This year’s World Doubles Championship saw an extremely strong field in the Elite Women’s Doubles, with eight strong pairs fighting for the title. However, there could only be one winner, and after many extremely competitive matches, the highly skilled pair of Stine Jacobsen and Anna Klara Ahlmer came out on top, after a tough fight in the final against Myriam Enmer and Nathalie Vogel, meaning that they were crowned world champions. This victory meant that Anna-Klara Ahlmer successfully defended her title from last year; after winning it in 2024 and Stine Jacobsen won her fourth world doubles title, which is an extremely impressive feat.
First seeds, Kirsten Kaptein and Adeline Kilchenmann, and the French pair Flore Allègre and Marie Jaussein, both made it to the semi finals after strong victories of more than +20 points in the first round. After both pairs lost in the semi-finals, only one of them could still secure a place on the podium. It was the French pair who managed it, after an extremely impressive badminton display in the third-fourth play off.
Men’s Elite Doubles:
The men’s doubles this year saw two highly ranked and experienced players team up to win the Men’s World Doubles title as the partnership between Leon Griffiths and Koen Hageraats managed to overcome strong opposition from the German pair of Bastian Böhm and Cornelius Radermacher. Böhm and Radermacher had had a great victory against the Danish pair in the semi-finals in order to book their place in the final, however Griffiths and Hageraats proved to be too strong for the Germans in the final.
This meant that Leon came away with his fifth world doubles title, making him one of only a few men to reach this milestone, while Hageraats secured his first ever world doubles title.
There were many close and tense matches throughout the men’s doubles, no more so than in the quarter final match between the Finnish pair, Pekka Kainulainen and Henrik Mustonen and the Danish pair, Kresten Hougaard and Malte Thyregod, which the Danes won by only one point in order to book their place in the semi-final. This demonstrated the best of Racketlon with both pairs winning two sports each. After a very close third-fourth play off the Danish pair of Kresten Hougaard and Malte Thyregod, took home the bronze medal.
Mixed Doubles
The Mixed Elite Doubles also proved to be a very tense affair with the final between last year’s runner up’s Amke Fischer and Leon Griffiths and the first seeds Stine Jacobsen and Cornelius Radermacher going right down to the wire, with many impressive displays from both pairs in all four sports.
However, there could only be one winner, and Fischer and Griffiths managed to sneak over the line with a +3 victory helping them to put last year’s loss in the final behind them and be crowned mixed doubles world champions. The third-forth play off also proved to be an extremely intriguing and hard-fought match with both pairs giving all they had, but there could only be one winner, and Myriam Enmer and Koen Hageraats came through the match to claim bronze against Nathalie Vogel and Kresten Hougaard.
Women’s B Doubles:
The Women’s B Doubles had a draw of eight extremely strong pairs and, with anyone capable of winning, it was always set to be an exciting competition, but the tension really increased in the final with Mathilde Deleuran and Sattara Thacker taking on Victoria Dübendorfer and Dara Ladner for the title. After three highly competitive sports it all came down to tennis, with Deleuran and Thacker requiring 13 in tennis, it was never going to be an easy victory, but they managed to win with only four points to spare and an overall margin of +5, gaining them the title.
The third-fourth play-o also proved to be a well fought match, but after a decisive victory in
the squash of 21-4, the Hungarian pair of Nora Barta-Boncz and Virág Sákovics came out on top and took home the bronze medal.
Men’s B and C Doubles
The Men’s B Doubles also proved to be an exciting affair, with all four seeds being knocked out before the semi-finals the draw once again appeared wide open, with it now being anyone’s game for the title. After two competitive semi-finals, the final was between TSZ Chung Chan/Hei Nam Lee and Anders Lytoft Fyrst/Soeren Smit. The final was an extremely close match and with almost a full game of tennis required the pair from Hong Kong eventually managed to clinch the victory with a 21-17 tennis win and an overall match win of just 2 points. The third-forth play off in the Men’s B doubles was also won by a Hungarian pair, just like in the Women’s B doubles, with Balázs Francis and Botond Francia winning the bronze medal with a +22 victory.
