Lanzarote Titles for Wilson, Haurant, Champod, Vuorinen & More | IWT La Santa Open

The IWT La Santa Open saw almost 100 players taking part which meant we had more Juniors, Seniors and Amateurs categories than ever before.

There were titles for a number of familiar faces in Lanzarote, including Ross Wilson, Nicolas Champod, Martyn Langston and Manfred Grab.

Here’s our full review of the Juniors, Seniors and Amateurs categories from the final event on the 2022 Racketlon World Tour.

Juniors U21 Singles – Magnificent Wilson Wins Thrillers for Title

Famed in the UK Racketlon scene for always getting rough draws, Ross Wilson came through two marathon contests to secure the Juniors U21 Singles title.

As the No.2 seed, Wilson received a bye through the first round before taking out fellow Brit Jordan Marcus in the quarter-finals. His real battle began in the semi-finals against Juniors U16 Singles World Champion Lucas Steyer.

The match was an epic battle. Wilson took the table tennis 22-20 and the squash 21-12 but lost badminton 21-14. Needing 18 points in the tennis, Wilson won with a score of 18-20. A +2 victory for the Brit.

The final was an all-British affair as Wilson took on David Bennett. Bennett had beaten Anant Gupta by +12 in the quarter-finals before Ryan Bezer was forced to retire in the semi-finals. Much like the semi-final, the final was an all-out battle.

Wilson took the table tennis 21-16 before the duo split the middle two sports. Wilson won badminton 21-11 with Bennett winning squash by the same scoreline. For the second match in a row, Wilson’s opponent reached 20 points but again he got the win. A second victory by two points.

In fact, Wilson deserves a shout-out as the most active player at the IWT La Santa Open. The young Brit played 12 matches in three days, winning eight. Remarkably, three of those wins came by just two points, with each game one point away from a gummiarm.

The full Juniors U21 Singles results are available here.

Seniors +45 Singles – Vuorinen Survives First-Round Scare to Win

Seven players did battle for the Seniors +45 Singles title, with Juho Vuorinen coming through the draw to take the title.

In the end, it was his first-round battle with Emeric Lardet that was the toughest. Heavy table tennis wins left Lardet needing 10 on the tennis court for a victory. But Vuorinen held his nerve in the sunshine. He won 21-7 to reach the semi-finals. There, he took on Samuel Worobel.

Vuorinen won three of the four sports to reach the final with a 19-point victory. There, he would take on Giovanni Gentile. The Swiss star had opened with a win against Patrick Ecuyer before dispatching fellow countryman Graham King in the semi-finals.

In the final, Gentile took a big lead when he won the table tennis 21-3. From there, Vuorinen battled back. The Finn won the badminton and squash 21-12 and 21-11. The title was sealed on the tennis court as he won 21-7.

France’s Worobel held off King to take the bronze medal by three points in a thrilling contest.

The full Seniors +45 Singles results are available here.

Seniors +50 Singles – Langston Beats Lau in British Domination

By the Seniors +50 Singles semi-finals, we knew we would have a British winner. That’s because Simon Lau, Jon Foulds, Julian Clapp and Martyn Langston all eliminated non-British opposition in the quarter-finals.

Clapp produced the most incredible win. After losing the tennis to Zoltán Albert 21-11, the two had to endure a gummiarm, which Clapp won to set up a semi-final with Langston. Langston has beaten France’s Philippe Montembaut in ruthless fashion.

In the top half of the draw, Simon Lau battled back from a 21-6 table tennis loss to beat top seed Volker Sach by +4 in a thrilling contest. He was due to face Jon Foulds in the semi-finals but received a bye after Foulds was forced to retire from illness.

That left Lau facing Langston in an all-British final. It was Lau who took a +4 lead into tennis after winning the badminton 21-6 and squash 22-20. However, Langston is a canny operator on a tennis court. The former Seniors World Champion triumphed 21-11 to defeat Lau and win his first singles title of the season.

