Closer.
2006-05-23
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Stefan Adamsson came very close to beat a Magnus Eliasson in very good shape (as proven by the fact that he beat Mikko Kärkkäinen (for the first time in Finnish Open) two weeks earlier). Ready for take-over?

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This weekend in Enskede Rackethall the Swedish champions were decided. The men´s elite class is very tough with many players that are competitive on the World Tour. Only Persson and Helle were missing in the starting field. There were many well played matches but no really big upsets. In the first round Swedish badminton top player Kristian Karttunen played against Mikael Jonsson. Jonsson who is a very solid racketlon player in all four sports won by a margin of nine points. But Karttunen showed that he there is room for improvement. He played well in squash with a lot of running! If he learns to play tighter he is a solid squash player, ad badminton to that and he is tough to beat for many racketlon players.

Men's Class A

Stefan Larsson made comeback in racketlon after a 1,5 year break due to a broken akilles. Larsson met Christian Wall in second round and Larsson showed that he has recovered well from that injury. After 21-17, 20-22, 21-9 Larsson only needed 5 points in tennis. But Wall showed why his is maybe the best tennis player in racketlon. With a very impressive 21-4 in tennis and Wall winning the rubber arm point Larsson was knocked out despite the good performance.

Quarterfinals
Magnus Eliasson-Anders Rickan:21-15,21-11,21-7 +20
Mathias Fagerström-Christian Wall: 21-16,21-3,21-14 +30
Mats Källberg-Henrik Håkansson:21-3,22-20,21-14 +27
Stefan Adamsson-Joachim Nilsson: 18-21,21-18,21-9,10-10 +12

In the quarterfinals Magnus Eliasson started his march in the tournament after walk over in the first round. He beat Anders Rickan easy, 21-11 in badminton is a good result against Anders and the match didn´t go to tennis. Fagerström beat Wall with a margin of +30 before tennis. But the squash can go either way and if Wall had won squash there had been a different margin in the end. That’s a disadvantage for some racketlon players that have tennis as their best sport. The match can be over before they even play their best discipline and miss the advantage of putting pressure on the opponent physicallly and mentally. Källberg beat Håkansson and the match didn’t reach tennis. 21-14 in squash to Källberg is impressive.
The last quarter between Adamsson and Nilsson was a great encounter. Nilsson played very well and after 21-18 and 16-10 in badminton the match looked to go Nilssons way with very good badminton play. But the match turned around and Adamsson won badminton 21-18. Nilsson who has improved a lot and specially in squash he could maybe disturb Adamsson in squash. But 21-9 in squash and the match was almost over, after 10-10 in tennis it was over.

Semifinals
Magnus Eliasson-Mathias Fagerström: 21-9,8-21,21-5,7-4 +18
Stefan Adamsson-Mats Källberg: 4-21,21-13,21-4,14-11 +11

Fagerströms chance against Eliasson is to beat him in table tennis and badminton. He didn´t succeed in tabletennis and then its tough in the rest of the match to beat the world no.1 Eliasson. Could it be the pimples out rubber that caused the problems in tabletennis? Fagerström made the match even before squash. Fagerström who has improved in squash with some nice shots can maybe upset Magnus in squash but not this time and the match was almost over after 21-5 in the squash.

In the second semifinal Källberg started out as usual with astonishing tabletennis. He won 21-4 against Adamsson who played well…… The key sport between these two players is often badminton. The player who wins badminton has won the match when they have met before. Adamsson won badminton with 21-13 and followed up with 21-4 in squash. Adamsson needed 14 points tennis and the match was alive but no surprices in the tennis and after 14-11 it was over.

Final
Magnus Eliasson - Stefan Adamsson: 17-21,18-21,21-19,21-9 +7

Can Adamsson beat Magnus after a row of lost matches some close though? Adamsson played well in tabletennis and handled Magnus new style good. And with few errors from Adamsson he won with 21-17. In badminton showed his great badminton form and controlled the match up till 19-10. But Magnus struggled back and showed his strength in the end of the sports and got 18 points. Just like in Swedish open final earlier this year Adamsson won table tennis and badminton. Going in to the squash Magnus is often the stronger one but this time it was not much between them. Adamsson got an early lead and after that the players followed each other to the end with Magnus winning 21-19. The squash match was a big battle with many long rallies, many of them ending with the players arguing with each other and the referee. It was two quite tired players in the last sport tennis. Adamsson needed seventeen points and after a great start with some forehand winners and the lead with 9-6. After that Magnus showed started playing very solid and Adamsson missing the some shots. And with 15! Straight points he secured his 6th Swedish champion title. Magnus has now beaten Mikko Kärkkäinen and Adamsson within one weak that’s great results with only two weeks to the World Championships.

Third price match
Mathias Fagerström - Mats Källberg: 6-21,21-5,21-19,19-17 +5

Third price match between Fagerström and Källberg was a match with two tired players. Table tennis and badminton result was going as expected with their favourite sports. Fagerströms squash has improved and he won squash 21-19 not surprisingly. Maybe Källberg is the better in tennis but Fagerström stayed focused and won tennis also. Great win for Fagerström!

