18 Aug 2012 at 19:34 | Published by: Hans | Views: 16751 | News search

Eetu Ikola the new matchplay World Champion  (Photo by Achim Braungart-Zink 2012)

As usual when the match play finals are played it opens for lots of thrilling matches, many surprises and underdog winners. The match play finals in Bad Munder were no exception and when many of the easiest lanes on eternit and felt were sorted out every lane is more important. As usual also some players are more comfortable than others in this modus. Obviously the gold winners Lara Jehle of Austria and Eetu Ikola of Finland enjoyed their day and could keep their nerves cold despite the pressure.

Lara started her day by winning against Danish Laura Henriksen (6-2) and then she meet her team mate and the reigning match play world Champion from Sochi, Martina Danner. In a match were Martina started best and was in the lead with 3-0 Lara showed her strength and could turn the match around to a 7-4 victory. In the semifinal she was the only non-German girls left and that of course meant lots of home-crowd pressure on her in the match against yesterday’s silver medalist Annika Dellmann. But Lara could stand the pressure and by acing the first 5 felt lanes she won 4 to be in the lead by 6-2 with 4 lanes to go. And when Annika could not beat Laras 2 on the bridge she won the semifinal.

In the final she meets Vanessa Pueker that started her day by winning two matches against Swedish opponents. First Marielle Svensson and then in a tight match all the way to sudden death she won against match play silver medalist from Sochi, Lina Liljegren. In the all-German semifinal she meet yesterday’s winner Katharina Benn and turned the match around on the final felt lanes.

The final was again a performance in sharp felt-play of Lara Jehle. After being equal with Vanessa (2-2) on the starting eternit she aced 6 of the 7 first felt lanes and by that she won 3 lanes and the match was over with two lanes to go already on the side gates. Vanessa could at least celebrate a silver medal after yesterday’s disappointing ending of the stroke play finals. With a 6 and a 4 on the Örkelljunga the final day she still ended 31-19-28-19, but still lost the bronze to even better playing Sara Karlsson.

The bronze match was won by yesterday’s silver medalist Annika Dellmann and by that she returns home as the YWC queen as the only player in the Championship with 3 medals (team gold, stroke play silver and match play bronze).

In the boys final Nordic Champion Eetu Ikola showed that he is a boy that could stand playing in pressure. In the first match Ikola won in sudden death (2-2) against Swiss Beat Wartenweiler in one of the best matches of the day with no less than 12 of 18 lanes ending in double aces. In the next match Ikola was up against yesterday’s silver medalist and home favorite Pascal Zeller. In another tight a well played match (14 aces for Ikola and 12 for Zeller) he won 4-2. In the quarter final Ikola was playing a slightly different but still tight match against another Swiss player Jan Anderegg. Anderegg aced 12 lanes and Ikola 13. But they only aced 3 lanes both players so the match was 6-5 in favor in of Ikola.

In the semifinal he meets Markus Nilsson of Sweden. This was maybe the strangest match of them all. Nilsson was in a big lead after the eternit and with 6 lanes to go on the felt course Nilsson had a 3-0 grip of the match. But once again Ikola could get his felt act together at the same time as Nilsson was showing some nerves. So by winning 5 of the last six lanes he could secure the final position by acing lane 18.

In the final he was meeting Philip Lau who was turning around his semifinal against Swedish Derice Shumilov-Susoho on the last felt courses. With 8 lanes to go Philip was 4-1 down against Derice. But then he started his turn around to the cheering home crowd. 6 lanes later he had won 5 of them making the match in his favor by 6-4. Derice won lane 17 but with an ace on 18 Philip secured his final position.

In the final it was more fighting and nerves than nice play. Both players were mixing nice shots with mistakes and both Ikola and Lau were in the lead in the match. With only 3 lanes to go on felt Lau had the grip of the match leading by 4-3. But he ended 2-2-2 in the same time as Ikola ended 1-2-1 and once again Ikola could win a tight match. This time the reward was the gold medal and the title of youth World Champion. For the first time ever this title was awarded to a finish player.

The all Swedish bronze match was won by Marcus Nilsson over Derice Shumilov-Susoho. Also this was a tight match were Derice was the best player on the initial eternit but Marcus turned it around on the felt to win bronze by 6-5.

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