It was a successful Friday for Alexandra Ogram, Anna-Klara Ahlmer and Luke Griffiths who all reached two elite doubles finals at the IWT Latvian Open.
Ogram and Griffiths teamed up to reach the final of the Mixed Doubles. There, they will face off against Ahlmer and partner René Lindberg.
Ogram and Ahlmer will also collide in the final of the Women’s Doubles after both winning their first matches on Friday. Ogram is partnering Stine Krogsøe while Ahlmer is alongside Kirsten Kaptein.
Meanwhile, Luke Griffiths and brother Leon are into the final of the Men’s Doubles. They will take on Matthew Haynes and Leigh Sands after the British-Aussie pair shocked the No.2 seeds.
Mixed Doubles – Ogram and Griffiths End Krogsøe and Pichler’s Return
Stine Krogsøe and Roland Pichler are familiar faces to many on the Racketlon World Tour so it was a delight to see them back competing together for the first time since 2020. However, the No.2 seeds were taken apart on day one of the tournament in the opening round.
Alexandra Ogram and Luke Griffiths were not leading heading into squash. In fact, the match was dead level with Krogsøe and Pichler winning the table tennis 26-24 before losing the badminton 21-5. Ogram and Griffiths were ruthless on the squash court, winning 21-5 before finishing the match off quickly in tennis. That secured them a spot in the final.
The other MIxed Doubles semi-final was also fairly tightly contested. Ahlmer and Lindberg led Kaptein and Wiggin by 12 after the badminton but Wiggin and Kaptein won the squash 21-16 to knock that lead down to 7. That was more than enough for the Swedes. The dominant tennis players won 15-5 to stroll into the final and live up to their billing as top seeds.
That leaves Ahlmer and Lindberg taking on Ogram and Griffiths for the title on Saturday. You will be able to watch the full match on Youtube.
The full Mixed Doubles results are available here.
Women’s Doubles – Latvians Outclassed by Experienced Players
The Women’s Doubles on Friday was a category where experience really shone through. Latvian players Vizma Simane and Sanita Sveile were by far the least experienced pair in the draw and that counted against them as they played their two-box league matches.
They made a roaring start to table tennis, beating Stine Krogsøe and Alexandra Ogram 21-4. The match quickly swung back in Krogsøe and Ogram’s favour. They won the badminton and squash 21-5 and 21-4 to completely overturn the Latvian lead. A win was quickly sealed on the tennis court.
Top seeds Anna-Klara Ahlmer and Kirsten Kaptein didn’t need their tennis rackets. They won the match against the Latvian duo comfortably before tennis.
That leaves us with Ahlmer and Kaptein taking on Krogsøe and Ogram for the title on Saturday afternoon. The full match will be available to watch on Youtube.
The full Women’s Doubles results are available here.
Men’s Doubles – Haynes and Sands Shock Seeds
It’s been a few years since we’ve seen Leigh Sands on the Racketlon World Tour so it was a joy to see him back on the court. After winning a Mixed B Doubles title (the full roundup of this will come on Monday) earlier in the day, he kicked off his Men’s Doubles campaign alongside Great Britain’s Matthew Haynes.
No.2 seeds Joel Pennanen and Arturs Zaicevs were their opponents. Despite their superior seeding, the Finnish-Latvian pair did not lead this match once. Haynes and Sands raced into a 21-8 lead after table tennis and never relinquished it, eventually winning by 6 points. This came despite a spirited tennis fightback by Pennanen and Zaicevs.
In the top half of the draw, the Griffiths brothers lived up to their billing as top seeds by advancing to the final in style. They took on Matthew Davidson and Sion Wiggin and, despite losing the squash 21-11, needed just three tennis points to seal a spot in the final.
Haynes and Sands face a much toughest test in the final in the form of the Griffiths Brothers. They’ve beaten one seeded pair already though – could they take out another and win the title?
You can watch the full final live on Youtube on Saturday late afternoon.
The full Men’s Doubles draw is available here.
Keep up to date with the live scores from the tournament throughout the day here. You can check out all the results from the IWT Latvian Open here.
Sam Barker / FIR Media Officer
Image Credit / Leigh Sands
