World Ring Tennis Championships 2006
The 1st Ring Tennis World Championships 2006 took place from November 6th to 10th, 2006 in Chennai (India) and were organized by the World Tenniquoits Federation (WTF for short). The host was the Tennikoit Federation of India . The tournament consisted of a single World Championship for women and men, the Team World Championship and an (unofficial) double World Championship for women and men, which were officially organized as exhibition matches . The event was broadcast live on Indian television for four days for a total of 32 hours.
Venue
The venue for the first ring tennis world championship was the Nadia Comăneci Indoor Stadium on the premises of the Velammal International School in Ponneri , a suburb of Chennai , which is about 40 km outside. The Velammal International School is an institution of the Velammal Educational Trust . The chairman of this organization is MV Muthuramalingam.
In the Nadia Comaneci Indoor Stadium, six playing fields were prepared, one of which was the Center Court. The live television broadcasts were made from this Center Court. Unfortunately, there are no official attendance figures, but the Indian side said there were up to 5000 spectators. Before the decisive team meeting between Germany and South Africa, three playing fields were even dismantled to make room for additional chairs.
Participating Nations
Six nations took part in the first world championship in ring tennis.
Two members of the WTF did not take part in the World Cup.
Membership in the World Tenniquoits Federation is a prerequisite for participating in a world championship in ring tennis . Each member nation may register a team of 5 women and 5 men for the team world championships and 4 women and 4 men for the individual world championships. Three of the four players who start at the individual World Cup must also be a member of the team. I.e. a player who only starts in the individual World Cup is the sixth member of the team and thus a reserve player. The maximum size of the entire team is therefore limited to 12 players.
German team
The German World Cup team was nominated by national coach Mario Müller from Hamburg on April 30, 2006 as part of the crown tournament in Siegen and looked like this:
Ladies | society | International appearances before World Cup |
Sabrina Westphal | Post-SG Mannheim | 7th |
Nicole Schellert | TV Heddesdorf | 0 |
Melanie Böttcher | Post-SG Mannheim | 0 |
Vera Vollhase | SG Suderwich | 0 |
Sarah Kissinger | FSG Koblenz-Bad Ems | 2 |
Silke von Aschwege | Post-SG Mannheim | 8th |
Men's | society | International appearances before World Cup |
Christian Herzog | ESG Frankonia Karlsruhe | 12 |
Dominic Schubardt | Post-SG Mannheim | 4th |
Timo Hufnagel | TV Pforzheim | 4th |
Maximilian Speicher | VfL Wehbach | 0 |
Ansgar Kutscha | Post-SG Mannheim | 6th |
Gunther Kaiser | Post-SG Mannheim | 0 |
competition
Individual World Cup men
The men's individual World Championship was won, very unexpectedly, by the German Dominic Schubardt , who defeated the top seeded South African Gerrie Craig in the semifinals and then prevailed against his teammate Timo Hufnagel in the final . In total there was a starting field of 20 players, the winner was determined in knockout mode.
Final ranking
Individual World Cup women
At the women's individual World Cup, after a purely German semi-final, the German number 1, Sabrina Westphal , prevailed as expected in the final against the only 18-year-old Nicole Schellert . The top seeded Indian K. Narayanamma was eliminated in the second round against the later fourth Vera Vollhase . In total there was a starting field of 18 players, the winner was determined in knockout mode.
Final ranking
Double competitions
The doubles competitions were officially organized as exhibition matches in order to be able to present additional attractive games to the television viewers, but are also viewed as unofficial doubles world championships. As in the individual competitions, the German team dominated the event. Nicole Schellert and Silke von Aschwege won the women ahead of Vera Vollhase and Melanie Böttcher , while Dominic Schubardt and Maximilian Speicher beat the favored South African doubles Gerrie Craig and Bertus le Roux in the final .
Team World Cup
At the Team World Cup, the teams from Bangladesh, Brazil and Pakistan started out of competition because they were unable to put together a complete team of at least four women and four men that was necessary for official participation. The Bangladesh team only had three women available because one player was canceled at short notice, while Brazil provided an all-women team and Pakistan an all-men team. Thus only India, South Africa and Germany remained in the official ranking, which the German team won in a convincing manner. The winner of the team world championship was determined in the mode everyone against everyone.
A national team meeting consists of 2 women and men individually (DE, HE), 2 mixed doubles (Mix) and 2 women and men doubles (DD, HD).
India versus Germany
The encounter between Germany and India turned out to be clearer than expected. The Indian team had improved compared to the games of the individual World Cup, but only Sameera Begum was able to win in the second women's singles against vice world champion Nicole Schellert and thus ensured the only Indian point win of the game. Still, it was no walk in the park for the German team, as some games were more competitive than the result suggests.
India versus South Africa
Even against the winner of the Triangular Championships 2004, South Africa, the Indians were powerless in the end, although they played strong and scored four points more than against Germany. Particularly noteworthy is the victory of K. Narayanamma against Michelle Kokott , who was second at the 2004 International Masters in Durban . Hein van der Lith was narrowly defeated by his Indian opponents both in mixed with Elsie Dreyer and in doubles with Hanno Pienaar . Otherwise, the South African team played out its routine and won the victory against India safely.
Germany versus South Africa
Due to the big win against India, the German team against South Africa was enough to win the title. In the first two rounds all four singles went to Germany, which meant an 8-0 lead. Both mixed were now won by South Africa, so the decision had to fall in the doubles. Here everything was clear after the first lap; the German team had the title in their pockets thanks to the 12: 4 intermediate result. Despite the joy of winning, the last two doubles went to Germany with one point difference each.
Final ranking
1. | Germany | 4: 0 pts. | 34: 6 games | |
2. | South Africa | 2: 2 pts. | 18:22 games | |
3. | India | 0: 4 pts. | 8:32 games |
Medal table
country | |||
Germany | 5 | 3 | 4th |
South Africa | 0 | 2 | 0 |
India | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Trivia
- The 2006 World Ring Tennis Championships were opened by the Minister for Communication and IT of the State of Tamil Nadu , M. Krishnassamy.
- The organizers, the Tennikoit Federation of India and the Velammal International School, managed to win well-known sponsors such as LG and the Indian daily newspaper Deccan Chronicle for the World Cup.
- Before this first World Championships in Ring Tennis, there had already been two unofficial individual World Championships, called International Masters. In 2002, Wilna van der Merwe (South Africa) and Reinhard Plog (Germany) won in Leipzig , in 2004 Melanie Grieb (South Africa) and Gerrie Craig (South Africa) won in Durban .
- Germany's 16: 4 against South Africa was the first victory of a German national team against opponents from the Cape of Good Hope since 1992 (21: 7 at the time).
See also
Web links
- http://www.worldtenniquoit.org - The official website of the World Tenniquoits Federation.
- http://www.rzuser.uni-heidelberg.de/~bx6/psg/ringtennis - Website of the Post-SG Mannheim with the World Cup diary of the German delegation.
- http://www.chrisses-ringtennis.de - Christian Herzog's website with a World Cup story.
- http://www.tenniquoits.com - website of the Indian organizers.