Stine Jacobsen and Cornelius Radermacher won their first title together as a pair as the two dominated the Mixed A Doubles on the opening day of the IWT Dunlop Rotterdam Open.
The duo won both of their box league matches, while for Radermacher this is the first elite mixed doubles title of his career.
Both are also into the final of the other doubles competition, with Radermacher partnering with Duncan Stahl and Jacobsen alongside Nienke Veldkamp.
Mixed A Doubles – Jacobsen and Radermacher Win the Day’s Only Elite Final
It was a strange day in Rotterdam, with just one of the three elite doubles finals taking place. Usually, all three would, but with the Men’s Doubles and Women’s Doubles taking place on Sunday instead, all eyes were on the Mixed A Doubles.
In this competition were three pairs. The best-ranked pair was Myriam Enmer and René Lindberg, while the highest individually ranked player, Kirsten Kaptein, was partnered with Adarsh Vikram Narayanaswamy.
However, it was the regular pairing of Stine Jacobsen and Cornelius Radermacher that stole the show. They were not involved in the first match. In that, Kaptain and Narayanaswamy took a heavy early lead that Enmer and Lindberg couldn’t recover from. The Dutch-Indian duo won needing just six points in tennis to get a first-win on the board.
However, they then had to face Jacobsen and Radermacher. This time, it was the Dane and the German who raced to a nine-point lead. While Kaptein and Narayanaswamy snuck a 24-22 badminton win, a crushing 21-8 squash win sealed the victory.
In order to claim the title, Jacobsen and Radermacher had to beat Enmer and Lindberg. If the latter won, we were having another Gummiarm Playoff. Jacobsen and Radermacher didn’t fancy that at all. In the end, they ran out comfortable winners. The duo won the first three sports, with a devastating 21-5 badminton victory making sure that they won before tennis.
That’s the first Mixed Elite Doubles title for Radermacher of his career. For Jacobsen, that is title No.3, as she continues to add elite trophies to her ever-growing collection. Kaptein and Narayanaswamy took the bronze.
The full Mixed A Doubles results are available here.
Men’s A Doubles – Radermacher into Second Final, Alongside Stahl
Before winning the Mixed title, Cornelius Radermacher was involved in Men’s A Doubles action. The German was competing with Duncan Stahl, with the pair reuniting after winning the 2019 IWT Berlin Open.
As top seeds, they received a bye through to the semi-finals, where they eventually faced Joel Pennanen and Luka Penttinen. The Finnish dup pulled off a miraculous comeback in their opening contest against Gregor David and Adarsh Vikram Narayanaswamy.
Trailing by 20 after the badminton, things were looking bleak for the Finns. However, back-to-back 21-8 wins in squash and tennis sealed a +7 win and a date with Radermacher and Stahl.
All four sets were extremely competitive in the semi-finals. The difference was that the top seeds won them all. Radermacher and Stahl won the first three sports 21-16, 21-19 and 21-16 to leave them needing just 10 in tennis. They found themselves trailing to the Finns but still, eventually, did enough to claim the win by eight points.
The second semi-final saw No.2 seeds Patrick Oettl and Simon Vaclahovsky take on Lindberg and Guus Van De Burgt. Making their first appearance on the FIR World Tour this year, Lindberg and Van De Burgt were in no mood to mess around. They edged the table tennis and badminton 21-17 and 23-21, before doing real damage with a 21-11 squash victory. The Germans couldn’t battle back, and Lindberg and Van De Burgt were into the final.
That final will now take place on Sunday, as will the Women’s Doubles final, as all the pairs look to take home some silverware.
The full Men’s A Doubles results are available here.
All the results from the Amateur and Seniors doubles will be covered on Monday in a separate report.
The Singles begins one Saturday with the elite preview here and the amateur and senior preview here.
Discover more about the Dunlop Benelux here.
Sam Barker / FIR Media Officer
Image Credit / Duncan Stahl
