Jesper Ratzer defeated Leon Griffiths in the Men’s Singles final to win a historic sixth World Singles Championship while Stine Jacobsen is also the new World Singles Champion after beating Astrid Reimer-Kern.
Ratzer’s sixth title brings him level with Mikko Karkkainen at the top of the all-time standings and also moves him to 39 career titles, one more than Magnus Eliasson.
Stine Jacobsen also won her first elite world title after beating Astrid Reimer-Kern in the final of the Women’s Singles
Sensational Ratzer Defeats Griffiths to Make History
After both winning their semi-finals early on Sunday morning, Jesper Ratzer and Leon Griffiths faced off in the Men’s Singles final. For Ratzer, this was the sixth final in a row, in a remarkable run dating back to 2013. It was a different scenario for Leon Griffiths. The young Brit was into his first elite World Singles Championship and had reached the final without dropping a set.
After a nervous opening match, Ratzer had been warming into the tournament and that showed in this match. While Griffiths made the slightly quicker start, Ratzer responded in a typical fashion. After Griffiths led 6-4, it was Ratzer that took the first half 11-8. In the second half, he maintained that three-point lead and added an extra point, winning 21-17 before the tennis.
Badminton was a set of the highest quality. Griffiths had Ratzer breathing heavily early in the first half but the Dane refused to wilt in the heat. A handful of errors from Griffiths handed Ratzer an 11-9 lead at the half and it only extended from there. With clinical precision around the net, Ratzer rolled to a 21-14 badminton win to open up an 11 point lead.
By that point, it was a challenge for Griffiths to even reach tennis. Despite putting an incredible shift into the squash, Griffiths was unable to find his way past Ratzer’s defences often enough. The Dane kept it particularly tight in the short game. He won 21-11 to leave himself needing just one in tennis, something he managed in just his second point to seal his moment in history. Remarkably, this is the third time in a row that Ratzer has faced Griffiths and needed one point in tennis to win.
For Ratzer, this is one of his biggest victories so far. To have beaten Griffiths this impressively only strengthens his case to be racketlon’s greatest player of all time. The list of records that he owns continues to grow and he will now return to Denmark to relax and enjoy his incredible success.
For Griffiths, it’s another career landmark as he progresses to the final of an elite World Singles Championship for the first time. While he may be disappointed in the result against Ratzer, he has a huge amount to be proud of after dominating all the rest of his matches.
Morten Jaksland won the bronze medal after beating Luke Griffiths in the Bronze Medal match. The full results from the Men’s Singles are here.
Jacobsen Secures Second World Title of the Weekend
When Stine Jacobsen won the Women’s +40 Singles on Thursday, there were murmurs that we might see her challenging for the Women’ A title as well. She did better than challenge for the title, she went on to be crowned the World Champion.
In order to get her hands on the trophy though, she had to beat Astrid Reimer-Kern in the final. From the very beginning, we knew this was going to be a battle, especially when Reimer-Kern took an early 3-0 lead in table tennis. Jacobsen began to serve into Reimer-Kern’s backhand and that got her right into the match. Her solid table tennis style began to shine through, as Jacobsen turned the match around to win 21-14.
The duo then, predictably, split the next two sets. Jacobsen is a ferocious badminton player and dominated the first half to lead 11-2. Reimer-Kern fought for every single point and was rewarded in the second half with an extra five points to lose 21-7.
The squash followed a very similar pattern. As a former PSA player, Astrid Reimer-Kern is a brilliant squash player. She showed her class with a special 21-6 squash victory. That left Jacobsen chasing 16 on the tennis court.
Once on the tennis court, Jacobsen hardly missed a shot. Her consistency forced Reimer-Kern to try a variety of things which, in turn, saw errors come from her racket. Ultimately the tennis quickly got away from Reimer-Kern as Jacobsen was too solid.
The Dane won the set 16-8 to put her name in the history books as the first Danish female elite World Singles Champion. This weekend is unquestionably the biggest weekend of Jacobsen’s career as she adds racketlon’s biggest trophy to the two other titles that she won in 2021.
After losing a gummiarm to Astrid Reimer-Kern in the semi-final, Nathalie Vogel took home a bronze medal after beating Myriam Enmer in the third-place playoff.
The full results from the Women’s Singles are available here.
We’ll have more reports from the Juniors, Seniors & Amateur categories coming up in the following days.
We’ll also have the full matches available to watch on Youtube within the next few weeks.
Sam Barker / FIR Media Officer
