06. August 2017

...for Lorenz, Hampl and King in Nussloch

Tanja Omlin, Beat and Dara Ladner, Christian Schäfer, Danijel Batinic, Patrick Lorenz, Lukas Spring, Michael Strässle, Benjamin Hampl, Patrick Bürgi and Graham King were in Nussloch this year.

Let’s start with the most successful ones:

Best ranked Swiss Hampl (No. 8 in the FIR World Ranking) who came by public transport was very focused and proved the fact that he’s in real good shape currently. In the 32 players’ draw in Men A he destroyed Luke Barnes (No. 13) before tennis. In the quarter-final he was tested by No.2 Windischberger and lost the exciting game, though he won table tennis and tennis, finishing in 5th position. On top of that, his Champions League team was on the smallest podium after 8 energy-sapping games.

Due to her company’s schedule problems, Omlin couldn’t come to Nussloch before Friday. Nevertheless, she had a close semi-final in Women B and was second after three victories in a row.

King played 11 matches (how did he do that?) in 3 days and was most successful in Seniors +55 where he lost only the final game. We won’t talk about him losing all 6 of his doubles matches.

Strässle and Schäfer won all three matches in the small Elite Doubles draw and so were rewarded with gold!

Strässle (the ice cream killer) is still amused (not abused) about the repeating verbiage of the well-dressed ice cream seller who probably lost a bet and had to use the word „bitteschön“ 10 times in 5 minutes.

Lorenz had a gruelling meeting with Christian Wiessner. Especially in tennis it was extremely close at the end, unfortunately the Swiss Champ lost the game with 1 point difference. After that the Lorenz express beat Alex du Noyer (No. 29) and Duncan Stahl (No. 9)

Beat and Dara Ladner, the congenial mixed team, won their second match 21:0 in table tennis. Nothing more to be mentioned? Maybe not on the courts, but in Heidelberg the team was extremely successful in recruiting beardy types. In Singles Dara ended 5th and Beat 13th in their B draws.

Bürgi won all of his table tennis matches. Thank god he doesn’t practice the other 3 sports. He was heavily involved in the never-ending discussion about which are the real Swiss „Jass“-cards. We still have to find out if the majority of the Swiss Cantons use a French or a German deck. But for sure one of 36 cards is still swimming in the pool.

Batinic lost all Fri and Sat games, but after relaxing in the Wiessloch swimming baths and watching a movie of Adam and Eve he won two B-Singles matches on Sunday. I forgot the content of the movie, but apples and snakes were quite important, I guess.

Last and least (!!) Lukas Spring didn’t win a single game in Germany, just like the years before. But the party tiger is still coming back to Nussloch in 2018.

The pathetic author of this text promised to try the bachelor award in the famous shooting star bar next year. Who will join (stop) him? J

Christian Schäfer 

17. Juli 2017

Hampl, Schäfer, Lorenz, Strässle und Spring – das sind gegenwärtig die fünf bestplatzierten Schweizer Spieler in der Racketlon-Weltrangliste. An der Night Tour in Cham sind sie zum ersten Mal auf heimischem Boden alle im gleichen Turnier angetreten. Eine spannende Affiche.

Patrick Lorenz konnte seine Ungeschlagenheit auf de Tour wahren, obwohl er beinahe in allen Runden hart gefordert wurde. Benjamin Hampl schaffte mit Siegen über Lukas Spring und Christian Schäfer wie schon eine Woche zuvor in Riga den Einzug in den Final. Dort musste er sich jedoch gegen die Schweizer Nr. 1 geschlagen geben. Im kleinen Final behielt Youngster Michael Strässle gegen Rückkehrer Christian Schäfer die Oberhand, ebenfalls eine Premiere. Trotzdem darf das Comeback von Schäfer als geglückt bezeichnet werden. Welcome back!

In der Kategorie B setzte Marcel Fässler seinen Vormarsch im Ranking weiter fort. Dabei liess er sich im Final auch nicht vom ebenfalls aufstrebenden Adrian Waldis stoppen. Nach längerer Verletzungspause spielte sich Simon Engler im B gleich in den kleinen Final durch, zu dem sein Gegner Graham King verletzungsbedingt leider nicht antreten konnte.

Leonard Ladner, der jüngste Teilnehmer in Cham, schwang in der Kategorie C obenaus. Er bezwang im Final Daniel Petazzi. Dahinter sicherte sich Filippo Nick mit einem Sieg gegen Dara Ladner Rang drei.

Resultate

Beat Ladner