The Tour has Started.
2006-01-16
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The 2006 Swedish Open - bigger than ever before - is over.
But the fourth consecutive IRF Racketlon World Tour has only
started. Next stop Hungary.
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170 racketlon players came together this weekend to play
Swedish Open 2006. It´s nice to see so many competitors in all
classes. Compared to only a few years ago men´s junior, men´s
veterans and ladies open has grown a lot in terms of number of
players.
The charismatic IRF president Marcel Weigl said at the price
ceremony that Swedish Open was very well organised with a great
crew that helped to run the tournament. He felt that Swedish Open
is one of the best tournaments on the tour and hoped that it will
set the standard for the rest of the tournaments.
The people behind Enskede Rackethall. Swedish Open tournament
director Lennart Eklundh at the top right. Andreas Källman,
winner of the Men's Class B (and the son of Lennart) at the
bottom right.
Lennart Eklundh, always enthusiastic and positive, did a great
job with help from his staff. The tournament ran smoothly with
everything from shuttles and travel plans to the matches. Also a
very nice and tasty buffet on Saturday evening on Enskede
Värdshus with around 40 hungry racketlon nerds getting their
stomachs more than full. Some of them wasn´t ready to sleep yet,
so they continued and danced away some calories all night long at
the party boat Patricia...
In men's veterans the racketlon inventor Peter
Landberg sliced his way to a convincing victory. The final was
his closest match but he nevertheless beat badminton doubles
specialist David Greatorex (England) by as much as 15 points.
David Greatorex, the racketlon globetrotter, had a close
encounter in the semis with Kevin Lawlor (Scotland) winning by a
narrow margin of 3 points. Gunnar Nilsson won the third price
match against Lawlor.
Alexander Ebata won the juniors in a very close
final beating his Västerås friend Joakim Hellgren. Maybe
Västerås is growing strong with these two juniors and the
established A class player Christian Wall. Joakim Hellgrens
father Claes, former legend in handball, is also a strong player
in the veterans class. Is Joakim the best golf player in
racketlon with a handicap close to scratch?
The seeds in the womens class went through as
expected. One interesting badminton result from the quarterfinals
was Lilian Druve's close victory against Anna Lundin (22-20).
Anna has almost not touched a badminton racket in recent years.
The closest match in the quarterfinals was Susanna
Lautala-Näykki (Finland) against Irene Seifert (Germany). The
germans had their hopes up when Irene went into the tennis with a
five-point lead. But Susanna won with a solid tennis game of
21-9! In the first semifinal Lilian Druve beat Linda Jansson by
26 points. They didn´t reach the tennis to Lilians relief since
Linda is maybe the strongest tennis player on the tour. In the
second semifinal Silke Altmann beat Susanna by four points. The
tennis looked decided at 9-4 to Silke but then we once again
witnessed the unpredictability of racketlon. A few minutes and 12
straight points(!) later the score was 9-16 and the match was
alive. Silke only needed two more points and got her nerves back
together and clinched the final point at 11-18. In the final
between world no. 1 and 2, Silke got off to a good start beating
Lilian by 21-10 in tabletennis. Lilian then bounced back with an
impressive 21-7 in badminton. In the squash Lilian turned into an
octopus and reached for everything with the final score of 21-18!
Going into the tennis Lilian needed 16 points. After a well
played tennis battle Lilian once more secured a title at the
score 16-11. In the match for third prize Linda came back from a
15-point deficit against Susanna to win squash 21-12 and tennis
with a crushing 21-3!
Irene Seifert, Germany, serving. Approaching the top.
(Photo: www.digitalfoto.nu )
In men's class A all the seeds went through
to the quarters as expected. Many interesting early round matches
can be mentioned. Belgium's Steven Verbrüggen's 21-14, 21-14 in
tabletennis and badminton against Eliasson or Mika Hasmats'
21-16, 21-17 against Calum Reid. Anders Rickan took a surprising
lead after 21-12 in the tabletennis against Stefan Adamsson. None
of the above managed to win but they gave the matches an extra
nerve until the end. The quarterfinals all went according to plan
with one pretty close match between Stefan Adamsson and Mathias
Fagerström. The match was all square before the tennis after a
heroic fight in the squash from Mathias. At the interval he
looked totally exhausted but still managed to run like Forrest
Gump.
Eliasson. Winner again. (Photo: www.digitalfoto.nu )
In the semis Roland Helle pushed Magnus long into the tennis
after a strong tabletennis performance and a very well played
badminton but still Magnus, the Iron Man, forced his way through
to the final. The other semifinal saw Stefan getting his revenge
on Scottish hope Calum Reid after the key result 21-7 in the
squash. The final started with 21-16 in the tabletennis for
Stefan. At 15-6 the score looked to run out of Magnus' reach but
he pulled himself together with some forehand rockets from outer
space. Then Stefan won a really close badminton fight with 22-20.
