Luke and Leon Griffiths have made history by becoming the first siblings in racketlon history to reach the semi-finals of the elite World Singles Championship.
Luke Griffiths is set to face defending champion Jesper Ratzer, who almost suffered a shock early on Saturday. Leon Griffiths will take on World No.1 Morten Jaksland.
Jaksland and Ratzer are both chasing a return to the World Singles Championship final, after meeting on the biggest stage two years ago in Leipzig.
Round Two: Ratzer Survives Big Scare as Seeds Tumble
Most of Saturday’s major drama came early on in the Men’s Singles category. The day began with a bang as Jesper Ratzer’s eight-year unbeaten run almost came to an end at the hands of Sylvain Ternon. Very few people have played tennis against Jesper Ratzer in recent years. A tiny amount of forced him to play a full set. That is exactly what Ternon managed to do.
The Frenchman brilliantly won the table tennis 22-20 before winning an impressive 21-10 badminton set. Ratzer retaliated with a 21-6 squash set but that left him just two points up heading to tennis. By this point, the fans had arrived in the venue to watch a neck-and-neck tennis set. It was only in the middle of the second half that the five-time defending champion began to pull away and eventually won 21-15 to win by just eight points.
Ternon was not the only seed to crash out on Saturday morning. Both Nicolas Lenggenhager and Emanuel Schöpf also suffered the same fate. Lenggenhager was beaten by Florian Harca, who produced sublime tennis to win 21-4, securing a +5 win.
Schöpf’s loss also saw a moment of racketlon history. His defeat came at the hands of Adarsh Vikram Narayanaswamy, who became the first player from both India and Asia to reach the quarter-finals in an elite category at the World Singles Championship. He produced a near-flawless display to eliminate last month’s Austrian Open champion.
Both Griffiths brothers came through their second round with relative ease. Leon Griffiths didn’t drop a set against Kasper Jønsson, winning by 23 points before tennis. Luke had a harder task getting rid of Mohammed Tarik Koubaa. The Moroccan put up a good fight but ultimately fell to a 13 point loss against the younger Griffiths sibling.
In the battle of the two first-round gummiarm winners, René Lindberg emerged victorious, beating Damien Andre in all three sports to win before tennis.
Quarter-Finals: Griffiths Brothers Win in History Moment
While the first and second round saw a number of close matches, the quarter-finals were actually relatively straightforward affairs.
Morten Jaksland was the first to play his semi-final as he took to court early in the morning against the last remaining wildcard, Joshua Zeoli. Zeoli had looked impressive in his opening two matches but came unstuck against Jaksland. The Dane’s 21-8 and 21-6 table tennis and squash wins were enough to see him comfortably reach the semi-finals.
In the semi-finals, Jaksland will take on Leon Griffiths. The Brit found himself against another youngster in Florian Harca. While this was the Austrian’s 10th match of the tournament, this was only Griffiths’ third. His fresher legs and class shone through as he won the badminton and squash 21-7 and 21-6 to wrap up a +31 victory before tennis.
After his earlier struggles, Jesper Ratzer also triumphed before tennis. The Dane was simply too much for René Lindberg from start to finish. He backed up a 21-12 table tennis victory with a 21-8 badminton triumph and a closing 21-15 squash win. That win extends Ratzer’s incredibly unbeaten record and seems him reach yet another World Championship semi-final.
His semi-final opponent is young British talent, Luke Griffiths. Griffiths had the hardest of the four quarter-finals as Adarsh Vikram Narayanaswamy pushed him hard throughout the match. Griffiths won the first two sports but only led by nine points, with that lead being cut to six after the squash. His strength in tennis ultimately won him the match. Griffiths held his nerve to win 16-10 and move into the semi-final on his first elite World Singles Championship.
Semi-Final Preview
So that leaves us with two clashes between Griffiths brothers and Danish superstars. Leon Griffiths versus Morten Jaksland is a match we’ve seen a number of times before. Jaksland leads the head to head 3-1, but the last time they played, Griffiths was ruthless as he beat Jaksland before tennis back in London in 2019.
Unsurprisingly given Luke Griffiths is only 18 years old, this is the first time that he will face Jesper Ratzer. Ratzer came close to ending his winning streak that extends long above 100 matches against Ternon. Could it be the U18 World Champion that manages the seemingly impossible?
The full Men’s Singles results are available here.
Watch the full final at 14:00CET on Sunday on Streamster.tv.
Sam Barker / FIR Media Officer
Image / Rene Zwald
