We were back today for the Nordic Racket Games, just the individual categories as we also had the Racketlon World Doubles Championships taking place over the last two days. Strong draws for the men and the women and some great matches that did not disappoint. Let’s see what happened on day 1.
A first-ever IWT singles semi-final for Bethany Pye
It’s been a great week for Bethany Pye so far, winning two gold medals and a silver medal in the junior categories yesterday, to making her first IWT singles semi-final coming into the event as a wildcard! She started off by beating junior world no 3 Clarissa Steiner +20 (21-7 21-23 21-18 7-2) before taking on Adeline Kilchenmann in the quarter-final.
It was an incredibly close match, Pye took a lead in table tennis taking it 21-13 before Kilchenmann took badminton 21-6 and squash 21-9. She only needed three points in tennis which did not seem impossible even though Pye is a great tennis player. She proved this by playing some incredible tennis, only losing one point and taking it 21-1 to win the match +1 (21-13 6-21 9-21 21-1).
She will play French Open Champion Pauline Cavé tomorrow after she beat no 2 seed Kirsten Kaptein +27 (21-17 21-11 21-8).
On the top half of the draw, Anna-Klara Ahlmer battled past Matilda Parslow in an entertaining match. Ahlmer won table tennis 21-4 and badminton 21-12. Parslow took some of the momentum back by taking squash 21-9, but Ahlmer still had quite the lead going into tennis.
Parslow fought till the end, but Ahlmer took the match with an overall score of +13 (21-4 21-12 9-21 8-9). Her semi-final opponent will be her doubles partner Amke Fischer who defeated Joyce Chan in a repeat of their Australian Open final earlier this year. Chan took a slight lead in table tennis 21-19 and badminton 21-12, but Fischer was stronger in squash 21-5 and tennis 17-6 to win the match +16 (19-21 12-21 21-5 17-6).
The semi finals start tomorrow at 9:40 AM local time
Luke Griffiths survives big battle against Henrik Mustonen
A long day for the men as some played three singles matches today. Max Oldehaver started well by beating Kevin Ng +19 (21-12 12-21 21-4 5-3) in his first match before beating Mandrin Mouchet +32 (21-5 21-18 21-8). He then won a big battle against Nicolas Lenggenhager. It was very close, Oldehaver took table tennis 21-18, Lenggenhager took badminton 9-21, Oldehaver regained the lead taking squash 21-7 before he managed to seal the match 17-13 in tennis. The overall score was +9 (21-18 9-21 21-7 17-13).
His semi-final opponent is top seed Leon Griffiths, who defeated wildcard Jimmy Tay +19 (9-21 21-6 21-6 4-3) and fifth seed René Lindberg +31 (21-6 21-7 23-21). On the other side of the draw wildcard Jesper Hedlund beat Mohammed Tarik Koubaa +27 (21-7 21-16 21-13) and the sixth seed Kresten Hougaard +28 (21-3 21-14 21-18). He faced the new world no 1 Sylvain Ternon in the quarter-finals after Ternon beat Duncan Stahl +23 (21-16 21-1 19-21).
Ternon proved to be a bit too strong, taking the match +15 (9-21 21-2 21-11 5-7) to face Luke Griffiths in the semi-finals who survived a big match against Henrik Mustonen.
Luke started well, taking table tennis 21-15 and badminton 21-6, but Henrik produced some high-quality squash and did not take any prisoners. Luke played well and made Henrik work for it, but Henrik took squash 21-2. He continued his good momentum, taking a 5-1 lead in tennis, before Luke managed to slowly turn it around, he got back to 8-8, took the early break, and after some gruelling rallies he managed to get it over the line. The overall score was +7 (21-15 21-6 2-21 21-16).
The men’s semi finals will start at 10:20 AM tomorrow.