The Men’s C Doubles was a slightly smaller draw with only 8 pairs involved; however, it was in no way any less competitive. The final came down to an all french affair, with both pairs having a fast start resulting in a very tight table tennis. The eventual winners lost the table tennis 19-21 but after a brilliant badminton set, they took control of the final and Jérémy Girard and Armand Maxime went onto take the title against Stéphane Falcoz and Sandro Lena. The bronze medal was won by the second seeds Mads Bjerggaard and Dan Holck-Hansen.
Mixed doubles B
The mixed B consisted of a draw of 11 high quality pairs and after many games, the final was contested between the British pair Sattara Thacker and Henry Jones and the Austrian pair Clarissa Steiner and Jonas
Grafeneder, who had both reached the final after strong victories of more than twenty points in their respective semi-finals. This suggested it would be a closely fought final and as a result the match gained a large crowd as it moved to tennis and Thacker and Jones played to the crowd, pulling off some amazing shots in the tennis in order to secure the victory, much to the joy of the onlooking British support, whilst the Austrian pairs contribution to the match cannot be understated, as without their great effort and play the match would not have been the spectacle it was.
Third place went to Chloé Delpont and Théo Skibniewski after a very narrow victory of +2 points in the third-forth play off giving them a well-deserved bronze medal.
Women’s Senior doubles:
There were two senior women’s doubles categories in the World Doubles Championships this year, the women’s +45 doubles and the women’s +50. They were both ferociously fought over, before the winners were crowned. After many close matches between the five pairs in the +45 category, Katrin Maldre and Titti Wigren took the title with four out of four wins, Segeloni Antoni and Nora Barta-Boncz took silver, only losing to the winners, while the British pair of Jane Galsworthy and Sarah Ball took bronze. The women’s +50 doubles was also a close contest between the three pairs involved, with Katrin Maldre and Carola von Heimburg taking the title, winning both of their matches and giving Maldre the double, while the British pair upgraded their bronze in the +45’s to a silver in the +50 doubles, and Esther Dübendorfer and Zuzana Vancuríková took the bronze.
Senior Men’s Doubles:
There were also multiple men’s doubles categories in the senior doubles competition this year, with players competing across the +40, +45, +50, +55 and +60 categories. This led to multiple winners and many brilliant matches. The French pair Bertrand Carlier and Christophe Montoya took the gold in the senior +40 doubles, with Anthony Duthuillé and Jermaine Manners taking the silver and Tsz chung chan and Sanjeev Kumar taking the bronze.
The +45 doubles had a large number of matches with much great talent, resulting in it being split into two boxes with the Finnish pair, Pekka Kainulainen and Juho Vuorinen, winning box A, and the Danish pair, Anders Lytoft Fyrst and Soeren Smit, winning box B, setting up a thrilling final which the Danish pair won to take the title. The Swedish pair, Stefan Nilsson and Pontus Olofsson, took bronze.
The senior + 50 doubles had a huge entry of 11 pairs, resulting in a fierce battle to gain the world title, and this was eventually claimed by the Hungarian pair, Balázs Francis and György Janzer, with an 8+ win in the final against the silver medalist Rachid Bech-Azeddine and Jacob Steinmetz. Martin Bartoš and Jan Port won the third-fourth play off by 10+ points to take bronze.
In the +55 doubles after a tense final, Rachid Bech-Azeddine and Jacob Steinmetz, upgraded their silver medals to gold by beating the silver medalists, Simon Lau and Henrik Sorensen, by +5 points. Thomas Knaack and Dirk Skok came through a fully German third-fourth play off to take the bronze by +10 points.
In the final men’s senior category, the +60’s Richard Hobzik and Thomas Ostenfeld Larsen came out on top in the final, to take the world title against Frank Kleiber and Volker Sach, who took silver, while fellow German pair, Christian Börner and Dirk Skock, overcame tough competition to take the bronze.
