In the Men’s Elite draw, reigning Champion Luke Griffiths saw off squash pro Henrik Mustonen. The Brit had a strong start, winning the first two sports to 9 and 5, then, as expected, the squash pro fought back, winning squash to 4, though not before Luke had 5 3. Luke had enough in tennis, where it ended 11 6.
He meets Damien Andre, who overcame a 26-point half-time deficit against Hong Kong’s Kevin Ng to win an epic encounter on a gummi. This time round it was considerably easier, as he beat Morocco’s Mohammed Tarik Koubaa before tennis (albeit just – plus 22).
Wildcard Jesper Ratzer, the Dane who dominated the sport in the middle of the last decade with 60 straight weeks at number one, triumphed over Max Oldehaver. However, unlike the Dane’s purple period, where it was almost as if whispered tones would rumble around the tournament venue on the rare occasion Ratzer picked up a tennis racket, the current crop of elite players trouble him a little bit more. The pair basically split the TT (21-13 to Max) and squash (21-14 to Jesper), with the badminton (21 3 to Jesper) the difference, leaving Jesper only needing five in tennis. It should be a thrilling semi-final tomorrow if, as expected, both he and Luke win their quarters…the old and new masters of the sport.
Joerg Kanonberg is having a superb season, perhaps the best of his career, and continued that with a brilliant win against number four seed Nicolas Lenggenhager of Switzerland. An incredible 21 2 tennis set – a big rarity in racketlon at any level, not least elite – bagged in a plus 15 victory and quarter-final berth.
There, he will meet compatriot Christian Wiessner, who had the tightest last 16 match – a 21-15, 21-16, 4-21, 21-10 win in another all-German affair, against Simon Vaclahovsky.
Kresten had a real battle against young Swiss player, who’s in round 2 for the first time at the World Champs. It was a real battle of wills in the first two sports, Noah prevailing 21-19 and 27-25, before the Dane took control and won squash and tennis 21 10, 15 8.
He plays second seed Sylvain Ternon. The Frenchman has good claim to being the best badminton player on the tour – he even Jesper Ratzer to 10 in their only match-up, and it showed here, as he won 17-21, 21-4, 21-18, 6-11.
