3. Mallorca Open Recap and Highlights
On the weekend of 2nd and 3rd March 2024, the eyes of the roundnet world were diverted towards a picturesque Spanish island in the Mediterranean - Mallorca, as roundnet players from 21 countries and arguably 5 continents participated in the 3rd Mallorca Open 2024, organized by Ruthless Roundnet.
Why arguably 5 continents? Because in the words of Nelson Dziruni, he is a Zimbabwean-Austrian, thus we could count Africa. Moreover, a player from Peru as well as from Taiwan took part in the tournament.
To learn more about the tournament and its players, read the preview. All results, scores, and matchups can be found on the ClicknRun page. To re-live the event, you can watch bracket matches on the Twitch channel of Tops Roundnet.
Undisputed Queen of Mallorca
Four tournaments - four different partners = four titles. That is the balance of Laura Kunzelmann at Mallorca Opens. This year, she triumphed with her new season partner, Ines Paysan, as team Nova in a dominant fashion. Nova did not drop a single game the entire day and beat the Austrian Tiramisu (Kadlec/Leybourne) 21:17 and 21:18 to secure the title.
The following day, Kunzelmann entered the tournament as a favorite, despite a last-minute partner change. Originally, she was supposed to team up with Vincent Mathieu from Canada and only a fool would bet against them. However, Mathieu suffered an ankle injury (a different story 😉) earlier that week, so Josha Lauterbach from Rainbow Warriors jumped in and proved to be a great substitute. Their team, Laurabach, swept their way through coed division, not giving up a single game.
Buddy Hammon - the most decorated player in the Mallorca history
Gold Mixed - 2022 (with R. Troughton - UK)
Silver Open - 2022 (with C. Rey - France)
Gold Open - 2023 ( with R. Kandula - US)
Silver Mixed - 2023 (with N. Alt - France)
Silver Open - 2024 (with E. Ekman - Sweden)
But wait a moment, isn´t Kunzelmann more succesful?
No, especially if you include Revol tournament 2024 - Gold with S. Boles
The California native did not disappoint in his 3rd campaign in the island paradise. Despite being jetlagged after coming straight from California, his team once again performed extraordinarily.
Fun fact - all four men´s finalists had to travel combined through 26 time zones to get to Mallorca and thus played with a massive jetlag - Hammon (Los Angeles), Hinkle (Dallas), Model (New York), and Ekman (Indonesia - work trip).
It was a stunning final with great serving and defensive gets between favorites Hinkle/Model (USA) and Hammon/Ekman (US/SWE). Just as the tension peaked late in the second set, a shadow was cast when Model suffered an injury to his right arm. Luckily, a lefty himself, Model battled through the pain.
Story of the weekend - The Limping Vinny Mathieu
Unfortunately, not even roundnet stars are invincible and for a while, it seemed that Mallorca folks would miss out on the exciting team of world champion C. Marshall (US) and Canadian star Vinny Mathieu, since the bucket hat-wearing Canadian twisted his ankle a couple of days prior.
However, Mathieu did not want to miss out on roundnet action and decided to play through the injury with very limited mobility. This resulted in him receiving serves on the net with body blocks.
Is body blocking on serve receiving going to be a new tactic? Let us know at [email protected] or on our Instagram. Just watch their highlight video here.
New EURA Pro players
Since the 3rd Mallorca Open was an EURA-sanctioned event (every time since the inception of sanctioned events in Europe), eight players qualified for EURA Pro - women's and open. More information on the qualification requirements can be found on EURA's website.
Women's : J. Grob, A. Altenwegner, L. Haas (Germany) and C. Lehner from Austria
Open: T. Bichler, K. Nerad (Germany) and M. Bermudez with G. Luna from Spain
Congratulations!
Lastly, thank you to Ruthless Roundnet for organizing the event, our kit manufacturer sponsor Spikeball Inc., the players, the amazing photographers @two_swedes and @yellowballcult, and countless volunteers.
¡Hasta el próximo año!