Senior Mixed Doubles:
In the senior mixed +40’s there was a fight for first between three pairs. The title was eventually won by the French pair, Segolene Antoni and Christopher Montoya, after a very narrow victory against Kirsten Kaptein and Taavi Suorsa, who eventually took silver. Soňa königsmarková and Jan Port took home the bronze medal.
The Mixed senior 45+ was also fought over by a strong field, with Esther Dübendorfer (the tournament organiser), and Anders Lytoft Fyrst taking the gold, followed in close second by Titti Wigren and Magnus Åberg in silver and Nora Barta-Boncz and Péter Burcsi taking third. The final senior mixed doubles event was the mixed +55 doubles and was competed for by 8 pairs all eager for the title, and after a great battle Katrin Maldre and Thomas Ostenfeld Larsen took the victory by a very narrow margin of only +2 points from the Czech pair Zuzana Vancuríková and Richard Hobzik, with the British pair Jane Galsworthy and Simon Lau coming through to take the bronze medal.
Junior Doubles:
The Girls’ U21 Doubles was well fought, with all pairs putting on a great show, and many great matches played. The gold medal came down to a match up between Bethany Pye/Alina Reissenauer and Mathilde
Deleuran/Holly Ranson. After many close sports, particularly table tennis which finished 21-18 to Pye and Reissenauer and badminton going to Ranson and Deleuran 21-14, Deleuran and Ranson needed 10 in tennis, and after some brilliant tennis from Deleuran, they managed to secure the title. Chloé Delpont and Romy Nothegger took home the bronze medal.
The Girls’ U18 Doubles was also a brilliant demonstration of skill and talent with Romy Nothegger and Alina Reissenauer taking the title; after pulling off a big tennis win to cancel out the dominant win from Juliette Dübendorfer and Victoria Dübendorfer in badminton. The Swiss pair really made the most of their strongest sport, but in the end the first seeds, Nothegger and Reissenauer, proved slightly too strong across the other three sports and took home the title.
The Boys’ U21 Doubles saw a tough line up with four strong pairs gunning for the title. Bastian Böhm and Leon Sam came out on top and took home the title, beating the second placed pair 14 -5 in tennis to take the title. However, the match to decide second and third came down to the wire, with Cameron Leighton and Zain Magdon-Ismail winning tennis 22-20 in a very close fight to take the silver medal and leaving Leonhard Prager and Markus Perschinka in third.
Junior Mixed Doubles:
The U21 Mixed Doubles world title was hard to predict as the pairs were all closely matched, and this resulted in a really exciting competition. After some excellent table tennis and tennis from Leonhard Prager, Prager and Ranson came away with the title, and second and third was decided by just a +2
victory to Alina Reissenauer and Bastian Böhm, demonstrating just how competitive the matches were.
The U18 Mixed Doubles was once again an extremely competitive series of matches, with Victoria Dübendorfer and Leonhard Prager winning the title, giving Prager both the U18 and U21 Mixed Doubles titles. After Prager and Dübendorfer had taken the title, all that was left was for second and third to
be decided between Juliette Dübendorfer/Calixte Hoarau and Romy Nothegger/Markus Perchinka, and after a great match Nothegger and Perschinka took home the silver.
Beginner’s Doubles and Mixed Doubles:
The Men’s D Doubles was played as a round robin with five pairs involved. After many close matches Vincent Coppeaux and Calixte Hoarau were victorious, winning all four of their matches. Second place was claimed by Hridayesh Kumar Singh and Rishabh Singh, and third was won by Christian Reid and István Sági. The Mixed C Doubles was split into two boxes with the French pair, Laura Guilloteau and Jérémy Girard, winning box A, whilst the pair from Hong Kong, Wan Yin Lui and Hei Nam Lee, won box B. This set up a great final with wan Yin Lui and Hein Nam Lee winning the final 21-11 in tennis. Claudia Favier and Armand Maxime took home the bronze medal after winning a tough third-fourth play off.
