Gummiarm Drama Decides the 2003 Gothenburg Racketlon Champion
Date: 2004-01-05
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A nerve-wrecking Gummiarm Tiebreak came to decide the winner as the 2003 Gothenburg Racketlon Regional Championships took place yesterday. In the final World Open general Håkan Granberg faced Staffan Ericsson. It was Ericsson's first Gothenburg Regional Championship and in that sense he was the challenger given that Granberg was the defending champion from last year. But Ericsson is certainly not without previous track record since he finished an impressive number three in the 2002 Racketlon World Championships beating a series of world class players such as David Lazarus, Stefan Engström, Stefan Larsson and, finally (by +20 points!) Ola Carleke in the match for third prize. This is possibly the most remarkable of all newcomer results since the international launch of Racketlon two years ago and it still makes Ericsson the Gothenburg Racketlete with the highest World Ranking (13). From that perspective it was fairly clear to the audience that it was Ericsson and not Granberg that was the favorite to win the title.

The initial table tennis set went to Granberg (15-11) according to plan. Then there were two very tight sets in squash (14-16) and badminton (16-14) which levelled out to give a +4 lead for Granberg before tennis. At this stage a member of the audience (who lost heavily to Ericsson in the first round) offered the odds 500 to 1 for Ericsson, who is known to have trained regularily with top international tennis player Magnus Norman and is one of the best tennis players ever to have entered a racketlon tournament.

But Granberg did not seem too impressed as he started the set with an ace and a decisive forehand winner. 2-0 to Granberg. Even more impressively he continued to win point after point and was still in the lead at 7-6. Slowly, however, Ericsson's heavy shots from back court gave him the advantage and at 14-10 he got a match point - that he missed. 15-11 meant that the match was to be decided by Gummiarm Tiebreak. One single point in tennis. No second service. Granberg won the toss and choose to serve. "There was no other alternative" he said after the match "It was clear in my mind that I was going for an ace. It was my best chance to win the point." He went for it - and lost. The serve was an inch too long. Ericsson was the champion.

For full results from the Gothenburg Racketlon Regional Championships (who attracted 24 people out of which 8 players lost in the qualifier round) see this page.

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