournament as part of the French Tour.
A big thank you to Racketlon France for their help and collaboration on working so well with the FIR on this – we only had one date option for the singles world championship and Racketlon France’s selfless decision to move their IWT tournament was done for the wider benefit and good of the sport. We hope to announce a new slot for the IWT French Open on the 2022 World Tour in early March next year.
The remaining tournaments on the 2021 World Tour are both planned to go ahead and with coronavirus restrictions beginning to be relaxed now and international travel starting to resume over the summer, we have high hopes that these tournaments, still over 6 months away, will both take place.
Doubles World Championships & Czech Open (Prague): 18 – 21 November
Tournament Director: rejthars@gmail.com
Club La Santa Open: 10-12 December
Tournament Director: kresten.hougaard@racketlon.net
Plans for a IWT Malta Open in 2021 are still being worked on and an exact date in the autumn is still to be confirmed.
Tournament Coronavirus Prevention Plans
As has previously been announced, a corona prevention plan will be released for each tournament which will detail all the local, health authority guidelines that will need to be respected by all players throughout the tournament. We aim to publish these plans 3 to 4 weeks before each tournament and update it as necessary. It is vital that all players understand these guidelines before arriving at the tournament.
It will also be the responsibility of the players to make sure they understand what is required of them in order to travel to different countries for tournaments – as this may include providing negative covid tests, proof of vaccination, passenger locator forms etc on departure and on arrival. These requirements are likely to vary based on where you are travelling to and from.
Please Support The Tour When It Returns!
As you can see, the FIR and all of our tournament directors are working incredibly hard to allow us to return to tournaments on the World Tour this year. We hope that tournaments will be well supported by the playing community and that the 2nd half of 2021 will see us all back on the court at some fantastic tournaments in some great locations!
Duncan Stahl / FIR President
Image Credit: Inge Omey
The FIR is currently undertaking a fundraising campaign to help secure the long-term future of racketlon, the sport that we all love. If you would like to help us out then please head to our Fundraising Page for more information. A huge thanks in advance to everyone that has supported us so far and to everyone that supports us in the future.
