The Draw for Scottish Open
Date: 2003-08-11
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The draw for the second Scottish Open taking place the coming weekend is now available through this link (Excel).

A quick glance at the Men's Elite draw reveals that there will be very few uninteresting matches. How about World #1 Magnus Eliasson against Scotland's Malcolm Watt, a national level tennis player with a background in international squash, "known for his high level of fitness"(!) Given that Eliasson is now fully recovered from his foot injury and the rumour that says that he has been training a consistent minimum of 3 hours a day (including a minimum of 30 minutes of table tennis forehand loops) during the last couple of weeks very few would believe that he would loose - but who would like to miss the squash match?

Or the Belgian hope Steven Verbruggen against Scottish #1, Steve Thomsson. This is Verbruggen's first racketlon tournament but he is a world ranked badminton player with 12 year's of experience from the Belgian "King of Rackets" tournament and he has quickly turned into a prominent racketlon enthusiast as shown by the fact that he started up a Belgian Racketlon Federation a few weeks ago (see homepage). Thomsson, known in some circles as Mr Competitive, on the other hand, is not known to give in easily. He is the seeded of the two and has now acquired one year of Racketlon experience over several international tournaments including the World Championships last year. Ask any racketlon player; Experience is essential in this game where psychology and tactics are probably more important than technique and fitness. Scotland vs. Belgium, thus.

A third game of interest is that between Sweden's Mathias Fagerström and England's John O'Donnell. O'Donnell has recently (see report from British Open) sailed up as the main threat towards Scandinavian Racketlon domination. But Fagerström has also shown himself to be a man of the future. A Swedish national level badminton player and currently ranked 12 on the Swedish racketlon ranking he has recently shown results of increasing quality such as when he famously beat becoming Swedish Champion Stefan Adamsson by 21-1 in badminton in the second round of the last Swedish Championships.

And those are samples from the first round only... To elevate expectations further, read organizer Phil Reid's introduction to the event below:

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Scottish Open Racketlon Championships 2003

The Facts:
· 4 categories - Mens Elite, Mens Class 1, Mens Masters, Ladies
· 48 entries from 6 countries - Scotland (30), Sweden (10), Belgium (3), Germany (3), Austria (1), England (1)
· Men's World No.1 (Magnus Eliasson) and Ladies World No.1 (Lilian Druve), the defending champions from Scottish Open 2002 are both taking part in 2003
· 9 of the top 25 men from the World Rankings are taking part
· 4 of the top 10 ladies from the World Rankings are taking part
· Play starts at 9am on Saturday 16th August
· The ladies final is scheduled for 1.20pm on Sunday 17th August
· The mens elite final is scheduled for 1.40pm on Sunday 17th August
· The prize ceremony will take place at 3pm on Sunday 17th August


Players to look out for:

Magnus Eliasson (Sweden)
· World No.1 and current World Champion
· Looking to defend the title he won in 2002
· Currently No.1 in the 2003 Racketlon World Tour Race

Rickard Persson (Sweden)
· World No.8
· Runner-up in 2002
· Currently No.2 in the 2003 Racketlon World Tour Race
· Winner of British Open 2003-08-11

Steven Verbruggen (Belgium)
· Making his Racketlon debut
· Former international badminton player
· Tipped to do very well in his first ever Racketlon event

John O'Donnell (England)
· Former professional squash player
· Runner up in British Open 2003

Owen Hadden (Scotland)
· Making his Racketlon debut
· Former Scottish International tennis player
· National league squash player

Malcolm Watt (Scotland)
· Making his Racketlon debut
· National level tennis player
· Former junior international squash player
· Known for his high level of fitness

Ryan Maxfield (Scotland)
· Making his Racketlon debut
· Tipped to 'excite' in the Class 1 category
· National level tennis player

Barry Hudson (Scotland)
· Making his Racketlon debut
· Could cause an upset in the Class 1 category
· Competent at all 4 sports
· Former junior international level squash player

James Noble (Scotland)
· Making his Racketlon debut in the Masters category
· Current Scottish Veteran International tennis player
· Tipped to finish strongly in each match - a very tough competitor

Lilian Druve (Sweden)
· World No.1 and current World Champion
· Won title in 2002
· Playing in her first Racketlon event of 2003 as she starts her preparations for the World Championships
· Will also be looking for a strong showing in the Mens Class 1 category having won the Mens Amateur category in 2002

Katy Buchanan (Scotland)
· World No.6
· Runner up in 2002

Irene Seifert (Germany)
· World No.10
· Making her Scottish Open debut
· Will be looking to upset the seedings and reach the final

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