It was a packed day of racketlon with lots of drama early on 2 gummi-arms in the morning between Andreas Stooss (SUI) beats Mio Fischer (SWE) – Men’s D First Round and Alex Porush (USA) beats Lukas Dvorak (CZE) – Men’s C First Round. We then saw another gummi-arm, seeds fall, and pear icelolly’s being handed out because of the heat. Make sure you stay hydrated!
The men’s elite kicked off at 5PM with defending Champ Luke Griffiths taking on Jimmy Tay. Tay started off strong, taking table-tennis 21-12 before Griffiths bounced back, taking squash 21-12 21-7 8-2). He now plays Henrik Mustonen in a rematch of their Nordic Racket Games semi-final, as Mustonen beat Paul Sach +19 (12-2121-14 21-4 7-3).
Damien Andre came through a massive battle against Kevin Ng, which ended in a gummi-arm. Ng had multiple match points, but Andre stayed strong and brought it back to 21-8 to force the gummi. He managed to take it with a good serve and is in the second round, against Mohammed Tarik Koubaa. Unfortunately Mouchet had to retire after table tennis, we hope he recovers soon!
Another seed fell as Max Oldehaver managed to defeat the no 5 seed Lindberg after a strong performance. He now plays six time World Champion Jesper Ratzer who defeated Thorsten Lentfer +24 (16-21 21-10 21-3).
Unfortunately home hope Koen Hageraats also had to retire due to injury against Botond Francia, who is now playing Michał Kurek for a place in the quarter-finals.
On the bottom half of the draw, Nicolas Lenggenhager played a strong game, beating Matěj Volf +28 (21-16 21-6 21-13). He plays Joerg Kanonenberg who beat Léon Mamié +25 (21-15 21-8 21-15).
It’s an all German battle for a place in the quarter finals as Christian Wiessner is taking on Simon Vaclahovsky. Christian beat Dan Busby +17 (21-14 21-13 16-21 12-5), and Vaclahovsky got revange for last year’s loss against Malte Thyregod, taking the game +10 (21-8 4-21 21-3 8-12).
No 7 seed Kresten Hougaard defeated Matt Davidson in a close match by +7 (21-7 17-21 21-16 7-15) and is playing Noah Mamié who reached the second round for the first time after a very strong performance against Lucas Steyer. Noah took the match +14 (21-9 21-19 16-21 13-8) and he was especially happy with his badminton after the match.
The last round of 16 match is between Sylvain Ternon and Cornelius Radermacher in what will be a repeat of their IWT Eurogames final last week which went to Ternon.
The men’s elite matches will kick off at 12:40PM tomorrow.
Keep an eye on our social media for all updates and watch live via racketlon.net