The first Racketlon World Tour Men’s Singles final contested by the Griffiths brothers was won by Leon Griffiths as he beat his younger brother in an emphatic fashion.
Leon beat Luke before tennis for the first time since 2019, after Luke had won two of their previous three international matches this season.
In the Women’s Singles final, it was Flore Allègre who triumphed in the Lanzarote sunshine. She held off the challenge of 14-year-old Holly Ranson to win by 14 points and win her first elite title in just her third tournament.
Men’s Singles – Leon Beats Luke for 9th Career Singles Title
Luke Griffiths and Leon Griffiths have played five times before on the Racketlon World Tour but this was the first time they had competed against each other in a final.
In order to get there, both had to come through the semi-finals first on Monday morning. Top seed Leon took on Sylvain Ternon and found himself trailing by four points after the badminton. The squash was where the match swung though. Griffiths won 21-4 to leave himself 13 up before tennis. He reached the nine points he needed to win by 15 points and book his spot in the final.
In the second semi-final, it was a more straightforward victory for Luke Griffiths against Nicolas Lenggenhager. Griffiths won table tennis 21-11 and squash 21-7. Despite Lenggenhager edging a high-quality badminton set 22-20, it was not enough to reach the tennis court.
The final started with a tight table tennis set. Leon led 20-15 but Luke battled back to level the set. In the end, Leon still took the victory with a 24-22 triumph. On the badminton court, Leon was nearly flawless. He’s not beaten Luke to single figures at badminton since 2015 on the Racketlon World Tour. That changed at the IWT La Santa Open, as Leon emphatically won 21-5.
That destructive badminton performance was too much for Luke to battle back from. Leon won the squash 21-14 to wrap up a near-flawless +25 win before tennis. That caps a superb year for Leon who has now won his fourth title of the season and ninth of his career.
France’s Ternon finished with the bronze medal after beating Lenggenhager in the third-placed playoff.
Most of the badminton and squash from the final can be rewatched here.
The full results from the Men’s Singles are available here.
Women’s Singles – Allègre Collects First Title After Brilliant Tournament
The Women’s Singles had seen plenty of first-round drama, most notably when Holly Ranson shocked top seed Kirsten Kaptein. Ranson was looking to become one of the youngest ever players to reach an elite singles player when the 14-year-old took on Stephanie Chung in Monday morning’s semi-final.
It was Chung that made the faster start, winning table tennis 21-17 before Ranson retaliated with a 21-2 badminton triumph. The squash was neck-and-neck throughout but it was Chung who won 23-21. In extremely blustery conditions, the two battled out on the tennis court. In the end, Ranson won 9-8 to book a superb spot in the final.
She would be joined by Flore Allègre after the French talent took out Matilda Parslow in a breathless final. The two traded the middle two sports, with Allègre winning 21-4 on the badminton court and Parslow taking a 21-5 squash win. That left table tennis and tennis as the decisive sports. Allègre took the table tennis 21-19 and that victory gave her enough room to edge a 19-18 tennis set to triumph by four points.
That left us with a fascinating final between two new talents on the Racketlon World Tour. Both Ranson and Allègre were competing in just their third-ever international events and had reached an elite singles final. Remarkably, neither player showed any signs of nerves.
It was Ranson that struck the first blow. Her table tennis style proved too much for Allègre and a dominant second half saw her lead 21-12. Badminton is both of their best sports but it was Allègre that dominated. The French talent outpowered Ranson to win 21-7 and take a five-point lead to squash.
On the squash court, it was Allègre’s power that shone through again. She controlled the rallies and ended up winning 21-11 leaving her 15 points up and needing seven points for the title. Ranson had produced some rock-solid tennis all weekend but couldn’t produce a comeback. Allègre got to seven with a score of 7-8 to secure the title for herself.
At the start of this year, France had only ever had one Women’s Singles champion in history. Now, it has three. First Myriam Enmer picked up two titles – including the World Championships – and now Flore Allègre has joined the history books. Allègre adds yet more depth as well to this growing French team and there is little doubt that France will be a major player at the upcoming World Championships.
For Ranson, it’s a fantastic breakthrough tournament as she marks herself as another star of the future. She’ll be one to watch in 2023 as she goes in search of more silverware.
Chung also picked up her first elite singles medal. The New York-based athlete edged Parslow by four points to take home the bronze medal.
The full Women’s Singles final is available to watch here.
The full Women’s Singles results are available here.
Club La Santa Gummiarm Tournament – Leon Griffiths Becomes Latest Champion
One of the most popular aspects of the IWT La Santa Open in recent years is the Club La Santa Gummiarm Tournament. With over 64 players entering this year, it was the biggest one so far and saw a lot of support and noise throughout.
Plenty of the names who had reached the latter stages of the main events fell early. Luke Griffiths went out to Graham King in the first round while Flore Allègre lost to Matthew Davidson on the badminton court.
After an array of epic gummiarm points, it came down to two semi-finals. Having beaten Kresten Hougaard in the quarter-finals, Holly Ranson took out Jesper Schou Nielsen on the squash court. After getting the crowd to vote on who should serve, Jon Spinks lost his semi-final to Leon Griffiths, to see both Griffiths and Ranson in one last final.
It was Leon Griffiths who won the final point on the tennis court, lobbing Holly Ranson with a top-spin forehand. Griffiths joins Tobias Hausen and Dan Busby as the Club La Santa Gummiarm Tournament champions. Will he be back to defend his title in 2023? After all, this is the competition that everyone wants to win!
The full results from the IWT Club La Santa Open are available here.
Check out the report from Friday and the report from Saturday.
We’ll have a full report on all the action from the Amateurs, Juniors and Seniors categories coming in the next few days.
For now, though, have a good Christmas and we’ll see you all in the New Year!
Sam Barker / FIR Media Officer