The squash turned out to be the deciding event with Magnus
terminating Stefan by 21-11. But with a mere 3-point advantage
for Magnus going into the tennis there was still some hope for
Stefan. Magnus found the right cryptonite for Super Man Stefan,
however, and the match was over at 19-17 in the tennis. In the
match for 3:rd place the youngster Calum Reid beat Roland Helle
after a close match. Two points was the final winning margin
after a convincing 21-10 tennis victory.
Adamsson. Former World no. 1. And still young. (Photo: www.digitalfoto.nu )
Class B saw a surprise winner in Andreas
Källman. He wasn’t in the draw from the start but a late
withdrawal gave him a place in the tournament. Andreas, who is
the son of the tournament organiser Lennart, proved that he is a
contender for the A class. As one of the employees of the
rackethall he probably, together with his father, knows the
courts better than anyone else. In one of the semifinals Jukka
Salminen from Finland beat the Swedish tennis oracle Johan
Porsborn by an exciting “gummi-arm” point. The things
Johan doesn’t know about tennis doesn’t exist…
In the C class the semifinals were all Swedish
and the final winner was Henrik Borg after a close and
well-played final with a winning margin of 2 points over Örjan
Lundberg.
After this great start of the racketlon tour 2006 we now look
forward to the next tournament in Hungary.
See you there! (See www.racketlon.hu
for how to enter!)
/SA + /MH
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Swedish Open Results in Summary:
(For complete results in all classes please visit
the Swedish
Open tournament homepage )
Men A
Quarterfinals
Magnus Eliasson, SWE – Marcel Weigl, AUT +25
(21-11,21-18,21-9)
Roland Helle, SWE - Rickard Persson, SWE +22 (22-20,21-9,21-13)
Calum Reid, SCO - Christoph Krenn, AUT +35 (21-8,21-9,21-11)
Stefan Adamsson, SWE - Mathias Fagerström, SWE +8
(21-14,7-21,21-14,21-13)
Semifinals
Magnus Eliasson, SWE - Roland Helle, SWE +6 (12-21,21-18,21-9)
Stefan Adamsson, SWE - Calum Reid, SCO +11
(18-21,21-17,21-7,7-11)
Bronze
Calum Reid, SCO - Roland Helle, SWE +2 (21-14,14-21,12-21,21-10)
Final
Magnus Eliasson, SWE - Stefan Adamsson, SWE +6
(16-21,20-22,21-11,19-17)
Ladies
Quarterfinals
Lilian Druve, SWE - Anna Lundin, SWE +37 (21-8,22-20,21-9,21-11)
Linda Jansson, SWE - Kati Kraavling, EST +19
(21-9,5-21,21-13,21-6)
Susanna Lautala-Näykki, FIN - Irene Seifert, GER +7
(7-21,21-10,19-21,21-9)
Silke Altmann, GER – Natalie Lawrence, ENG +20
(21-7,21-6,9-21,8-5)
Semifinals
Lilian Druve, SWE – Linda Jansson, SWE +26
(21-12,21-6,22-20)
Silke Altmann, GER - Susanna Lautala-Näykki, FIN +4
(21-13,16-21,21-13,11-18)
Bronze
Linda Jansson, SWE - Susanna Lautala-Näykki, FIN +12
(13-21,14-21,21-12,21-3)
Final
Lilian Druve, SWE - Silke Altmann, GER +11
(10-21,21-7,21-18,16-11)
Men Veterans +45
Quarterfinals
David Greatorex, ENG - Erik Spangenberg, SWE +48 (21-6,21-3,21-6)
Kevin Lawlor, SCO - Robert Andersson, SWE +43 (21-10,21-6,21-4)
Gunnar Nilsson, SWE - Claes Hellgren, SWE +2
(21-13,21-8,7-21,16-21)
Peter Landberg, SWE - John Remmer, SWE +38
(21-14,21-3,21-6,19-21)
Semifinals
David Greatorex, ENG - Kevin Lawlor, SCO +3
(21-14,21-10,6-21,19-19)
Peter Landberg, SWE - Gunnar Nilsson, SWE +22
(21-17,6-21,21-1,21-8)
Bronze
Gunnar Nilsson, SWE - Kevin Lawlor, SCO +6
(21-18,21-10,5-21,21-13)
Final
Peter Landberg, SWE - David Greatorex, ENG +15
(12-21,21-12,21-5,6-7)
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