The 2023 Racketlon World Championships are not that far away.. with only three IWT tournaments left to prepare for the biggest event of the year, we thought it would be a good time to take a look at what happened at last year’s World Championships.
Luke Griffiths wins first world title
The men’s singles tournament saw many spectacular upsets, starting with Florian Harca producing the performance of his life by defeating world no 1 and tournament favourite Morten Jaksland. Unfortunately he couldn’t create another upset against Lindberg, who went on to beat Radermacher to meet another unseeded player in the semi-finals. He faced Dutchman Koen Hageraats, who was having a great tournament, beating no 8 and no 4 seeds along the way. He proved too strong for Lindberg in the semi-finals, beating him + 12 (21-5 18-21 21-18 6-10) to make his first appearance in the World Championships final.
On the bottom half of the draw, it was a battle between the Griffiths brothers. Luke Griffiths beat no 3 seed Kresten Hougaard in the quarter-finals, to set up a semi-final meeting with his older brother. It was a very tight match going all the way to the end, Luke managed to take it +2 (21-17 15-21 13-21 21-9). Both first-time finalists, but they didn’t disappoint.
In a spectacular final, it was Luke Griffiths who managed to capture his first World Elite Singles title. Going into this year, both Luke and Koen have risen up the rankings respectively. Koen is currently world no 4 and Luke is world no 8. Both will aim to make another final in Rotterdam in two months time, but there will be plenty of other strong players who will have their say in it.
Enmer the first French player to win an elite Racketlon World Singles Championship title
Another draw with plenty of upsets and exciting matches. The first round matches all went by seeding. It was Astrid Reimer-Kern who caused the first big upset as she scraped past no 3 seed Anna-Klara Ahlmer by only two points, before causing another upset as she beat the no 2 seed Severinová in the semi-finals. On the other side of the draw, Myriam Enmer played some outrageous Racketlon, beating top seed and 2021 champion Jacobsen to reach her maiden final. For Reimer-Kern, it was familiar territory, having been in the final before in 2018 and 2021.
Enmer started strong taking table-tennis and badminton, before losing squash 21-2. Reimer-Kern is one of the strongest squash players, where as Enmer is one of the strongest tennis players. She bounced back by hitting some incredible winners, taking no prisoners and taking the match 21-3 to win her first world elite singles title.
Unfortunately due to injuries, Enmer hasn’t been able to come into action this season. Hopefully she will be in action at the Swiss Open at the end of this month. Reimer-Kern and Severinová also haven’t been in action yet this season, where as Jacobsen and Ahlmer have won several tournaments so far. Other women who have done really well so far this season are Flore Allegre, Nicole Eisler, and Marie Jaussein. It will be very exciting to see who will crown themselves as the 2023 Women’s Racketlon World Champion.
The 2023 individual Championships will start on the 2nd of August. There is still a lot of time to enter, but if you’re quick you don’t have to pay the late entry surcharge of 10EUR after the 12th of June. Join us and 245 other players for the biggest event of the season.
Enter here to participate in the 2023 FIR World Championships Singles
Sanne Veldkamp / FIR Media Officer