Player entry is now open for the 2022 IWT French Open – the new first tournament on this season’s FIR World Tour.
The tournament will take place from March 4-6 at Arthur Ashe Center Montreuil in Paris.
The IWT RSL Finnish Open was originally due to be the first tournament on the FIR World Tour. It was unfortunately cancelled due to COVID. This means that the IWT French Open is now the new opening tournament of the 2022 season.
This becomes the second tournament to open for player entry following June’s IWT Swiss Open. Player entry also launches for the Nick Matthew Steel City Open Challenger on Tuesday, January 25 at 18:30 BST / 19:30 CET.
Return to Paris
This is the third time that the IWT French Open has been held, after making its debut back in 2018 and also taking place in 2019.
After being cancelled due to the COVID pandemic in 2020 it was due to return in October 2021. However, the re-arranged World Singles Championship and arrival of the SWT Dubai Racketlon Classic meant that Tournament Director Josselin Gade selflessly decided to postpone the return of the French Open until 2022.
Now it is back and has the honour of kicking off the new season in spectacular style.
History of the IWT French Open
The French Open first arrived on the international racketlon scene in 2018 as a Challenger. The enormous popularity of the event – with 130 players – made it one of the season’s biggest successes and saw it return in 2019 as a full IWT.
The popularity of the tournament also meant that it hosted part of the 2019 Champions League. Once again it welcomed over 130 players into the halls of Arthur Ashe Center Montreuil.
2022 IWT French Open
In the opening days of the 2022 tournament opening, we have already seen nearly 20 players enter. With Paris being ideally located for most of Europe mainland Europe, and also boasting three international airports to connect the city with the rest of the world, we expect this tournament to be extremely popular once again.
France has also become a racketlon hot-spot in recent years, with a booming domestic scene. With that in mind, we hope to see plenty of French players – and players from other countries too – making their international racketlon debut.
More information about the tournament will be published later this week, including accommodation, travel and schedule information. In the meantime, you can discover more about the tournament here.
If you’re interested in competing in the 2022 IWT French Open, then you can enter the tournament here. In order to compete on the FIR World Tour, then you need to purchase your FIR Tour License. Those can be bought here.
The full 2022 FIR World Tour is available here.
Sam Barker / FIR Media Officer
