Semifinals day in Ljubljana
Third day of the Ljubljana Dragon Open 2026 treated the spectators to two contrasting semifinals.
First to step on the centre court were Rose Lucas Marcuzzo and Rafaela Albuja. This was a high-paced 47 minute 5-game affair, which kept the crowd on their toes and the referee busy. Taking first two games 11/6 and 11/9, Marcuzzo seemed to be in complete control of the match. Albuja however had different ideas and levelled the match taking the games three and four with the score 11/5 and 12/10, respectively. But Marcuzzo managed to dig deep and find the answer to Albuja’s attacks and eventually prevailed, taking the fifth 11/8.
After a short break it was time for Franka Vidović and the top seed Tessa ter Sluis to take the stage. Their semifinal was completely different, more a chess game than a squash match. It was all about amazing shot making and retrieving, never about high pace and hard hitting. Having seen Franka the day before in a hard hitting quarterfinal it became obvious that she accepted Tessa’s game and, amazingly, managed to beat her at it as she took the win in mere 21 minutes in straight games.
Day TWO : Round Two and Quarters
Day two of the Ljubljana Dragon Open 2026 was the busiest of them all with eight round two matches in the morning and four quarterfinal matches in the afternoon.
Morning session saw two major upsets. Lea Barbeau, the third seed, suffered a defeat by Renske Huntelaar in straight games (11/4, 11/6, 11/6). Second seed Ana Munos suffered the same fate by losing 11/7, 14/12, 11/4 to relentless Olivia Owens.
Much to the delight of the home crowd Pika Rupar did not allow any upsets as she clinically dispatched her Bundesliga team mate and a good friend Karina Seiner in three games (11/3, 11/1, 11/5). The rest of the round two matches went according to the seedings.
In the afternoon a nice crowd gathered to watch the quarterfinals and they were spoiled with some great squash. Tessa ter Sluis justified her no.1 seed beating Csenge Kiss-Máté in straight games while on the adjacent court Rose Lucas Lucas Marcuzzo put an end to home hopes beating Pika Rupar in four. Rafaela Albuja had to dig deep to get the best of Olivia Owens, who’s retrieving skills put opponents to a real test. Eventually Albuja prevailed in five games. The last quarterfinal was a high-paced affair between a 17 year old Renske Huntelaar from Netherland, who is just coming back after an injury and Franka Vidović, the Croatian champion. Renske saved five match balls in the third game, taking it 12/10, coming back from a 10/5 deficit. Amazingly the same result repeated itself in the fourth, but Franka did not allow a comeback and took the victory 11/5 in the fourth.
And to add some flavour to the results Pika Rupar gathered several impressions from the players below.
“I could have lost against a prettier player, lol. It was an amazing first PSA tournament for me, the organisation was great and everything worked really well.” Karina Seiner
“So far this has been a very well organized tournament. Having referees is always a nice touch so players can fully focus on their performance. Nice environment, nice venue. And it’s great to have some photos in action taken.” Rafaela Albuja
“A well organized tournament. Nice atmosphere and great to have the ladies tournament only. And we are all very happy to have referees!” Riina Koskinen
Day ONE :
Ljubljana, Slovenia, is finally hosting a PSA event. And the Slovenian Squash Association decided to start with the 3K tournament for women with SquashLand, an all-wooden club with six glassback courts as a host.
First day’s schedule was full of byes, due to several players getting injured just prior to the event. In spite of that the spectators got their time’s worth with very fair, highly contested and fair matches. The results of day one are:
So after two Slovenian players getting knocked out in the first round, all home hopes lie with Pika Rupar. She will open the busy second day with her match against Karina Seiner of Austria in the second round, quarterfinals to follow in the afternoon.