Germany beat Austria on a dramatic gummiarm in the semi-finals of the Energie Graz World Cup – Teams at nearly 01:00 am on Friday morning.
The match will go down in history as featuring one of the most incredible final sets ever, with Christian Wiessner producing sensational tennis to secure a spot in the final.
They will face Austria after the host nation took out defending champion Great Britain in another fierce contest.
Earlier in the day, Leon Griffiths and Luke Griffiths defeated Kresten Hougaard and Morten Jaksland in a high-quality encounter to be crowned the new Tourismusverband Graz Men’s Elite Doubles World Champions.
A title also ended up in American hands on Wednesday, with Stephanie Chung and Joanne Schickerling superbly winning the Women’s B Doubles crown.
Tourismusverband Graz Men’s Elite Doubles
Kresten Hougaard and Morten Jaksland against Leon Griffiths and Luke Griffiths. It was a match that looked fantastic on paper. And it developed into an absolute thriller on the court as well.
The 2019 World Champions, Hougaard and Jaksland, won the table tennis 21-17, rolling off a succession of impressive points from 15-15 to snatch a lead.
Perhaps the turning point came on the badminton court. The Griffiths Brothers have been playing together for well over a decade and proved their class. They put on a clinic to win 21-5 and take a big 12-point lead.
The Danes needed to close the gap on the squash court and did exactly that, winning by seven points. The tennis was neck and neck throughout. The Brits needed 16 and reached it with a score of 16-15. Leon Griffiths defends his World Doubles Championship title, only this time it’s with brother Luke. For Luke, that’s a first World Championships elite-level doubles title. It’s also a fifth World Championship title at this tournament, after his four gold medals from Vienna.
There was some success for the home favourites, with Michi Dickert and Lukas Windischberger beating Adarsh Vikram Narayanaswamy and Max Plettenberg for the bronze medal.
The full results from the Tourismusverband Graz Men’s Elite Doubles are available here.
Energie Graz World Cup – Teams
The Energie Graz Teams World Cup – the most anticipated event at this year’s Racketlon World Championships – began on Thursday with an array of dramatic matches.
As Racketlon continues to grow around the world, we were delighted to expand the number of Nations included in the World Cup from eight to 12. This included a historic debut for Afghanistan.
Two of the most exciting matches came in the first round. The first of those came between France and Finland. The typically noisy French fans were silenced at the end, as Finland won a thriller by nine points. The Czech Republic also had a close battle with Sweden, clinching a victory by a slender three points.
In the quarter-finals, three of the seeded teams cruised into the semi-finals. Great Britain easily beat the Netherlands, Austria took out Finland and Denmark eliminated the Czech Republic. There was one seeding upset, with Germany beating Switzerland by 25 points.
The semi-final between Austria and Great Britain was as typically thrilling as their matches always are. The matches ebbed and flowed, with Luke Griffiths impressing against Georg Stoisser and Emanuel Schöpf holding his own against Leon Griffiths. In the end, though, impressive wins for Bettina Bugl and the doubles pair of Lukas Windischberger and Florian Harca booked Austria a spot in Friday’s final.
Then came one of the best Teams matches the sport has ever seen. Germany versus Denmark was always going to be a thriller. The two Racketlon powerhouses were locked in a close contest from start to finish, with Germany leading by one point heading to tennis. After strong wins for Morten Jaksland and Stine Jacobsen, it looked as though Denmark would be the team to take on Austria. Then came the final set.
Christian Wiessner needed to keep Kresten Hougaard below three points to give Germany a chance of making the World Cup final. The German produced an almost flawless set, winning 11-2 to force a gummiarm. He was then made to serve, opting for an underarm which Hougaard then hit out. That miss saw the completion of the incredible comeback.
After losing in the final of the 2019 World Championships, Germany now gets a chance at redemption. The World Cup Final will take place on Friday evening, with the full match available to watch live here on streamster.tv.
Nations Cup
Three years ago, the Nations Cup final was a battle between Great Britain II and Great Britain III. Only Great Britain II will return to the final this year.
The defending champions endured two matches on Thursday, against Austria II and France II. In the end, they won both in impressive fashion, with injured team captain Alex Du Noyer masterminding a superb team to a spot in the final.
“We lined up our team pretty carefully to avoid some strong table tennis players on their side”, Du Noyer said after qualifying from Group A. “I think we got the lineups right”.
In the final, they will meet a ferocious India team. After winning the Challenge Cup in 2019, the team was back with even more firepower and obliterated Germany II and Great Britain III.
India’s toughest match came against Austria II, who had also beaten Germany II and Great Britain III. Wins from Adarsh Vikram Narayanaswamy and Sidharth Nandal saw the Indian contingent book a final spot with a +12 victory.
“I think the match was pretty close,” Nandal said after the match against Austria. “We dominated them in table tennis and badminton as well. But I think we lost every squash match to them.”
The two teams will now collide in the final for the Nations Cup on Friday at 09:30CET. You can watch the final here on Streamster.tv.
Challenge Cup
The 2019 Nations Cup final was a historic moment as India qualified for the first time. We’ve got another slice of history three years later with the USA set to take on Hong Kong in Friday’s final.
After a bye in the first round, the USA qualified for the final after taking out Romania and Great Britain VI. This was made all the more impressive by the fact that the USA was missing star man Noel Mathew after he tested positive for covid on the eve of the tournament.
“I think it was just a really good team effort,” said USA Captain Patrick Moran after they reached the final. “Shree and Joanne played really great at table tennis. It was always going to be tough because Noel tested positive for covid and he was our top badminton player.”
Hong Kong’s biggest test came in their opener against Hungary. After escaping from that contest, they took on Austria Juniors, beating them by 37 points to reach the final.
Speaking ahead of the final, Steven Wai Kit Cheng said “They are quite strong. We need to play our A+ game.”
When asked what the key was to beating Hong Kong, Moran said “I don’t know. I’ll have to do my research tonight. I know they’re pretty strong in table tennis and badminton. I think it’s going to be a fun match.”
The two Nations will now collide in the final for the Challenge Cup on Friday at 10:15CET. You can watch the final here on Streamster.tv.
Women’s B Doubles Final
Amidst the beautiful chaos of the World Teams Championships, the Women’s B Doubles final was held late in the afternoon. After also reaching the final of the Nations Cup, there was more American success as Stephanie Chung and Joanne Schickerling won the Women’s B Doubles final.
They took on Czech pair Nikola Cemusova and Lucie Hlavacova, winning the table tennis, squash and tennis to secure the title. A fantastic moment for both players, especially Schickering, who is making her international racketlon debut.
The bronze medal match will be played early on Friday morning.
The full Women’s B Doubles results are available here.
Sam Barker / FIR Media Officer
Image Credit / rubinfoto.com
