Koen Hageraats completed the best weekend of his racketlon career as he defeated Luka Penttinen to win the Men’s A Singles title at the IWT Dunlop Rotterdam Open. The victory in his home country was his first-ever elite singles title.
Penttinen was the third seed that Hageraats had defeated over the weekend, after also taking out Sylvain Ternon and Cornelius Radermacher. The win sets him up as a dark horse at the upcoming World Singles Championship.
In the Women’s A Singles, Stine Jacobsen continued her sensational 2021, beating Myriam Enmer to collect her second title of the season. Jacobsen remains unbeaten so far this year on the singles court and is one of the favourites ahead of the World Singles Championship.
Men’s A Singles – Hometown Hero Hageraats Wins in Eye-Catching Fashion
One week ago we saw Emanuel Schöpf take the Men’s A Singles title at his home tournament. Now, Koen Hageraats has done exactly the same. The Dutchman’s game has always been centred around an incredible standard of table tennis. Now, he has added some awesome squash to his armoury.
Two wins over Sylvain Ternon and Cornelius Radermacher demonstrated how far Hageraats has come. Unlike those two players, Luka Penttinen had experience at the highest level, having won an elite singles title in 2019.
As expected, it was Hageraats who made the fast start, racing ahead thanks to a 21-5 table tennis set. Penttinen then retaliated, winning the badminton 21-10 to close Hageraats’ lead to just five. Penttinen’s title challenge ended on the squash court. Hageraats was simply brilliant throughout, consistently forcing Penttinen into the corners and blasting through his game.
With a 21-8 squash win in the bag, the Dutchman needed just four points to take the first title. While Penttinen was clearly the better tennis player, he had left himself far too much to do. Hageraats reached four points with Penttinen on seven, sealing the trophy in emphatic style.
Suddenly, Hageraats is an outside contender at the World Singles Championship. Taking out three established seeds in such a destructive style shows how far his game has come. Hageraats and Penttinen were joined on the podium by Cornelius Radermacher, who defeated Damien Andre in the Bronze Medal Match.
The full Men’s A Singles results are available here.
You can rewatch every second of the final here:
Table Tennis – Badminton – Squash – Tennis
Women’s A Singles – Jacobsen Adds Another Trophy to Collection
Another player who has emerged as a real favourite ahead of the World Singles Championship is Denmark’s, Stine Jacobsen. After triumphing at the IWT Swiss Open earlier this year, she was back in another final. This time, Myriam Enmer was her opponent, with the French star getting closer to a first title.
Her wait will have to go on. Jacobsen continued to demonstrate her solid style across all four sports, winning 21-12 and 21-7 to open up a +23 lead before squash. Enmer needed to win the squash to keep the final alive. The Dane refused to let that happen though, grinding out an impressive 21-18 squash win to earn the title before tennis.
Remarkably, Jacobsen is now on an 11 match unbeaten streak and has only lost to Christine Seehofer and Amke Fischer since the start of 2019. Kirsten Kaptein joined Jacobsen and Enmer on the podium after comfortable victories over Julia Schirutschke and Nienke Veldkamp.
The full Women’s A Singles results are available here.
Men’s & Women’s Doubles Finals – Titles for Enmer, Kaptein, Stahl & Radermacher
While Myriam Enmer lost out in the final of the Women’s A Singles, she did get her hands on one gold medal earlier in the day. Enmer was partnering with Kirsten Kaptein while Stine Jacobsen played alongside Nienke Veldkamp in the Women’s A Doubles final.
The early lead went the way of Enmer and Kaptein, who took the table tennis 21-8. While their opponents took both of the next two sets, it was only 21-18 and 21-19, leaving the French-Dutch pair with a healthy +8 lead before tennis. Given Enmer is one of the FIR World Tour’s best tennis players, it was a challenge for Jacobsen and Veldkamp. Enmer and Kaptein completed their victory with a 14-9 tennis win. That is Enmer’s second title of the season, while Kaptein adds to her collection of trophies from across the years.
Sunday also saw the conclusion of the Men’s A Doubles. Top seeds Cornelius Radermacher and Duncan Stahl were the headliners in the final. Facing them were Sweden’s René Lindberg and home favourite Guus Van De Burgt.
Radermacher and Stahl have a rich history together, having won the IWT Berlin Open two years ago. They are also playing together at the upcoming World Doubles Championship and proved why they are in with a shot at the title. The duo snatched the opening three sports, taking them 21-14, 22-20 and 21-15 to open up a healthy +15 lead heading into tennis.
While Lindberg’s tennis is of exceptional quality, Radermacher and Stahl’s lead was too great. They took a 7-10 loss on the tennis court but ultimately won the title. A perfect warm-up ahead of November’s World Championships. Joel Pennanen and Luka Penttinen joined them on the podium after defeating Patrick Oettl and Simon Vaclahovsky in the Bronze Medal Match.
The full Women’s A Doubles results are available here.
The full Men’s A Doubles results are available here.
The report from Singles Saturday is available here and the report from Doubles Day on Friday is available here.
The Amateur and Seniors report will be live on Tuesday.
More information about Dunlop Benelux is available here.
Sam Barker / FIR Media Officer
