Dennach wins the Pfister Stuttgart Open for the second time in 8 days after the success in Karlsdorf. Thus the Swabians jump to the second place in the World Tour Ranking.
In the men’s tournament, FBC Urfahr beat Tigers Vöcklabruck in the all-Austrian final and was crowned tournament winner. However, Vöcklabruck collected the most World Tour points, as Urfahr did not play for points.
Last weekend the Pfister Stuttgart Open 2023 took place. In Stammheim’s Volksbank Stadium, a total of 41 teams from three nations gathered in the best conditions to set a highlight of the international fistball scene from Friday to Sunday.
Already on Friday evening an international match of the women opened the tournament weekend. In front of about 300 spectators, Germany clearly and confidently won 4:1 (11:8, 11:9, 11:6, 9:11, 11:7) against Switzerland. In addition to the successful start into the European Championship year, it was also a farewell for Sonja Pfrommer, who gave her farewell performance from the national team with her usual strong performance.
On Saturday, the club teams then started in the men’s, women’s and youth U14 classifications. Top teams from Germany, Austria and Switzerland had followed the call of TV Stammheim every year to play for 1,000 world ranking points at the only major tournament of the IFA World Tour on German soil.
In the evening Stammheim’s U14 had secured the tournament victory in the youth category, the women and men had completed the preliminary round and positioned themselves for Sunday’s final round.
In front of about 500 spectators, the highlight of Saturday was the men’s international match. In a rematch of the 2019 World Cup final, runner-up Austria pulled off a surprise. After Germany lived up to its role as favorites in the first set, the Austrians, led by the outstandingly playing Karl Müllehner, turned up the heat mightily from set two on. The athletic Vöcklabruck player could not be controlled by the German defense at any time, and the German attacking game was not up to par. 1:4 (11:9, 8:11, 4:11, 8:11, 5:11) was the final result from the German point of view. For the team of national coach Olaf Neuenfeld certainly not a successful start into the world championship year.
The men’s and women’s tournaments went into the final rounds on Sunday in perfect weather:
In the men’s tournament, the three group winners from Pfungstadt, Käfertal and Vöcklabruck were directly in the final round. In the qualifying matches Urfahr (16:11 against Grieskirchen), Stammheim (14:12 against Freistadt) and Vaihingen/Enz 1 (15:13 against Vaihingen/Enz 2) prevailed and completed the round of the best 6.
From this round of the best 6, Pfungstadt, Vöcklabruck, Urfahr and Vaihingen 1 secured their place in the semi-finals. The tournament victory was secured by Linz AG Urfahr, with a 2:0 (11:8, 11:7) final victory over Vöcklabruck.
In the women’s final round, the group winners from Ahlhorn, Dennach and Urfahr faced the qualifying match winners from Segnitz (15:13 against Arnreit), Elgg-Ettenhausen (14:13 against Kellinghusen) and Diepoldsau (14:10 against Kreuzlingen).
Segnitz, Elgg-Ettenhausen, Dennach and Kreuzlingen made it to the semifinals before TSV Dennach secured the tournament title with an 11:7 and 13:11 final victory over Segnitz.
For Dennach’s highly decorated women, the final victory meant winning the Pfister Stuttgart Open for the first time. Men’s winner Linz AG Urfahr closed the gap to the record winners Pfungstadt and Waibstadt (also 3 tournament wins each) with their third tournament success (after 2014 and 2015) with now 3 titles.