Luke Griffiths beat brother Leon Griffiths on a gummiarm in a high-quality contest at the Nick Matthew Steel City Open Racketlon Challenger.
Luke becomes just the fourth player to beat Leon since the start of 2018, joining the elite group of Jesper Ratzer, Morten Jaksland and Dan Busby.
There was another surprise in the Men’s A Singles as Max Plettenberg got the better of Dan Busby to reach the first elite semi-finals of his career.
There was also enormous drama in the Women’s Singles at the Hallamshire Squash and Tennis Club as Myriam Enmer recorded a career-best victory against World Champion Stine Jacobsen.
The Mixed Doubles also concluded on Saturday in stunning fashion, with Zuzana Severinová and Leon Griffiths clinching the title ahead of Anna-Klara Ahlmer and Dan Busby.
Men’s A Singles – Luke Beats Leon to Reach Semi-Finals
Luke Griffiths’ true arrival as a force on the Men’s Elite circuit was last year in Switzerland when he reached the semi-finals of the World Singles Championship. He reinforced that fact on Saturday in Sheffield, stunning his older brother to win on a gummiarm.
Both had cruised through their opening match, with Luke beating Ross Wilson and Leon taking down Luke Barnes – both before tennis. Last weekend, Leon beat Luke on his way to being crowned the British National Champion. The result would not be the same in Sheffield.
Luke won the table tennis 21-15 and never relinquished his lead. Leon won the badminton 22-20 and squash 21-19, leaving Luke with a two-point lead heading to tennis. Remarkably, Leon won 21-19 to force a gummiarm.
Luke won the toss and, to the surprise of some, elected to serve. His first serve landed comfortably in and the point continued. As Luke pushed Leon on the backhand side, the former U21 World Champion put his backhand in the net, sealing the stunning victory for Luke.
Luke now goes down as just the fourth player to defeat Leon on a racketlon singles court in the last four years. He is also the only player apart from Jesper Ratzer to beat him since racketlon’s return after the pandemic.
Men’s A Singles – Plettenberg Reaches First Elite Singles Semi-Final
Luke Griffiths will take on World No.1 Morten Jaksland in the final in a fascinating contest. Jaksland had to work hard to reach the semi-finals, finding himself down in both his first round and a quarter-final.
Both Duncan Stahl and Jermaine Manners led Jaksland by six after badminton. As is characteristic with Jaksland though, he came alive across the back two sports to win both the squash and tennis comfortably to make it into the semi-finals.
Nicolas Lenggenhager is the only seed remaining in the bottom half of the draw. The Swiss player advanced to the semi-finals in a fairly comfortable fashion, taking out a pair of British alternates on the way. Mark Steeden was his first victim before he took out Dave Edgar in the quarter-finals.
One of the best performances of the day came from Max Plettenberg in the quarter-finals. Having beaten Alex Du Noyer in the first round, Plettenberg set up a quarter-final showdown with No.2 seed Dan Busby.
Plettenberg won both the table tennis and squash in an intense atmosphere to leave himself needing just 17 on the tennis court. The German marked himself as a true contender at the elite level, cruising to an impressive 17-12 tennis win to set up a contest with Nicolas Lenggenhager on Sunday morning.
The full Men’s A Singles results are available here.
Women’s A Singles – All Players Still in Contention After Super Saturday
One win, one loss. That’s the record of the four players in the Women’s A Singles Box League after a truly fascinating Saturday.
The day began with top seed Anna-Klara Ahlmer defeating Myriam Enmer. The French player did manage to secure her first set against the Swede, but it was not enough, as Ahlmer won by +23 before tennis.
Stine Jacobsen then got her first win on the board, defeating her doubles partner Zuzana Severinová by eight points after a clinical 21-6 badminton victory.
The second set of matches is where the chaos began. Zuzana Severinová was first up against Anna-Klara Ahlmer. Once again the Czech player defeated Ahlmer, winning by an impressive 12 points thanks to a dominant 21-10 squash set.
The biggest result of the day came in the final contest between Myriam Enmer and Stine Jacobsen. Enmer produced one of the biggest performances of her career to date. The French star trailed by just five points before tennis. This was a major improvement on the three times they met last year, where Jacobsen won all three before tennis.
Instead, Enmer masterminded brilliant tennis set to win 21-13 and secure a slender +3 victory. So where does that leave us heading into Sunday? Ahlmer faces Jacobsen and Severinová takes on Enmer. Two players will win those matches and it will then come down to whoever won the match on Saturday.
It seems only fitting that such a high-quality box league should have all four players still in with a shout of winning on Sunday.
The full Women’s A Singles results are available here.
Mixed A Doubles – Severinová and Griffiths Win Incredible Competition
You can look into the entire history of racketlon and you will never find a higher-quality Mixed Doubles competition at a Challenger than here in Sheffield.
Four of the top five women in the world, plus the two Griffiths Brothers, the World No.1 and a former Mixed Doubles World Champion. Draws don’t come much stronger than this.
The first four matches took place on Friday, with Myriam Enmer and Luke Griffiths kicking things off with an eye-catching +4 win over Stine Jacobsen and Morten Jaksland.
The No.1 seeds, Anna-Klara Ahlmer and Dan Busby, were then dealt a blow to their title hopes as they lost by 21 points to Zuzana Severinová and Leon Griffiths. Severinová and Griffiths did not slow up from there. Later on Friday, they were back on the court to dismantle Jacobsen and Jaksland and get a second victory on the board.
Ahlmer and Busby then followed suit. They got a win against Enmer and Griffiths to put themselves back in contention for the title ahead of Saturday’s deciding matches.
There was a 50:50 chance of another Gummiarm Playoff following the conclusion of Saturday’s matches and it would have been the first Mixed Doubles Gummiarm Playoff in Racketlon history.
In the end, it wasn’t to be. Severinová and Griffiths had slightly too much for Enmer and Griffiths, winning by six points after a fantastic tennis set. That secured the title for the pair after they won all three matches in the group. A Gummiarm Playoff was still on the cards for second to fourth if Jacobsen and Jaksland could beat Ahlmer and Busby.
The Swedish-British pair were too strong though. A 21-9 table tennis win catapulted them into contention for the win and they never let the lead go. In the end, they won by +9 points to secure a silver medal, leaving Enmer and Griffiths in third.
The full Mixed A Doubles results are available here.
A full report on all the Juniors, Seniors and Amateur categories will be published soon.
Follow all the action from Finals Day on Facebook and Instagram. You can also follow along with all the results live here.
A full report from Doubles day is available here.
Sam Barker / FIR Media Officer
Image Credit / Rene Zwald/Jonas Von Sachs
