As expected moving forward the deadline for World Tour 2010 applications by three months to end of June, has made the application process slow. “Nevertheless more or less all expected applications have reached FIR”, says Executive President Marcel Weigl although some application sheets and confirmations by national presidents are still missing. “A matter of greater concern is, that we have no candidate for the Single World Champs yet.” Therefore the final application deadline is extended for over a week until Sunday 12th July midnight.

In the Men Elite final of Swiss Open (26.-28.6) in Zürich Stefan Jezler proved his good form and took his second title after Hungarian Open this year. The Swiss beat number one seed Alexander Köpf in an exciting match up. Surprise third place went to German Lars Bosselmann, who played in the Elite class the first time. Another German Silke Altmann won the Women A tournament, second place went to Czech girl Katerina Sodomkova and Irene Seifert ending up third. The Mens Doubles title went to Alexander Köpf/Oliver Kudicke. All Results on www.racketlonswissopen.ch In addition live Men A - Elite and Women A - Elite will be on Resultreporter under past events.

Preparations have taken their time, but finally Resultreporter NEW is ready and will go online on Wednesday 24th of June at 12:00 Noon (CET) if everything goes according to plan. For the period of transfer www.resultreporter.net will be down from Monday 22nd June 8:00 a.m. (CET) until the NEW version goes online on Wednesday. NOVOMATIC Austrian Open will be the first FIR tournament to use the full new version of www.resultreporter.net including live scores. Before that David Lloyd Dutch Open and English Open are coming up.

Finally the official FIR website www.racketlon.net is completely updated and three subpages were added. Under the subpage VIDEOS users can now find the best ever Racketlon videos summarized from www.youtube.com. In addition FIR has opened an account on Picasaweb, where all FIR tournaments can easily upload their best pictures and users can find under the subpage PICTURES. Last but not least the new subpage STATISTICS provides information about FIR World Ranking Events title holders. All three pages will be updated regularly, if anyone has any more information for statistics, videos or pictures he wants to share please mail to office@racketlon.net

Douglas Struthers wins the 18th King of Rackets in Oudenaarde last weekend (5-7 June). The Englishman takes revenge for his close defeat in 2008 and takes his second title on the FIR World Tour. On the Womens side Silke Altmann takes the victory. O`Donnell/Andersson in Mixed and Jezler/Twisterling in Men Doubles both take their first victories together. In the most exiciting final Seniors (+45) Christian Alte beats comebacker David Lazarus in the gummiarm point. All results are online on the Tournament Website.

The Dutch Championships were played in the cosy venue of Racket Centre Houten last weekend (30-31 May). Once again more participants for the 4th time the Dutch Champs were held. Four years ago we started with 40 and now there were almost 80 participants. Bart Beks defended his title, while Marielle Van der Woerdt won hers back.

The Finnish Racketlon Championships in Lahti proved that Mikko Kärkkäinen is still the undisputed number one in Finland. The U21 World Champion Antti Tyyskä could not put up to the Men's World Champion. The match was over after squash when Kärkkäinen had a +30 lead. The surprise of the championship was, that Antti Tyyskä had to fight it all the way in the semi-finals against Ari-Matti Koskinen from Lahti. Antti had to win 18 points in tennis and was 15-18 down when Koskinen got a cramp in his leg. Antti then took the three needed points and went through to the final. Ari-Matti was then not able to continue and the bronze medal went To Olli Marjamäki. Doubles World Champion Ismo Rönkkö was unfortunate in the draw and was defeated in the first round by bronze-medalist Olli Marjamäki. The B-class went to Lauri Larvus from Lahti and C-class to Tommi Böhling from Helsinki. Unfortunately the two top women Michaela Björnstöm and Susanna Lautala-Näykki scared the rest of the women and no women's class was played. In the veteran's 45-class Anders Lundström was in a class of his own, but in the 55-class Sten Lindström was thrown from the throne be Harri Peltola.

Stefan Adamsson (see pic) won the Swedish national championships in Stockholm (15-17 May). The number two seed defeated World number one Magnus Eliasson in a thrilling final by a margin of two points. "Everyone who knows Magnus, knows he will be back", says tournament director Lennart Eklundh after a perfect weekend. Adamsson also took the doubles title together with Christian Wall. Defending champion Linda Jansson (see pic) did not start, so Annelie Andersson won the womens competition and Peter Bittar defended his Seniors (+45) title. All results are online on www.resultreporter.net

Dear Racketlon Players, we are more than happy to make you familiar with the newest "baby" promoted by the FIR, the "German Cabrio Open Challenger", which will be held in Hamburg for the first time this year. As summertime is always great for visiting the beautiful city of Hamburg (the rain will be warm, we'll promise that), you also might enjoy taking part in this FIR Racketlon tournament and collect points for the world ranking.

The World Tour Requirements for all FIR World Ranking Events 2010 are now online. In principle there have not been many changes to the requirements from 2009, but due to a pending marketing contract the requirements for World Championships and Super World Tour tournaments had to be increased. Most notably the application deadline for all World Tour tournaments has been moved forth to 30th June 2009!

13 teams and many international top players will compete in the first national championships Bundesliga for Club Teams in Germany this weekend (9-10 May) in Hannover. The best teams then qualify for the final weekend in November in Linden/Giessen and the very best two will have the possibility to play in the FIR Champions League 2010. “Very inspiring, I hope many European countries can follow Austria and Germany and play national leagues”, says FIR President Marcel Weigl. Another German milestone is a new Challenger tournament, German Cabrio Open (31/7-2/8) in Hamburg this summer.

