It was a great day for Danish racketlon as Stine Jacobsen and Morten Jaksland were crowned the Luxembourg Open Challenger elite singles winners.
Stine Jacobsen defeated maiden finalist Margaux Randjbar to lift her first elite singles title. Meanwhile, Jaksland beat German finalist Cornelius Radermacher to make the perfect start to his year.
Women’s A Singles: Jacobsen Wins Maiden Title
After playing the Mixed Doubles final late into Saturday night, it was an early start for Jacobsen. The Dane had to play top seed Anna-Klara Ahlmer in her final group match, with a win guaranteeing her spot in the final.
Jacobsen dominated the top seed, winning table tennis, badminton and squash to seal the victory before tennis. That set up a final with Margaux Randjbar, who had guaranteed her qualification from Group B on Saturday.
In the end, it was a one-way contest in the final. Jacobsen dominated from the start, not giving Randjbar a change. The Dane took the table tennis 21-13 before delivering the hammer blow with a 21-3 badminton victory. 21-17 on the squash court sealed the title for the delighted Dane.
Despite being ranked just No.15 in the world, it is little surprise to see Jacobsen doing well. The Dane came closer than any player to defeating World No.1 Christine Seehofer last year, losing by just four points. Lieselot De Bleeckere, playing her first event outside Belgium in three years, defeated Nicole Eisler to take bronze.
Men’s A Singles: World No.1 Continues Superb Form
World No.1 Morten Jaksland showed no sign of rustiness in his first tournament of the year as he cruised to the title. The Dane opened his Sunday against No.4 seed Luka Penttinen. The Finn put up a brave fight and only trailed by three points after badminton. However, a 21-8 squash score coupled with a 6-1 tennis set secured Jaksland’s spot in the final.
The other semi-final was a closer affair. No.2 seed Dan Busby was looking to beat Cornelius Radermacher for the first time in three meetings. However, the German prevailed once again. Radermacher raced ahead to lead by 16 after badminton. Although Busby was able to halve the damage after squash, it was still too much.
Radermacher reached the 14 he needed in tennis to seal a place in the final and take on Morten Jaksland. Although Jaksland held a 3-0 head-to-head record over Radermacher they had always had relatively close matches.
The final in Luxembourg was also relatively close. Jaksland may have won all four sports but they were all competitive. He snuck the table tennis 21-17 before beating Radermacher in badminton 21-18. That was the first time Jaksland had ever won the badminton against Radermacher and proved crucial. 21-15 was the squash score before a 9-7 tennis set sealed a first elite singles title of the crown for Jaksland.
The World No.1 will now turn his attention to next month’s Nick Matthew Steel City Open Challenger, where he could find himself facing three-time PSA Squash World Champion Nick Matthew. Busby finished third after defeating Penttinen in the bronze medal match.
The full results from the Luxembourg Open Challenger are available here.
A full report covering all junior, senior and other open categories will be available later on Monday.
Saturday’s tournament report is available here.
Sam Barker / FIR Media Officer
Image Credit / Duncan Stahl