The full Seniors +50 Singles results are available here.

Seniors Doubles – Gentile and Grab End French Hopes in Final

Five pairs were involved in the Seniors Doubles draw, leaving two groups; one with three pairs and one with two. The two group winners would compete in the final.

Top seeds Giovanni Gentile and Manfred Grab were superb in Group A. The Swiss duo ran riot through the group, winning both matches before tennis and only doping one set – losing badminton 21-18 to Patrick Ecuyer and Régis Steyer.

Group B was a one-match showdown with France’s Matthieu Beurel-Diamant and Emeric LArdet easily triumphing over Philippe Montembaut and Ray Ryan. That left the French pair facing Gentile and Grab for the title.

Despite winning two of the first three sports, Gentile and Grab trailed by five points heading to tennis. That’s because the French pair put on a badminton clinic, winning 21-8. A tense tennis set went the way of the more experienced Swiss pair. They secured a 21-12 victory to snatch the title by just four points.

The bronze medal match was also a narrow win. Ecuyer and Steyer held off the challenge of Montembaut and Ryan, winning by five points to secure a medal.

The full Seniors Doubles results are available here.

Men’s B Singles – Champod’s Table Tennis Guides Him to Title

Few players were as dominant at one spot in Lanzarote as Nicolas Champo was at table tennis. The Swiss star won his four singles matches 21-5, 21-5, 21-11 and 21-3 on his way to the Men’s B Singles title.

Johnny Bispham was his first-round victim, with the Swiss player winning by 12 points. After beating Kieran Shelley in the first round, Bastian Vaubert fell to Nicolas Champod in the quarter-finals.

Johan Rosenberg had crushed Taavi Suorsa to reach the semi-finals but saw his run ended by Champod in the semi-finals. That left Champod as the first name in the final. The Swiss player was joined by Great Britain’s David Bennett.

Bennett battled his way past a pair of Brits in Ryan Bezer and Jon Spinks in the opening two rounds to set up a semi-final with Lucas Steyer. Steyer had already lost to Ross Wilson in the semi-final of the Juniors U21 Singles and suffered the same fate again. Superb squash and tennis helped Bennett to a +15 win to set up a final against Champod.

In the final, Champod took a big early lead. He found himself 20 points clear after badminton but saw that lead halved as Bennett won squash 21-11. In the end, Champod was able to hold off the complete Bennett comeback. Champod won the title by four points with a 12-18 tennis set result. That is Champod’s first singles title and will see him enjoy big rankings rise.

Steyer beat Rosenberg to take the bronze medal back to France.

The full Men’s B Singles results are available here.

Women’s B Singles – Haurant Wins First Career Title

France’s Aurélie Haurant was the last woman standing amongst the 10 players competing for the Women’s B Singles title.

Haurant received a bye through to the quarter-finals as the No.2 seed where she took out Emilia Kostainen in comfortable style. Laureline Tschanz was looking to make it an all-French semi-final but fell to No.4 seed Esther Dübendorfer in the quarter-finals.

Haurant ensured there would be a French woman in the final as she beat Esther Dübendorfer in the semi-finals by 12 points. Facing her in the final was Hong Kong’s Elif Wong. The Hong Kong star cruised through her first two rounds, beating both Kate Russell and Julia Schirutschke before tennis without dropping a set.

Her toughest test on the way to the final came against Amandine Souin in the semi-finals. Wong won the table tennis and squash but a heavy 21-2 badminton loss meant that she needed 15 points on the tennis court. A tense tennis battle narrowly went the way of Wong. She lost the tennis 15-19 but won the match by three points overall.

In the final, it was Haurant who established a heavy early lead. The French star won table tennis 21-13 and backed that up with a 21-2 badminton win. Wong clawed 15 points back with a 21-6 squash win but it was not enough. Haurant won the tennis 10-5 to pick up her first career title.

The full Women’s B Singles results are available here.