Topseeded Silke Altmann (Ger) and Jermaine Manners (Eng) take the titles at British Open (2-3. May) in London this weekend, but the player of the weekend is James Bird. The newcomer became runner up in the Men Elite draw and took the Doubles title togethter with Neil Smith. In Mixed Doubles Altmann, who outcasted Natalie Lawrence in the Women A final, took her second victory of the weekend together with Michael Holzinger. Jermains father, Wingrove Manners made it a family weekend with his first place in Seniors (+45). All results and a report are now online on the webpage of the English Racketlon Association.

Santa Claus and FIR have a special Christmas present for all Racketlon players, tournament organisers, fans and everyone connected to Racketlon this year. The FIR Council has decided that on Monday 12th January FIR will officially open its Head Office in Vienna with office hours every Monday and Thursday as a service for everyone. "Another milestone in the history of Racketlon", is FIR President Marcel Weigl more than happy to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a successful year 2009 in the name of FIR.

The official end of the year World Rankings 2008 have now been published by FIR. Both World Champs finalists Magnus Eliasson and Martina Kakosova keep their number one positions. The Czech number one also wins the World Tour Race for the first time, while it is the Swedes (6.) first year without the World Tour Race victory after five consecutive wins. Belgian president Gert Peersman takes the title he really deserved, after playing every single tournament on the World Tour 2008. The prize giving ceremonies were held at the World Champs in Fürth already.

The 8th Racketlon World Champs in Fürth/Germany ended with a fairy tale. The finnish couple Mikko Kärkkäinen and Michaela Björnström took both elite titles. Magnus Eliasson and Martina Kakosova with silver and Michael Dickert and Linda Jansson with bronze took the other medals in the elite competitions. Sweden hit back to stay unbeaten in the nationalteam competition, with 2nd Finland and 3rd Austria on the podium. All draws are online here!

At the FIR Annual General Meeting during the World Championships in Fürth/Germany on Friday the 28th November a new FIR Council was elected. Austrian Marcel Weigl (pic with Chinese representative) will be president for another three years with Marc Veldkamp from the Netherlands as new vice-president. Elected as other seven council members were: Michael Dickert, Lennart Eklundh, Ray Jordan, Karim Hanna, Poku Salu, Thomas Troedsson and Martti Vottonen. The AGM thanked leaving council members Georgios Georgoudis, Stuart Foster and Phil Reid for their work in the Council from 2005 to 2008.

Jörn Sültrup is the surprise winner of the Wilson Racketlon Challenger in Dronten/Netherlands (14-16.11). The German no name defeats favourite Paul Twisterling in the final. The number one of the Netherlands takes revenge and wins the Mens Doubles together with countryman Bart Beks. Gold in the Women Elite draw went to the host country too: Marielle Van der Woerdt. All results are now online!

From the 14 – 16 November the last FIR Challenger 2009 will be held in Dronten/Netherlands. Flevoparq is the name of the new Racketlon venue, where many international top Squash tournaments have been held. A premier on the FIR Racketlon World Tour will be that Squash will actually be played as a real doubles game with four players on the court together. In addition it is the last international tournament 2009 where the world ranking points will still count for the seedings and draws of the upcoming World Champs (27-30.11) in Fürth/Germany. The dutch hopes for victory lay on Paul Twisterling (see pic). Entry deadline is Sunday the 9th November. Enter here!

The FIR Racketlon World Tour for 2009 is now official. The same 12 countries as this year will host 7 World Tour and 5 Super World Tour events. Singles and Team World Champs will be held in Fürth/Germany for the second consecutive year, while Doubles World Champs went to Prague for the first time and will be held in April already.

Linda Jansson and Stefan Adamsson take the titles at the World Tour event in Gothenburg (31.10 – 2.11). For both Stockholm players it was the first victory in Gothenburg, with Linda beating comeback player Lilian Druve in a pretty clear final and Stefan having to fight to the end against number one seed Christoph Krenn. All results are now online

The Challenger event in Victoria, Canada (10-12.10) ended with another novum at international Racketlon events. Both Men Elite and Women Elite was won by Brix: Peter and Damaris. Favourites Ray Jordan and Allison Marr fell in the finals. All results are online on the tournament webpage.

Linda Jansson and Stefan Adamsson take the titles at the World Tour event in Gothenburg (31.10 – 2.11). For both Stockholm players it was the first victory in Gothenburg, with Linda beating comeback player Lilian Druve in a pretty clear final and Stefan having to fight to the end against number one seed Christoph Krenn.

Englishman Jermaine Manners takes his first title on the FIR World Tour at the 7th Scottish Open in Edinburgh (26-28. Sept.) this weekend. Number one seed Gert Peersman (photing.com) missed a big chance in the final after winning Tabletennis and surprisingly Squash and going into Tennis with a lead. In the Seniors Class (+45) Jermaines father Wingrove won his first international tournament; a novum in Racketlon history with victories of both father and son at the same event. The Womens title went to England as well, with Natalie Lawrence taking her second title on the tour. It was up to Scottish president Phil Reid to save his country with a victory in the Men B competition. All results are now online!

Christoph Krenn (4; photing.com) is the player of the year 2008. The Austrian wins his third World Tour singles title at the 2nd Swiss Open beating Alexander Köpf 21:8, 21:15, 21:16 in the final. The German (3) stopped a total Austrian victory at the 2nd Swiss Open (13-14.9) in Zürich, by knocking out number one seed Michael Dickert (photing.com) in the Semis. The Austrian champion ended up third by winning over fellow countryman Johannes Schubert. German Silke Altmann won the Womens competition, with newcomer Kadia Keller from New Zealand surprising as runner-up. The results are online here