A lot has happened on day 1 of the 2024 FIR Racketlon World Doubles Championships, let’s have a look at some of today’s most memorable moments!
Women’s Doubles
Chan/Pye managed to battle past Parslow/Thaker in a close match. Pye/Chan took the early lead taking table tennis and badminton 21-9 and 21-13, but had to give some of their lead away as Parslow/Thaker won squash 21-11. They still had a considerable lead going into tennis and it was close but they sealed their first semi-final with a +12 (21-9 21-13 11-21 14-12) win.
They play second seeds Anna-Klara Ahlmer and Amke Fischer who won their match +43 (21-10 21-4 21-6).
Kaisu Anttila and Linnea Koskinen beat their fellow Finns as they took the match +32 (21-5 21-14 21-12) against Kosonen/Kostiainen. They will face top seeds Cavé/Kaptein who defeated Fabienne Dony and Adeline Kilchenmann +29 (21-14 16-21 21-8 21-7).
Men’s Doubles
All eyes were on the battle of the World Champions as Luke and Leon Griffiths took on Jønsson and Ratzer after the Danish pair defeated Tay/Hedlund +14 (6-21 21-8 21-8 11-8). But let’s see how the other quarter-finals played out first.
Pekka Kainulainen and Henrik Mustonen defeated Joel Pennanen and Luka Penttinen for the first time on the IWT tour, taking the match +9 (19-21 12-21 21-14 21-8). They then faced home favourites Hougaard/Jaksland, who haven’t played together since the last World Championships, but proved they are still a force to be reckoned with as they took the match +22 (21-2 21-15 18-21).
Oldehaver/Thyregod took on the Mamié brothers who won their first match by +28 (21-11 21-11 21-13) against Burgi/Pichler. They regained the lead after losing table tennis 15-21 and went on to win the match +19 (15-21 21-6 21-11 3-3).
Radermacher and Wiessner took out the no 2 seeds Lenggenhager/Lindberg in the only upset in the men’s draw. Especially squash was a very closely contested match which went to Lenggenhager/Lindberg but it wasn’t enough to win the match. The overall score was +12 (21-16 21-16 24-22 6-6).
The biggest match of the day was current World Champions Luke and Leon Griffiths against former World Champions in a very entertaining and close match. The Danes were leading 19-11 and 20-14 in table tennis but the Griffiths brothers managed to bring it back, taking table tennis 24-22 going into badminton with a small lead.
on Jønsson/Ratzer took the lead in Badminton again, fighting off a comeback of Luke and Leon yet again to take it 21-18, before Luke got a big start in squash and for a while it looked like the brothers were going to win 21-12 but Ratzer fought back and eventually Leon took squash 21-16 after a long rally.
Tennis was quite straightforward for Luke and Leon, as they got to a quick 11-5 lead and finished the match 18-9 to book their spot in the semi-finals. The overall score was _13 (24-22 18-21 21-16 18-9).
Mixed Doubles –
Anna-Klara Ahlmer and Luke Griffiths got off to a great start, beating Mamié/Kilchenmann +30 (21-17 21-8 21-8). They faced Cavé/Mustonen in the semi-final after the pair defeated Ratzer/Ratzer by +28 (21-8 15-21 21-0). It was an incredibly close semi-final with Luke and Anna-Klara Ahlmer taking an early lead in table tennis, but Cavé/Mustonen fought back just losing out 21-18. Ahlmer/Griffiths won badminton quite convincingly 21-8 before losing squash 14-21 and they took a tight tennis game 13-13.
Chan/Ng reached their first Elite World Championship semi-final as well after they got the better of Ettenauer/Pichler taking the match +19 (21-14 21-6 14-21 7-3). They faced Fischer/Griffiths who won their match against Dony/Radermacher by +30 (21-10 21-4 21-19). Fischer/Griffiths took table tennis quite convincingly 21-7 before Chan/Ng took badminton 18-21. Fischer/Griffiths won squash 21-14 after the Hong Kong pair made a tactical switch to play Kevin first. After squash Fischer/Griffiths only needed 4 more points to make it in to their first final together.
