A Scottish World Champion?
Date: 2004-04-06
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Those were the headlines at the second British Open, held at
the David Lloyd Racket Club in Watford-Bushey during the first
weekend of April.
Some 70 players took part in the tournament. An increase of
almost 40% from last year´s event and the biggest racketlon
event ever to have taken place on British soil. But still a
slight disappointment in some other respects. For example, there
where no players from Finland (the origin of Racketlon...) and
only one German. From Belgium Steven Verbruggen was alone to hold
the flag. The Swedes (11 players) and the Austrians (10) were the
biggest overseas contingents.
In the Men's Open the huge favorite Magnus Eliasson was - again -
in a class of his own. As a matter of fact, he didn´t get to
play tennis - the last sport - even once during the whole
weekend! In the semifinal he beat Ola Carleke by 20 points,
although Ola won the squash 21-16. Not even the finalist Rickard
Persson could make it to the tennis, as he was 26 points down
after badminton. Surprisingly, Eliasson even won the table tennis
(21-18) against tt-specialist Persson. Before that game, Eliasson
had never got more than 12 points against Persson in table
tennis. It proves that he is still improving his game. A
nightmare for the challengers...
The only non-Swede in the semifinals was John O'Donnell, and
Englishman, who lives in Canada and is the most travelled
racketlon player in the world. O'Donnell this time lost to
Persson (14 points) in the semifinal and Carleke in the 3rd-prize
game (by 1 point). But - as the racketlon community has grown
quite used to over the last year - O'Donnell showed his lack of
nerves during the first rounds where he beat Steven Verbruggen by
2 points and Scotland's Steve Thomson by 1 point. The latter of
these two incredibly tight matches was decided through the
gummiarm single point tie-break. Thomson got the serve - and
missed it. The short history of the gummiarm tie-break shows that
the receiver often wins the game, simply because he/she never
needs to return the serve.
"I have never thougt of that" Thomson said. "I
think it's an advantage to serve and I would do it again".
We may also have seen the breakthrough of the next ladies world
champion, Sarah McFadyen from Scotland. She played fellow
countryman Katy Buchanan in the final and won by 18 points. The
experienced Buchanan hade no chance against tennis specialist
McFadyen. This girl will surely be a real threat to World #1
Lilian Druve in the near future.
"I think Sarah is already better than Lilian", Buchanan
said. If she is right McFadyen is very close to become the first
Racketlon World Champion from a country outside Scandinavia.
8 players took part in the ladies event and the 3rd prize went to
newcomer Sally Weston, a great table tennis player with a nice
touch of the ball.
British Open was played during three days and it started with an
experiment doubles tournament, the first in the history of
Racketlon. Real doubles were played in all sports except in
squash, which was decided through two singles games, where the
first couple played to 11, and the other continued the game to
21.
World #7 Rickard Persson and Hans Mullamaa, the IRF president,
were topseeded but faced an embarrassing disappointment. Mullamaa
was so confident of winning that he forced his partner to eat
just before the first round started. "It's going to be a
long night with three straight matches and we will not play the
final until close to midnight. You have to eat", he told his
partner. But it turned out to be an unexpectedly short affair as
they were knocked out immediately in the first round by Nick
Macey and Ged Doherty, England.
Tennis specialist Doherty and Macey, a true talent and a possible
future racketlon star (he lost by only a few points to Sweden's
Håkansson in the singles event), made an impressive performance.
They reached the final where the highly spirited Swedes Niclas
Larsson and Michael Mattsson were waiting. Larsson is reported to
practise at least 20 hours a week and look more like a wrestler
than a racketlete, while Mattsson is probably the best chess
player in the Racketlon community. This colourful combination
turned out to be successful enough to take Larsson/Mattsson to a
draw. And, again, the server (Ged Doherty) missed. Mattsson was
so delighted with the victory that he smashed his partner in his
back with the hand, visibly adding to the severe pain that
Larsson already suffered due to a knee injury. But the pains did
not keep him from picking up the prize later on. "I've done
this for so long and so many hours but never got a prize. Now
I've got it", Larsson cheered.
The IRF Racketlon World Tour now continues with the Finnish Open
in Lahti 14-16 May, and the D'Hont Open in Belgium 5-6 June.
Results in summary (complete results soon available at the tournament homepage)
Men's Open
(Order of play: table tennis, squash, badminton, tennis)
First round:
Joachim Nilsson-Wayne Donaldsson +35
Calum Monro-Mattias Engblom +35
Niclas Lasson-Jeremy Bennet +20
Nicholas Macey-Michael Mattsson +26
Robert Kirschner-Neil Frankland +7
Steve Verbruggen-Robert Libal +46
Calum Reid-Chris Noakes +11
Julian Bidlake-Mattias Kern +29
Second round (Last 16):
Magnus Eliasson-Joachim Nilsson +37
Calum Monro-Nichlas Larsson +19
Henrik Håkansson-Nicholas Macey +3
Ola Carleke-Robert Kirschner +38
John O'Donell-Steve Verbruggen +3
Steve Thomson-Calum Reid +10
Hans Mullamaa-Julian Bidlake +3
Rickard Persson - Gary Zuconni +20
Q-finals:
Magnus Eliasson-Calum Munro 21-9,21-9,21-9 +36
Ola Carleke-Henrik Håkansson 19-21,21-0,17-21,8-21 +2
John O'Donell-Steve Thomson 21-14,21-2,12-21,4-21,1-0 +1
Rickard Persson-Hans Mullamaa 21-10,21-5,21-14 +34
Semi-finals:
Magnus Eliasson, Sweden-Ola Carleke, Sweden + 20 (21-10, 16-21,
21-7)
Rickard Persson, Sweden-John O'Donnel, England + 14 (21-10,
21-23, 10-21, 21-5)
Final: Eliasson-Persson + 26 (21-18, 21-13, 21-6)
Ladies
Q-finals:
Kary Buchanan-Billie Carrigan +31
Louise Barnett-Daniela Mikulitsch +15
Sally Weston-Irene Frey +55
Sarah McFadyer-Lisa Everingham +52
Semi-finals:
Katy Buchanan, Scotland-Louise Barnett, England + 27
Sarah McFadyen, Scotland-Sally Weston, England + 29
Final:
McFadyen-Buchanan + 18
Veterans
First round:
Richard Whitehouse-Dave Griffiths +17
Andy Petersons-Peter Libal +17
Q-finals:
Pär Carleke-Richard Whitehouse +38
Garry Pound-Lennart Eklundh +7
Peter Verow-Leopold Ille +23
Graham Norton-Andy Petersons +20
Semi-finals:
Par Carleke, Sweden-Garry Pound, England + 43
Peter Verow, England-Graham Norton, England + 15
Final:
Carleke-Verow + 43 (21-8, 21-14, 21-7, 21-7)
Men's Doubles
Final:
Michael Mattsson/Niclas Larsson, Sweden won by 1 point, decided
by the gummiarm rule. Nick Macey and Ged Docherty, England,
finished second.
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