The World Cup at the Racketlon World Championships is set to be as hot as ever, with Denmark aiming to retain their title amid fierce competition from seven other nations. Let’s take a look at teams in contention and what they have to say of their chances.
Austria
Austria’s team of young guns that Luke Griffiths refers to are: Irina Olsacher, Clarissa Steiner, Florian Harca, Leo Hörtinger, Leonhard Prager, Leon Sam, Emanuel Schöpf, and Stefan Urban. While it is certainly a young team, it’s one with solid international racketlon experience. In fact, apart from Leo Hörtinger replacing Marcel Weigl, it’s the same line-up as last year, where they lost in the first round to Sweden, then lost to India and beat Netherlands.
Leonhard Prager, another talented 16-year-old stepping up to the first team, says, “The Austrian team has prepared a lot for this event. With lots of training sessions and a camp this week. The Eurogames and the Swiss Open were perfect preparation tournaments for the World Championships.
“We’re aware we’re not one of the favorites, because many experienced players have ended their careers or are injured. But we are still confident and are hoping for as many wins as possible.In every match there is a chance to win if you believe in it. Every opponent will be tough and we will have to fight for every match.”
Sweden
Sweden have been a consistent presence in the World Cup in recent years, finishing fourth last year after a great win over Switzerland, and once again have a strong team, featuring Jesper Hedlund, René Lindberg, Jimmy Tay, Anna-Klara Ahlmer, and Magnus Eliasson, who dominated racketlon in its early days, earning a staggering 77 consecutive weeks as world no.1 (Ratzer had 60). All played last year (the only difference is Mathias Fagerström was also in). They met the weekend of 20/21 July for, as Jesper Hedlund says, “joint training, team talks, and of course, extensive studying of possible opponents’ weaknesses”. (They are pictured at the training camp in the cover photo.)
“Anna-Klara Ahlmer has kept her momentum going by winning a tournament in Switzerland and René Lindberg has left the country for optimal tennis sparring in a Finnish tournament,” Jesper adds.
“A reasonable aim is to improve from the surprise 4th place last year. The team is likely improved on all positions since then and if we would reach a semifinal again the team will be better prepared to actually fight for medals. However, it won’t be easy as many teams look really sharp. Looking to defend, Denmark will be strong again. Germany’s depth is scary and Great Britain has a sharpness few, if any, can match.”
Switzerland
Switzerland have a packed squad, opting for seven men and two women (basically the maximum number of players countries opt for). The team comprises: Patrick Bürgi, youngster Andreas Kotala, world no. 5 Nicolas Lenggenhager, brothers Léon and Noah Mamié, Riccardo Raimo, Flavio Wolf, regular top 10 player and new mum Nicole Eisler, and world no. 10 Adeline Kilchenmann.
They had an official team preparation night recently and have had other informal practice sessions between players.
In fact, they will have an honorary eighth male, as Nicole is bringing her seven-month-old son Nael!
“I’m just really looking forward to my comeback tournament,” Nicole says. “It wouldn’t be possible without my husband agreeing to bring the whole family because Nael is still relying on me breastfeeding him. But I’m curious to see him. The future is ready!”
“It’s been trickier than other years to prepare properly because I don’t have time. But now I can practice a bit during the day. So I’m looking forward to meeting everyone because I was away from racketlon for a year. That’s what racketlon is all about I think; to meet people. It’s friends, it’s a family. See everyone soon!”
“I think, like every year, we’re not the favorites. We’ve never lost but we are always somewhere in the middle. I think this year will be the same again. We’ve never been better than fourth place so hopefully this year will be the big surprise. It would be a real surprise. But you never know…”
Maybe with Nael as mascot he can be the lucky charm the Swiss need!
Hong Kong
Following their win over Great Britain in last year’s Nations Cup final, Hong Kong China have been promoted to the World Cup, a testament to the racketlon’s booming popularity in the area and the way Hong Kong China Racketlon Association have harnessed this with local and international tournaments (including probably a 2025 international tournament), fun days, box leagues, and more. (Hong Kong China 2 earned promotion from the Challenge Cup to the Nations Cup and they are also bringing a third team this year – 14 hours flight for a third team must be some kind of racketlon record…)
And they’re not just dedicated enough to travel all the way to Rotterdam; they’ve also travelled to Taipei (95-minute flight) and Shenzhen just to get a taste of clay court tennis, which is not common in HK.
President of Hong Kong China Racketlon Association, Steven Wai Kit Cheng, says, “This is the first time Hong Kong China participate in the World Cup. We aim to be competitive and our players will definitely give their best on court.”
“Great Britain has a great chance in the World Cup, although history shows anything could happen in team matches. We are looking forward to more exciting matches in the World Cup and hopefully some victories for Hong Kong China!”
As for the general success of the sport in Hong Kong, he explains, “Thanks to the hard work of our team, to organize various fun days for newcomers and recruit new members to join competitions, we start to have faces that I need time to recall their names!”
“We should be able to host another international open in February 2025, pending confirmation from FIR. In the long run we hope to have sustainable local and international competitions yearly and maybe one day Hong Kong could host the World Championships!”