Ladies

In the Ladies class Linda Jansson, fresh from a victory over world no 1 Lilian Druve in Prague, faced a bunch of badmintonplayers with the top player being Sara Persson, currently ranked 38 in the world and number 1 in Sweden. The five participants all played each other with the winner being the Swedish Champion. Lindas goal when she saw the draw was to get at least 15 points against the other girls in the badmintonmatches. She almost reached that, getting a total of 13 points in four matches in the badminton, against the specialists. Luckily for Linda racketlon consists of three more sports. She played convincingly in all the other sports with tennis as the best discipline. She gave 9 points at the most in the tennis. The match for second place was o close fought battle between Ulrika Björk and Anna Lundin. Ulrika got the silver medal after an impressive fightback after losing the tabletennis by 21-4. In summary, all the badminton gurus impressed with their badminton skills, and got to play tennis against Linda, the world number 3 in Racketlon.

Results Ladies:
1. Linda Jansson
2. Ulrika Björk
3. Anna Lundin

Linda Jansson Anna Lundin Linda Jansson 24-22,6-21,21-9,21-9 +11
Sara Persson Anneli Andersson Sara Persson 12-21,21-8,9-21,21-7 +6
Ulrika Björk Linda Jansson Linda Jansson 21-10,2-21,21-13,21-7 +14
Anna Lundin Sara Persson Anna Lundin 21-4,13-21,21-8,21-7 +36
Anneli Andersson Ulrika Björk Ulrika Björk 21-7,21-17,21-13,17-21 +22
Linda Jansson Sara Persson Linda Jansson 21-8,3-21,21-721-4 +26
Anna Lundin Anneli Andersson Anna Lundin 21-14,18-21,18-21,21-18 +4
Sara Persson Ulrika Björk Ulrika Björk 21-7,8-21,21-5,16-21 +11
Linda Jansson Anneli Andersson Linda Jansson 21-5,2-21,21-5,21-7 +27
Anna Lundin Ulrika Björk Ulrika Björk 4-21,21-16,21-5,18-19 +3


Veterans O45

The veterans class saw an interesting comeback. Peter Bittar, who has been the Swedish Champion in the Elite class no less than 6 times, showed up to collect his first veteran title. Peter looked as fit as ever and demolished his opponents. All his matches were decided before tennis. In the final he faced Claes Hellgren, the Swedish Handball Legend, who these days is a frequent and enthusiastic competitor on the racketlon tour.

Quarter finals:
Peter Bittar – Gunnar Ljung: 21-18,21-3,21-18 +24
Bengt Norstedt – Robert Andersson: 21-9,21-15,21-14 +25
Claes Hellgren – Lars Blomstergren: 24-22,21-16,11-21, 21-16 +2
Ronnie Aronsson – Hubert Fromlet: 21-5,21-9,21-14,21-20 +36

Semi finals:
Peter Bittar – Bengt Norstedt: 21-5,21-2,21-14 +28
Claes Hellgren – Ronnie Aronsson: 15-21,21-18,21-4,8-4 +18

Final:
Peter Bittar – Claes Hellgren: 21-5,21-4,14-21,21-15 +32

Third price match:
Bengt Norstedt – Ronnie Aronsson: 21-14,6-21,21-4,21-12 +18


Juniors U 21

Alexander Ebata won the junior class in a convincing manner. The closest margin was +16 points and thereby proving that the win in Swedish Open was no coincidence. Alexander will defend the Swedish flag in the World Championships.

Semifinals:
Alexander Ebata – Marc Uddenfeldt: 21-14,21-13,21-10 +26
Jonas Persson – Magnus Engervall: 21-11,17-21,17-21,21-2 +21

Final:
Alexander Ebata – Magnus Engervall: 21-12,19-21,21-7,7-10 +21

Third price match:
Jonas Persson – Marc Uddenfeldt: 21-7,21-7,21-10 +39


Men's Class B

In the mens Class B we saw many interesting matches. In one of the quarterfinals we had big expectations on the clash between the Poker Titans, Ola “The Nuts” Klevard and Fredrik “Big Slick” Björk. Ola is participating in the Swedish Poker Championships and Fredrik has qualified for the World Poker Championships in Las Vegas! Unfortunately all bets were off in this match when Fredrik had to fold..
Hans Mullamaa, the former Racketlon Federation president, fought a close battle against Robert Kjellberg. Robert, who has been absent from the game for a few years, used all his experience and clinched the match by 1 point. In the final Örjan Lundberg proved too strong. Örjan sailed through to win all his matches with ease. Maybe a contender in the A-class in the future?

Semifinals:
Robert Kjellberg – Hans Mullamaa: 14-21,16-21,21-15,21-15 +1
Örjan Lundberg – Ola Klevard: 21-6,21-19,11-21,15-7 +15

Final:
Örjan Lundberg – Robert Kjellberg: 21-10,21-12,13-21,10-8 +14

Third Price match:
Ola Klevard – Hans Mullamaa: WO, winner Ola Klevard


Men's Class C

In the C we saw the largest number of entrants and after many good matches the winner was Bobi Wallenberg, a tabletennis specialist who has participated before and finally got a victory. He beat Magnus Nilsson in the final by 1 point. This was closest final this weekend and the 21-3 tabletennis win proved decisive for the title.

Many thanks to Lennart Eklundh for organizing a great tournament.

Watch out Belgium! The Swedes have gathered their racketlon soldiers..

See you soon!!

SA + MH

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