It may be his first World Tour title, but those who know about New Zealand Racketlon won’t be surprised that Victor Romero won his 5th national racketlon title in Palmerston North last weekend.
Here’s how the first World Tour event of the year played out.
Singles commenced on the Friday
Jack Oliver caused a massive upset on day 1. He knocked out table tennis star, Matt Ball, in the quarter final, by 6 points.
Tournament director, Owen Mugridge said he was “pleased with my win” over Simon Vale in their quarter final.
The other two semi finalists were Victor Romero and Sean Martin. Victor defeated Matt Power before tennis, but Nathan Metzger pushed Sean Martin, last year’s semi finalist prevailed by just 8 points.
On Saturday, Sean Martin regrouped to beat Jack Oliver by 9 points, thanks to a 21-3 tennis set. Meanwhile, a 21-8 victory to Owen Mugridge in the badminton forced Victor Romero to tennis for the first time of the tournament, but the former Mexican Davis Cup representative dropped just one point before securing the win.
In the final, Romero showed why he’s ranked number 1 in the all-time NZ rankings. Sean Martin did his best, but Victor won the match before tennis. It’s a shame that the crowd were not treated to a meaningful tennis set – the two finalists are amongst the strongest tennis players on the New Zealand Racketlon circuit.
FIR content creator Leigh Sands reached out to Victor for his thoughts following the win.
“Feels great, although, I would’ve preferred to get you in the final! A win is a win though, and I’ll take my 5th NZ title happily home!”
Although not part of the World Tour, Victor’s previous titles include wins over:
- Sion Wiggin, former World Number 9 and winner of the 2025 New Zealand Open
- Jason Granville, former World Number 16 and an over 40s World Champion
Gummiarm in Doubles Semi Final
Sunday was doubles day and Nathan Metzger & Simon Vale caused some early drama. Firstly by knocking out the singles champion and his son Victor Junior. Then in the semi final, top seeds Owen Mugridge & Jack Oliver led by 15 points before tennis. A 21-6 win to Metzger & Vale locked the scores at 63-63, before they won the match in a Gummiarm playoff (i.e. 1 additional point in tennis, which decides the match).
In the bottom half of the draw, Matthew Goodson & Matthew Shum, were on a giant killing run of their own, knocking out the 2nd and 4th seeds to reach the final.
That’s where Team Matthews run ended, with Nathan Metzger & Simon Vale winning the match by 21 points.
Check out the full results: Singles | Doubles
Next tournament: Hong Kong Open
Next weekend, the World Tour heads to Asia for the first Super World Tour event of the year. It is the first time Hong Kong has hosted a tournament of this calibre before, after holding a successful IWT in 2025 and Challenger in 2024.
Draws for this year’s event have already been released.
