A First Clash with the Austrians
Date: 2003-09-10
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Expectations are building up for the first Austrian Open in Racketlon, to be held in Vienna over the weekend 19-21 September. The tournament attracts exceptional interest due to the fact that this is the first time that the Austrian racketlon community encounters its international counterpart. In particular, the Austrian National Team will be put to an acid test as they will face the Swedish headed by World No. 1 Magnus Eliasson.

To the best of our knowledge Austria is the only country outside Scandinavia in which true racketlon has been going on for a longer period of time. Apparently it started out in the beginning of the Nineties and there are indications that it was, in fact, imported from Sweden at that time. One thing that points in this direction is the rules that have been in use in Austria until now. They are the same as the official IRF rules except for two deviations;

1) When one player has won 3 out of the 4 disciplines he has also won the match
2) As in Finland lots are drawn for the order between disciplines.

At least the first of these rules were still in use in Sweden at the beginning of the Nineties although Sweden dropped it later on. So, there seems to have been a connection...

Austrian Open, being a member of the World Tour, introduces to Austria a set of rules that are closer to the official IRF rules. However, encouraged by the liberal attitude of the IRF at this stage, tournament management have nevertheless decided to try out a couple of novelties:

A) The serve games will contain 4 serves instead of the normal 5. The rationale behind this is that it will decrease the confusion surrounding wherefrom the serve should be hit (right or left?). Four serves makes it possible to regulate the serving position in a way similar to that of badminton; When an even number of points have been played the server should serve from the right. After an odd number of points he should serve from the left.

B) The order of the disciplines will be fixed but in the Men's Elite event a different order than the conventional will apply. Squash is lifted out of the normal sequence and put at the end so that the order becomes: Table Tennis -> Badminton -> Tennis -> Squash. When asked about the reason behind this, tournament director Marcel Weigl explains that he wants to give the Austrians (out of which several are tennis players and few squash players) a home court advantage.

An entry list is continuously updated on the homepage of the Austrian Open (linked from www.badminton-klosterneuburg.at). At present there are about 50 players on the list out of which a fairly large part are travelling in from abroad. As the application deadline approaches the number is expected to grow considerably. Even the earlier local Austrian racketlon tournaments have been known to attract up to 80 players.

Players that wish to take part in this historic event can apply on-line on the Austrian Open homepage (linked from www.badminton-klosterneuburg.at). There is still time since application deadline is on Sunday 14 September. All info needed including travelling advice is on the homepage.

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