Racketlon, traditionally a European-focused sport, is now breaking ground in several different corners of the world.
This year at the World Championships, there were eight teams from outside of Europe and very strong showings, including USA 1 taking Germany 2 all the way in the Nations Cup final and Hong Kong 1 with a competitive seventh-place showing in their first World Cup.
What’s more, despite the distances needed to travel to tournaments to accrue ranking points, there are five non-European male players in the men’s top 50 – Hong Kong’s Kevin Ho Ching Ng (13), Mohammed Tarik Koubaa (19) Sion Wiggin (26), Adarsh Vikram Narayanaswamy (32) and Patrick Moran (48) – and six non-European women players in the women’s top 50 – Hong Kong players Tsz Yan Joyce Chan at 7, Wan Yin LUI at 27, Crystal Ho Suet Ying at 41, and Ho Ching Chan at 50, and Americans Stephanie Chung and Joanne Schickerling at 8 and 38 respectively.
Next year there are four tournaments outside of Europe on the World Tour: the first international tournament in New Zealand on January 31 to February 2, followed the weekend after by the Hong Kong Open (upgraded to IWT following the success of its maiden tournament this year), the SWT Inventist Racketlon Open 2025 in Istanbul (the Asian side) in early June, and the SWT Willingdon Indian Open in early December.
A fair shout for the most active person in pushing the game forward all over the world is Mohammad Tarik Koubaa. A gentle giant from Morocco, currently based in Dubai, he is a regular player on the international tour as well as surely racketlon’s promoter-in-chief, our very own Don King, you could say. He has, for example, managed to nab an incredible array of tennis professionals to promote racketlon, including Dominic Thiem, Elena Rybakina, Holger Rune, and even arguable GOAT Novak Djokovic!
He is the first non-European player to win gold in a World Championships singles category; to win an Elite World tour event in both singles and doubles; and to become world number in a ranking category (40+).
So who better to assess the state of racketlon around the world? He says, in addition to the strength of racketlon in Europe, it is growing very well in other nations, particularly in Asia.
“We have a kind of a Asia Pacific tour,” he explains. “India are doing a great job. Last year we had a fantastic IWT. This year they are organising an SWT [this weekend] and they are aiming to organise a big World Championships.”
“It’s thanks to really good support from the government and they have really big investors in there. One of the investors is building a huge centre.
“You could even organise a mini Olympics in there. It would be really, really good. They are aiming to have, in the first phase, about 200 beds there. It’s crazy. They will have all the sports. They will organise tournaments, maybe a World Championship, and you can organise camps. ”
He was recently in India for one of their national tournaments, as an ambassador, talking to kids about racketlon, how to improve, and the sacrifices.
And he is very excited be playing at the fantastic forthcoming Super World Tour tournament in India (pdf), where there is over 3,000 Euros of prize money to play for – and the aforementioned kids are ready to show their progress! Elite players, such as Mohammed, receive free accommodation, food, transport when there, and all hospitality for five days and nights.
There are over 100 Indian players playing this tournament, demonstrating the passion for racketlon in India. (And India is huge so many are going to the trouble of flying there.) And, like previous years, the tournament should be reported in national newspapers and on TV.
All of this coverage and touches of professionalism/semi-professionalism at the top level of racketlon are things vital to pushing racketlon forward, Mohammed says, explaining it is great players now get sponsorship, for example his previous sponsorship by Technifibre and Head, Leon Griffiths now with Ashaway, and Myriam Enmer, Sylvain Ternon, and others.
In terms of elite players from the rest of the world, he highlights Hong Kong. He says, “They are doing really, really well. You see them in tournaments; you see them coming too with the teams. You see the two, Kevin and his partner [Joyce Chan].
“They are both in the FIR Race now [7 and 4 respectively], which is really good. Kevin travels a lot. [If they are in the finals] it will give us someone in the elite from outside of Europe, which is something really good for the sport.”
Steven Cheng Wai-Kit, President of Hong Kong China Racketlon, explains of Hong Kong’s success: “Thanks to the hard work of our team, to organize various fun days for new comers and recruit new members to join competitions, we start to have faces that I need time to recall their names!
“I take this as an encouraging sign that our player population is increasing. 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!”
In February, they will host the second Hong Kong Open, at the fantastic Craigengower Cricket Club, upgraded from a Challenger last year to IWT this year.
Some other very exciting developments in racketlon are the first racketlon tournament in the Democratic Republic of Congo; racketlon’s first proper foray into South America with the sport having started recently in Peru (with padel instead of squash); and Mandrin Mouchet finding some incredible potential venues in Japan, Portugal, Colombia, and Singapore. Kallang Tennis Hub in Singapore has table tennis, 12 badminton courts, seven squash courts, and a whopping 21 tennis courts!
Check out the second part of the article here…
