Convincing Victories for Druve and
Kärkkäinen in Lahti.
Date: 2005-05-17
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Johan Porsborn reports below from the 2005 Finnish Open, a
tournament that attracted 82 players from 4 different countries.
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The Finnish Open is arguably one of the toughest tournaments
to win on the racketlon tour. The Finns seem to produce an
endless number of high quality players, which may be the reason
why this well organized tournament only attracted players from
Finland, Sweden, Great Britain and Austria.
Kärkkäinen once again
Who will ever be able to stop Mikko Kärkkäinen from winning on
his home soil? This was his fourth Finnish Open victory in a row
and it is certainly not due to easy draws; On each of the three
last years world no. 1 Magnus Eliasson was among the competitors
and on each occasion he has been defeated by the native. This
time the talented Finn got his first real test in the semifinals
against another "racketlon youngster", Stefan Adamsson,
from Stockholm. The strong Swede is one of very few who have
beaten Magnus Eliasson and on the right day he can defeat anyone
on the tour as he indeed confirmed at his only previous encounter
with Kärkkäinen (in Gothenburg World Open 2003) where he caused
an upset by knocking him out already in the quarter finals by +11
(tt 17-21, sq 21-7, ba 21-13, te 14-21).
This time Adamsson got a fairly alarming start in table tennis as
he lost 12 straight points taking Kärkkäinen from 2-3 to 14-3.
But the Finn was not able to keep that flow and started to make
errors; Adamsson was able to recover and got 16 points in the
end, which was comparable to the opening of their previous
encounter. But he lost the badminton by 21-14 which made him 12
points behind before squash, where he took a commanding lead by
winning eleven of the first twelve points. Kärkkäinen seemed
out of balance, but after a change of shirt and tactics he took
back the initiative. Kärkkäinen played far more aggressively
after the break and grabbed thirteen points as he virtually
decided the whole match. The end results: Kärkkäinen-Adamsson
+15 (tt 21-16, ba 21-14, sq 13-21, te 18-7).
The Finnish number one faced the Swedish veteran, Rickard
Persson, in the final. "The giant from Örebro"
impressed many in the semifinals against the new Finnish star,
Pekka Kainulainen (who beat world number 10, Marcel Weigl, in the
quarters). Persson won the table tennis by 21-0 after some
fantastic defensive play. Kainulainen was then a beaten man and
the fact that he suffered from fatigue did not help him at all.
Persson is maybe the most consistent racketlon player in the
world and the friendly journalist has not missed a semifinal
since the last Finnish Open. He is however still waiting for the
second title of his career (to complement his British Open
victory in 2003) and it became clear fairly early in the final
that Kärkkäinen was not willing to help Persson to get it in
Lahti (although Persson did look like a winner when he picked up
seven straight points in table tennis from 13-18 to 20-18.
Nevertheless, Kärkkäinen recovered, won the table tennis by
21-20 and the badminton by 21-10(!) as Persson was unable to
handle the "drumstick" badminton of the fast moving
home boy. In the squash event, Persson broke the strings of both
of his remaining rackets in very symbolic moments of Swedish
defeat and Finnish triumph. Kärkkäinen-Persson +35 (21-20,
21-10, 21-8, 21-11).
First titles in Finland for Druve
Lilian Druve might be the most outstanding racketlon player ever.
The 42 year-old Gothenburg citizen had however never contested in
the Finnish Open, but was able to bring two gold medals back on
the boat to Sweden. Druve produced a perfect 8-0 match record and
won all events but a single game of tennis in the whole singles
competition.
In the semifinals Druve easily defeated Natalie Lawrence from
Great Britain. Lawrence is a good squash player and will be a
threat to many in the future. The final was a repeat of the
Swedish Open in January between Druve and Susanna
Lautala-Näykki. Lautala-Näykki won her semifinal against
compatriot Hanna Miestamo, who made a very welcome come-back
after one year of absence from competition.
The world number one proved to be too strong for Lautala-Näykki
in the final and only gave her hard hitting opponent three points
in the badminton. Druve is a former world # 33 in badminton and
is stronger than most competitors in the Men´s Elite in her
favourite discipline. Although her margin of victory was as safe
as 32 points and although she did won all four desciplines it
should be noted that three of the disciplines were quite even.
Druve - Lautala-Näykki +32 (21-19,21-3,21-15,21-15)
Druve also showed no mercy against her male opponents when she
won the Amateur Team Competition on Friday together with the
author of this article. In addition to her unquestionable
badminton superiority she has also developed her tennis skills
over the last couple of months and she won all of her tennis
matches in the Team Competion. On the same day, Kärkkäinen was
victorious in the Elite Team competition. Hence, there is no
doubt that Druve was the queen and Kärkkäinen the king of the
prestigeous Finnish Open!
The results in summary from the Elite events:
MEN'S OPEN
Quarterfinals:
Mikko Kärkkäinen (Fin)-Mika Hasmats (Swe) W.O.
Stefan Adamsson (Swe) + Sami Lithenius (Fin) +34 (tt 21-3,ba
21-16,sq 21-10,te -)
Pekka Kainulainen (Fin)-Marcel Weigl (Aus) +4
(11-21,21-15,21-13,18-18)
Richard Persson (Swe)- Hans Mullamaa (Swe) +21
(21-8,17-21,21-9,1-1)
Semifinals:
Mikko Kärkkäinen - Stefan Adamsson +15
(21-16,21-14,13-21,18-7)
Richard Persson-Pekka Kainulainen +33 (21-0,21-18,21-12, - )
Bronze
Stefan Adamsson - Pekka Kainulainen +23
(21-17,21-6,21-17, - )
Final:
Mikko Kärkkäinen-Richard Persson +35
(21-20,21-10,21-8,21-11)
LADIES´ OPEN
Semifinals:
Lilian Druve (Swe) - Natalie Lawrence (GBR) +35
(21-5,21-5,21-18, - )
Susanna Lautala-Näykki (Fin)-Hanna Miestamo (Fin) +10
(21-9,21-7,3-21,21-19)
Bronze
Hanna Miestamo - Natalie Lawrence +28 (21-11,21-19,21-5,
- )
Final
Lilian Druve - Susanna Lautala-Näykki +32
(21-19,21-3,21-15,21-15)
For complementary reports from the Finnish Open, in both the German and the English languages, see the homepage of Racketlon Federation Austria at www.racketlon.at .
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