Stefan Edberg Wins his First Racketlon Tournament
Date: 2004-01-13
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Sweden's former Tennis World No.1 Stefan Edberg came out the winner as the regional Racketlon Championships were held this weekend in his hometown of Växjö. He beat Torbjörn Fransson in the final by +8 points (squash: 19-21, badminton: 8-21, tennis: 21-1, table tennis: 21-18).

The Racketlon world has long anticipated Edberg's Racketlon debut with great curiosity given frequent recent appearances on the squash court - and reports saying that his squash is close of reaching top national level (especially on the type of courts used at international squash tournaments with a tin that is somewhat lower than normal - Edberg's precision backhand volley is apparently a lethal weapon even on higher tin courts...). And not unexpectedly, Edberg did not give away many points in tennis. More interesting then to know how well he did in table tennis and badminton; The only available reports say that "his table tennis was OK but that there is big room for improvement in badminton"...

It is, at the moment, unclear whether this Racketlon appearance was a one off or whether he plans to take part in any of the tournaments of the Racketlon Word Tour. What is clear, however, is that the Racketlon community is starving for someone who could offer Magnus Eliasson some real competition. At the moment Eliasson is dominating the game in an almost devastating way and has not lost a racketlon match since the end of May, at which time he was still recovering from a foot injury that he suffered at British Open in April. Can Edberg, who was World Ranked No.1 for a total of 72 weeks during 1991-1992, resist this implicit challenge?

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