An exciting quarter and semi-finals day, as both defending champions are through to the final, against familiar opponents. Read how they did it here…
A final of Champions
It’s a final of Champions in the women’s draw, as defending champion Enmer will face former champion Vogel in the final tomorrow. Enmer had a tough start to the season, not being able to play due to injury and not knowing if she would be able to make it to the World Championships this year. She managed to do so and play with confidence, as she beat Irina Olsacher, who also performed well this tournament and made her first semi-finals, with a score of +18 (21-19 17-21 21-13 16-4). She took table tennis, before Olsacher bounced back with badminton, taking it 21-17. Enmer did well to stay close, as badminton is Olsacher’s strongest sport, and she went on to play good squash, taking it 21-13. This meant that she only needed 16 points in tennis, and she did that with confidence. She won tennis 16-4 and secured her spot in the final for the 2nd time in a row.
Enmer’s opponent will be none other than Nathalie Vogel, who won the world championships in 2012 and 2013. After being out of the game for a while, focusing on her family, she is back now and a force to be reckoned with. Vogel played Silke Altmann in the semi-finals, Altmann is also very experienced and a good player. Vogel took table tennis 21-10, and badminton 21-13 giving her quite a big lead going into squash. The squash was a hard game, both women giving it absolutely everything, and Vogel knew she needed to keep Altmann below 18 points not to go to tennis. Altmann kept fighting, edging closer and closer but Vogel managed to take it 21-17 and seal her spot in the final. The overall score was +23 (21-10 21-13 21-17).
The final will start tomorrow at 12:00, and will be on the live stream. The last time they played Vogel won before tennis. Enmer said she will do her best to get to tennis, enjoy the occasion, and try to defend her world title.
A clash of the Griffiths Brothers in the World Championships final
It will be a clash of the British brothers as both made their way to the final, in slightly different semi-finals. After the marathon match against Sylvain earlier in the day, Luke was going to have to find his best form again against sixth seed Hageraats. They met in the final last year, in a very tough match, and this time around it was in the semi-finals. Griffiths did incredibly well in table-tennis, playing smart but also a little bit of luck, and took twelve points, which is more than most people do against Hageraats who is a very good table tennis player. Luke stormed ahead in badminton, taking it 21-4, going into squash with a slight lead. Koen turned it around quickly, as he showed his squash improvements, taking it 21-10 to go into tennis with a +2 lead. It wasn’t enough unfortunately for Hageraats, as Luke is a very strong tennis player as well, although he had to stay focused and fight till the end. Almost cramped up serving for the match, but he managed to win tennis 21-10 and make his second consecutive final in a row.
Luke will face no other than his brother Leon in the final, after Leon replicated his win from the Londen Open against world no 2 Jaksland. Leon took a close table tennis 21-19, before he ran away with badminton 21-6. Squash was entertaining, with Jaksland showing off his skills (some backhand cross-court nicks) but Leon was too strong today, taking the match +31 (21-19 21-6 21-7).
It will be the first time the brothers will face each other in the final of the World Championships, and the first time ever in Racketlon history. Last year, Luke won in the semi-finals, but it was Leon who took their last match-up, winning by only two points two weeks ago at the London Open. It will be a final to remember and we can’t wait. A small note is that Luke still has to play his U21 final against Florian Harca, so Leon has kindly mentioned he will put his alarm at 6 am. The final will be tomorrow at 13:30.
Sanne Veldkamp / FIR Media Officer
