What an exciting day of Racketlon Sprint matches in the group stages of the FIR Race. The sprint format gave some exciting results and made for intense matches.
World no 1 Sylvain Ternon won all his matches in group A. He had an especially close match against Nicolas Lenggenhager which he won +4 (10-11 11-6 6-11 11-16). The other player through to the semi-finals from group A is Bastian Böhm who beat Michal Kurek +21 (11-8 11-3 11-8 11-4) and Nicolas Lenggenhager in two great matches +4 (9-11 11-10 10-11 11-5).
Kresten Hougaard and Joerg Kanonenberg made it through in some tight matches in group B. Joerg Kanonenberg won an incredibly tight match against Kevin Ng +1 (7-11 5-11 11-7 11-4) as well as Kresten Hougaard who managed to bounce back from being 3-8 down in tennis to take it 11-9 and the match +8 (11-10 9-11 11-14 11-9).
Stine Jacobsen and Nathalie Vogel were the top two in group A in the women’s draw and are through to the semi-finals. They had a close first match against each other which Stine took +4 (8-11 10-11 11-5 11-9). Jacobsen went on to beat Kaptein +18 (11-7 11-5 11-8 11-6) and Kilchenmann +14 (11-4 11-5 11-9 5-6) to finish top in the group.
Pauline Cavé and Anna-Klara Ahlmer got through in group B. Ahlmer beat Chan +8 (11-9 7-11 11-4 11-8) and +16 (5-11 11-3 11-1 11-7). She also got through a very close encounter against Cavé which she won +3 (11-6 11-3 9-11 3-11). Cavé is playing Jacobsen in a rematch from the Indian Open final last year and Ahlmer will try to take her first win against Nathalie Vogel.
