This year’s Polish Open kicked off on Friday morning with both the doubles and mixed events. There were many close matches across all the categories, as the competitors battled it out for the titles over the majority of Friday and part of Saturday.
In the Men’s A Doubles, after some tight first round matches, the semi-finals were confirmed with Cornelius Reid and Matěj Volf setting up a match against the first seeds Bastian Böhm and Nicolas Lenggenhager who had received a bye through the first round. The mixed doubles pair Stine Jacobsen and Malte Thyregod booked their spot in the second semi, with a +10-point victory over Bart Lorkiewicz and Grzegorz Lorkiewicz, whilst Joerg Kanonenberg and Andreas Kotala secured their place with a three-sport victory over Leon Sam and Stefan Urban.
In the Semi-finals, Böhm and Lenggenhager progressed through to the final, gaining the four points needed in tennis, before their opponents Reid and Volf reached 21. After a close second semi-final Kanonenberg and Kotala took the match 21-13 in the tennis, against Jacobsen and Thyregod, despite the Danish pair’s dominance in badminton.
The final also went all the way to tennis, after Kotala and Kanonenberg put on a very solid display of table tennis to win to 18, requiring Böhm and Lenggenhager to come back across the next three sports, which they did winning badminton to 11 and then Squash to 12 with both Böhm and Lenggenhager playing their best squash. This meant that Böhm and Leggenhager needed 6 in the tennis, which they achieved with a scoreline of 6-5 to take the title. Reid and Volf claimed bronze in the third-fourth play-off, after a very close match against Jacobsen and Thyregod. Reid and Volf needed 19 in tennis to secure victory and were forced to come back from 19-15 down to win the match 19-20.
In the mixed A, Jacobsen and Thyregod won both of their matches to secure gold, only requiring six in tennis both times, which was aided by two dominant displays in badminton keeping both pairs to below 5. This meant that the battle for second was on between Lucie Hlavacova and Matěj Volf, and Kirsten I. Kaptein and Grzegorz Lorkiewicz. Hlavacova and Volf claimed three narrow victories in the first three sports meaning that they still needed 12 in tennis to take silver, but with this being their strongest sport collectively, they won the match 12-3.
The Men’s B doubles was a popular and well fought category with 8 pairs taking part. There were many great matches that took place within the competition, with György Janzer and Thomás Konfár only winning their quarter-final by +6, before going onto beat the first seeds Milosz Dużyński and Bartons Panek in the semi-final stage to book their spot in the final. In the other half of the draw, the Polish pair Borys Wasilewski and Rafal Wasilewski also reached the final, winning their first-round match without requiring tennis, before winning their semi over Marek Hrůza Jan Kománek by +17. This meant that the final was Janzer and Konfár v Wasilewski and Wasilewski. The match saw the Wasilewski’s storm into the lead with two strong victories in the first two sports, before Janzer and Konfár pegged them back with a 21-4 victory in squash. This meant that the Wasilewski’s needed 13 points for victory, which they secured with a 13-7 scoreline in the tennis. Hrůza and Kománek claimed third place.
The Mixed B consisted of 6 pairs and was played out in a monrad format. This meant that the top seeds Carola Von Heimburg and Michal Kurek and the second seeds Karolina Kalicka and Norbert Stolicki both received byes to the semi-finals. Heimburg and Kurek were joined in their semi-final by Pastuszka and Pastuszka, whilst Kalicka and Stolicki were joined by Malgorzata Mika and Jakub Otwinowski. The semis went with seeding with neither the first nor second seeds needing tennis to reach their place in the final. In the final Heimburg and Kurek put on a dominant performance across all three sports, winning by a plus 28-point margin. Mika and Otwinowski placed third.
There was a good turnout for the Men’s +40 Doubles event, with 7 pairs battling it out for the title. Sowa and Stolicki won a close quarter final against Hruza and Komanek, with their big win in squash helping them secure victory. At the bottom end of the draw there was another extremely close battle, with Kurak and Muc winning through against Borkowski and Pupiallo by only 4 points, in a match where each pair dominated in two sports. Lorkiewicz and Stasilo took the final semi-final spot with a solid win over Jensen and Ostaszyk. This meant the semi-finals were an all-Polish affair. In the semi-finals, Sowa and Stolicki won a close battle, defeating the number one seeds, while Lorkiewicz and Stasilo took the second semi-final with a convincing win over their opponents, with particularly good results in badminton and squash. Lorkiewicz and Stasilo were victorious in the final, winning by 17 points. After a close table tennis, they had a solid win in badminton and were able to take tennis 17-5 giving them the gold medal, leaving Sowa and Stolicki in silver, and Rykowski and Walczak with the bronze.
The final doubles event of this year’s Polish Open was the U16 Junior Doubles. The competition saw three pairs take to the courts with the aim of being crowned victorious. There where many close games, with two out of three of the match’s being decided in tennis. Kacper Serniak and Bartosv Wizor took gold, without losing a sport, whilst the silver medal match was extremely close with Jan Makasymów and Mikolaj Skwara taking 2nd with a 17-14 scoreline in tennis. Damian Roman and Jakub Roman placed third. It is great to see so many juniors competing at this year’s tournament.
The singles events are concluding today, so more news on that to follow tomorrow.
