Shore man of many rackets takes on world’s best

Sion Wiggin, well known on the North Shore for his tennis and squash skills is making a name for himself as a world top-10 player in the emerging sport of ‘racketlon’, heading for the European circuit in June and world championships in the Netherlands in August.

Racketlon competitors play each opponent at tennis, squash, table tennis and badminton.

Twenty-seven-year-old Wiggin has played Chelsea Cup tennis for Milford over the last 10 years, winning three North Harbour titles, and is an A1 squash player with North Shore Squash Cub. He has ranked in the national top-10 for squash and remains in the top 20.

He first played racketlon as a 19-year-old in a North Shore event. National selectors in the fledgling sport liked what they saw, giving him a trial from which he gained selection to play Australia in 2015.

Wiggin has since carried on with tennis and squash, but also embraced racketlon, winning a New Zealand title in 2021. He’s currently ranked number one in New Zealand.

One of his major rivals at the sport is former national squash champion Kasif Shuja. Shuja usually beats Wiggin at squash in Racketlon, while Wiggin wins the tennis and badminton, so it is often in table tennis that national titles are decided.

Though Wigan still plays competitive squash and tennis, in winter and summer respectively, he now regards racketlon as his primary code.

He’s worked hard on improving his badminton skills, receiving coaching at Badminton North Harbour in Forrest Hill.

Table tennis is the worst of his four sports. He played five tournaments on the European racketlon circuit in 2022, only losing one tennis and one squash match, but winning only one table tennis match.

Wiggin generally finished fifth or sixth in singles on the circuit, while making the podium in doubles.

At the 2022 World Racketlon Championships in Austria he finished in the top 10 and was named international up-and-coming player of the year.

He recently won a tournament in Taupo, beating Shuja in the final. His goal for the 2023 worlds is to finish in the top eight.

This year he will playing doubles with another Kiwi, Julian Main, from Christchurch.

“Hopefully it will help put New Zealand more on the (racketlon) map.” International tournaments run over three days, with one day for doubles and two for singles. In New Zealand they take two days. “You usually play three or four matches per day, which can be hard on the body for some people,” Wiggin says.

Racketlon sets in each code are played up to 21 points. Scores are combined to get a total, so a close loss can be helpful. Wiggin hopes any minor improvements to his table tennis will bring big dividends to his overall placings.