Men’s B Doubles – French Success Continues with Bellaton and Duthuillé

The biggest doubles draw at the IWT La Santa Open was the Men’s B Doubles, which saw 20 pairs battling for the title. After five rounds of action, it was French pair Aurélien Bellaton and Anthony Duthuillé that won the title.

Their path to the final included heavy wins over Riccardo Raimo and Bruno Scherrer, Fabien Guidoux and Bastian Vaubert and Taavi Suorsa and Juho Vuorinen. Their opponents in the final were British duo Nick Rate and Ross Wilson.

They opened with a win against Emeric Lardet and Anthony Levavasseur, before fighting past David Bennett and Ryan Bezer. In the semi-finals, Rate and Wilson won an absolute thriller against Sweden’s Isak Enström and Johan Rosenberg.

The final was won on the badminton and tennis court. Rate and Wilson actually won the table tennis and squash 21-15 and 21-16 respectively. However, the French pair took the badminton 21-6 before polishing off the title with an 18-8 tennis win. For Bellaton, that’s a first career title on the Racketlon World Tour, while for Duthuillé that adds another title to his glistening collection.

Suorsa and Vuorinen won the all-Scandinavian battle against Enström and Rosenberg for the bronze medal.

The full Men’s B Doubles results are available here.

Mixed B Doubles – Allègre and Champod Team Up For Success

What do you get if you combine the IWT La Santa Open Women’s A Singles and Men’s B Singles Champions? One heck of a doubles team.

Flore Allègre and Nicolas Champod entered the Mixed B Doubles draw as an unseeded pair but fought their way into the final. Esther Dübendorfer and Bruno Scherrer were their first-round victims before they took out Karen King and Jon Foulds in the quarter-finals.

Perhaps their toughest test came against Jennifer Schmitz and Luke Barnes in the semi-finals. The French-Swiss duo trailed heading into the tennis. However, an impressive 21-10 win on the tennis court booked their spot in the final against top seeds Matilda Parslow and Johnny Bispham.

Parslow and Bispham also had two real battles to reach the latter stages. They opened with a simple victory against Pauline Hardouin and Bastian Vaubert before taking out Elif Wong and Samuel Barker. Like Allègre and Champod, their semi-final was a tight affair. Parslow and Bispham survived a scare to beat Kate Russell and Anthony Duthuillé by nine points.

In the final, Allègre and Champod came flying out of the blocks. They won the first two sports 21-6 and 21-10 to lead by 26 points. The British duo won the squash 21-7 but couldn’t complete the comeback. They won the tennis 10-9 to pick up a mixed doubles title together.

The full Mixed B Doubles results are available here.

Men’s C Singles – Scherrer Edges Sach and Enström For First Career Title

We end our coverage of the 2022 Racketlon World Tour with the biggest draw from the IWT La Santa Open. In total, 24 players were battling for the title. In the end, only Bruno Scherrer was left standing.

The Swiss No.8 seed won a number of competitive matches to emerge from the top half of the draw. His tournament began with a win over Great Britain’s Nick Rate before taking out top seed Volker Sach. That particular match was a thriller, with Scherrer grinding out a +2 victory after losing the table tennis 21-4.

His semi-final against Fabien Guidoux was not much easier. This time he won the table tennis but still only managed to snatch a +7 victory overall after losing the badminton.

In the final, he took on Sweden’s Isak Enström. Unlike Scherrer, Enström had cruised through the draw. He reached the final after winning three of his four matches before tennis and dropping just one badminton set in his entire run.

After a number of crushing wins though, Enström’s quest for the title hit a roadblock. Scherrer was superb in the final. Enström won the table tennis 21-8 before the Swiss star hit back, winning 21-18 and 21-8 to need 19 on the tennis court. Scherrer lost the table tennis 19-20 but won the match and the title by two points. A scintillating final and a fantastic way to close out the 2022 Racketlon World Tour.

The full results from the Men’s C Singles results are available here.