It’s all kicking off tomorrow morning in Nussloch Germany, as we get ready for the 13th edition of the IWT German Open.
Hageraats aiming for his first IWT title of the season
This will be the first time Koen Hageraats will come in action this season. Plagued by some injuries he had to pass on the French Open earlier this year. The world no 4 will want to get some good matches in before playing the World Champions at home later this summer. Hageraats is the top seed for this event and will face world no 14 Kresten Hougaard in probably the toughest opening round of the draw. They played once before at the SWT Dubai Racketlon Classic where Hageraats won 21-10 17-21 21-23 17-13. If all goes according to seeding, Hageraats is expected to play Cornelius Radermacher in the quarter-finals, and Max Plettenberg in the semi-finals. The second seed is world no 5 Sylvain Ternon. Ternon is in good form this season having made two back-to-back finals in France and Poland. He will start his German Open campaign against wildcard junior world no 4 Bastian Böhm. Ternon is expected to meet world no 23 Christian Schaefer in the semi-finals.
Jacobsen looking for back-to-back IWT titles in Germany
The women will have a small field of players for this edition, and will play their first matches in two round robins. Group A will consist of world no 1 Stine Jacobsen, world no 70 Silke Altmann and world no 12 Flore Allègre. Jacobsen will look to win her second IWT title this season, after winning the Finnish Open in February. Group B is headed by world no 4 Kirsten Kaptein. She will play her first match against her doubles partner world no 20 Adeline Kilchenmann, and world no 15 Stephanie Chung later that day. Both Allègre and Chung have been making a lot of good progress this season, both rising up the rankings quickly. It will be exciting to see what they can do this tournament.
German pairs top seeds for the men’s elite doubles, Kilchenmann/Kaptein and Jacobsen/Radermacher looking for a second title together in the women’s double and mixed doubles.
Germany has a strong chance to see a home winner by the end of the weekend, with Plettenberg/Radermacher and Oettl/Vaclahovsky as top seeds. Plettenberg/Radermacher will play their first match against Kanonenberg/Narayanaswamy, where Oettl/Vaclahovsky will face dangerous outsiders Hougaard/Jacobsen. The other matches will be between Böhm/Lentfer and Horacek/Port and Champod/Duthuille will face Hageraats/Van de Burgt. Kilchenmann/Kaptein will be looking for their second title after winning the IWT Lausanne Open in April. The women will play a round robin. The other pairs contesting for the title are German duo Altman/Kleb and French/American duo Allègre/Chung. Jacobsen/Radermacher are the favourites for the mixed doubles. They will face either Chung/Wiggin or Kleb/Kanonenberg in their first match. The second seeds are Allègre/Champod. They won the French Open mixed doubles together and are clearly in strong form this season. They will play either Kaptein/Lentfer or Altmann/Achenbach in their first round.
Full draws can be found here
Sanne Veldkamp/ FIR Media Officer
