I’m back … and I’ve been playing some Ringtennis

It’s been quite some time since my last post, but now that my PhD thesis is almost finished (like, really, 99% finished), I’m gonna make some more time for blogging again :). For a start, I’ll write about this year’s German Championships in Ringtennis, which I played three weeks ago in Recklinghausen.

Statistically, it was my worst performance in 6 six years with only a single medal—bronze in men’s singles. The last time I secured only one medal was at the German Championships in Siegen in 2009 (an event nowadays known as “the battle in the rain”). Yet, it was probably the singles competition with the best line-up I’ve ever participated in. In the group stage, Jürgen Öttel (former national player; 3rd place in mixed doubles at last year’s World Championships) and Andre Katzberg (former national player and German champion) were eliminated! After an expected loss in the semifinal against Alexej Ermak (I also lost the semifinal at this year’s tournament in Siegen and the final in Konstanz against him), I secured a victory against the defending German champion Timo Hufnagel in the match for third place. In fact, Timo had won the last 4 championships in men’s singles (2011—2014). Therfore, I consider the bronze medal to be way more valuable than, e.g., my 2nd place in men’s singles in 2012. Considering all players’ performances over the past year, that 3rd place was really the absolute optimum for me. Ultimately, the current World Champion Fabian Ziegler became the first to also win the German Championships and hold both titles at the same time. As for the mixed doubles and doubles competitions … let’s just not talk about those 😅

Up to now, 2015 was not that bad for me when it comes to Ringtennis, despite my rather poor performance at the German Championships. I made it to the singles final at the Konstanz tournament (Alexej was simply better than me this year—never had a real chance against him) and as I explained above, the bronze medal was pretty satisfying. Also, I won the men’s doubles competitions at the tournaments in Siegen and Konstanz (with Hendrik Freitag and Jürgen Öttel). In Konstanz, we even won the final against the old and new German Champions Fabian Ziegler and Christian Herzog. Finally, I’m still no. 3 in Germany with over 1,000 ranking points overall.

But still, 2015 is far behind last year, which was probably the best year in Ringtennis I’ve ever had, with a World Team Championship, a 3rd place in the World Singles Championships, a victory in men’s singles at the Siegen tournament (against Alexej), a South German Championship in men’s singles and a German Championship in men’s doubles (with Alexej). Let’s hope 2016 will be more like 2014 than 2015!