Jesper Ratzer, arguably the GOAT of racketlon, will make another cameo appearance at this year’s World Championships – and he looks set to be even better than last year.
Last summer in Rotterdam, as a wild card, on his way to the semis he was only troubled with putting his tennis shoes on to get five points, against German Max Oldehaver (and actually needed two points against Michał Kurek but they decided not to play it).
Then came what many people have described as the greatest racketlon match ever played! It was against number one seed Luke Griffiths, and ended 21 18, 21 12, 9 21, 21 18 to the Brit.
Luke had won the previous two World Championships – and made it three after beating Sylvain Ternon (plus seven) in the final. The semi-final was the same kind of vibe as if Federer had grown up in the shadow of Nadal (or vice versa) and then they finally had match both basically at their peaks – and, predictably, there were fireworks.
Jesper says, “Those kind of matches was actually what I was missing during my last part of my racketlon career, where I was winning, winning too easily, winning before tennis and stuff like that. I won one World Championship without even playing tennis.”
“And so these kind of matches are what I think racketlon is – the intense back-and-forth, really tight matches with a lot of nerve and a big crowd and cheering and all sorts. So I really enjoyed the match even though I lost it. I obviously wanted to win it, but it was so much fun to play.
“Actually, I think some of my greatest experiences have been losing for some reason. I played a really, I played a really epic match against Stephen Adamson in 2012 at I think the biggest racketlon scene we’ve had, in Stockholm.
“And the crowd was actually against me. But there was just such a great mood and such a big crowd that it was just so much fun. Even though I lost.”
For those who have come to our sport in recent years and may not have heard of Jesper Ratzer, it is a very rare occasion that he loses. Tournament Software shows a staggering 217 wins and just 10 losses, across singles and doubles (though the records do not go back before 2014, when he was not at his absolute best).
The Dane dominated the sport from late 2013 until 2016, going unbeaten for nearly three years – and not even needing to step on the tennis court for much of that time.
Take for instance his results in the 2016 World Championships Singles. He played against strong players in, from the first round onwards, Joshua Zeoli, Rav Rykowski (European Champion the following year*), Jesper Hougaard, Lukas Windischberger (who held the World No.1 position for 22 straight months between September 2017 and July 2019 before retiring), and friend and sparring partner Kasper Jønsson.
(*The European Championships were very little different in effect from the World Championships – and for this reason there were only two held before every year became a World Championships again.)
In these five matches, against top, top players, mind, Jesper not only did not need to pick up a tennis racket, he did not drop a set (or even have to go two clear), and in about half of the sets his opponents did not even reach double figures. The scorelines were, respectively:
3, 12, 8
11, 14, 11
18, 8, 10
5, 6, 5
11, 8, 13.
Having firmly cemented his legacy, he then retired from full-time competition. playing just World Championships. He won in 2018 and 2019, making it his fifth title (including one European Championships), and then won his sixth title in Switzerland in 2021, beating Luke and Leon Griffiths in the semis and final.
That match against Luke was when Luke young and so before he hit his absolute peak level of now, which made last year’s match-up in Rotterdam such a thrilling prospect. Such was Ratzer’s level in this match, it will likely surprise people to hear that this was based on actually not very much practice beforehand, with his badminton was “crap” and fitness “not really there”. It’s a thrilling prospect that he looks set to be even better this year.
Looking back on the tournament last year and that match, he says, “When I participated last year, I only started playing racket sports again about two or three months before, after a long break of doing primarily obstacle course training (Editor’s note: this is very impressive – parkour indoors really). So the preparation wasn’t perfect.”
“I only played like two or three months of squash and then in the weeks leading up to it, I had two or three table tennis sessions and think four or five tennis sessions. Kind of no badminton at all. I think I touched my badminton racket like once, playing with my daughter.
“So I think my fitness wasn’t there, but, I mean, despite that I think I did pretty well, The table tennis was fine. The badminton was obviously crap. But I think Luke played really well. He kind of wasn’t allowing me to get into the badminton either.
“I think I over-performed a little bit in squash. I did train quite a lot of squash leading up to that. The tennis was fine. I actually thought I was going to win the tennis during the entire tennis set, but then he was just better in the end. I was really satisfied with my tennis overall.
“When you’re playing racket sports for 30 years, I don’t think it matters too much if you just had had a break – you can easily get back into it. It was a really fun match.”
Comparing to his form last year, Jesper says, “I think my squash level is quite high, quite a lot higher now, and I think my badminton level is a lot higher now. I’m moving well, I read the game well. I think this will be the biggest difference. Because two months of badminton makes a pretty big difference compared to not holding the racket for four years.
So watch this space, Rotterdam – what a damn fine match it should be, if matters go as expected/to seeding and they meet in the quarter-finals.
As with nearly all games in racketlon, it is a very healthy rivalry, Jesper not even mentioning the word ‘revenge’ once jokingly in our conversation. It was great to see the embrace and the words between them at the end of the semi last year, and Jesper is very praising of the Brit.
He explains, “I think he’s an excellent player – at the level now where some racketlon legends also were, like Christoph Krenn, Calum Reed, Stefan Adamsson, and some of the some of the really, really, really good legends of the game.”
Check out the draw of the Men A – Elite at the 2025 World Championships (and the other draws) here.
