Morten Jaksland, the Danish former World No.1, will sadly hang up his proverbial boots as a racketlon player, with the Teams event at the forthcoming Racketlon World Championships his swansong.
Having started playing racketlon in 2012, as a 20-year-old student, he has gone on to take many titles and medals, as an individual and as part of teams.
From 2017 to 2019, he was a firm fixture in the top five in the world, and by the summer of 2018 he had largely cemented his place as no.2 behind the incredible Lukas Windischberger (who later went pro at squash, representing Austria).
In July 2019, he took the number one spot and from there held it an incredible three-and-three-quarter years. Without counting COVID-affected months with no rankings updates, he held the no.1 spot for a very impressive 30 straight weeks, the fourth longest stretch in racketlon history (behind Magnus Eliasson with 77, Jesper Ratzer with 60, and Christoph Krenn with 38.)
On why he is retiring, he says it is mostly less time for practice due to work commitments, at Padellife, for which he is founding partner, and Racketlife, both of which he credits his racketlon background for helping with.
Needless to say his passion for racket sports is undimmed, and he will continue to play top division padel and second division tennis in Denmark. In fact, on a recent road trip in Norway with his girlfriend, driving the whole 1,000 miles-plus length of the country, they contacted tennis and padel clubs and dropped in for matches.
It is simply he does not have enough time to practice all four sports to the level needed for the very top of racketlon – and, fierce competitor that he is, he doesn’t want to play if not committing 100 percent.
Reflecting on his career, he explains, “It’s been quite a journey. Ten years back, I was in a completely different state of life. I was tennis coaching back and studying.”
“So I had a bit more time to start a new project. That project was racketlon and it just caught my complete attention. I spent every available hour I had setting up practices for learning new sports and that’s sort of just had me hooked for years.
“I think I started in 2012. Ever since, I got hooked more and more and the years I played the most were 2017, ’18, and ’19.”
In 2019, the year he took no.1 spot, he won a staggering 16 international racketlon titles, of an impressive total of 48 (singles and doubles).
“I started winning some of the titles I had been looking at from a far distance in the C category. From where I started, that was quite motivating to see how I could climb the categories and how racketlon makes you develop more in your weaker sports.”
Such is the quality of his squash (probably his second best discipline), it may come as a big surprise to learn Morten had ‘zero’ experience with squash when he started racketlon.
“When I first picked up a squash racket in 2012, I’d never played before,” he recalls. “And I, you know, walked into this old guy in my former squash club and he just beat the crap out of me.”
“I’ve played tennis a lot, so I thought ‘well, I just hit it hard and hope…’. But that’s obviously not the not the way to go.”
In such a glittering career, it’s obviously hard to pick out favourite moments, but there are some highlights.
“Kasper [Jønsson] and Jesper [Ratzer] were dominating the sport and I was there with the Hougaard brothers on the team too,” he explains of the 2015 European Championships in Prague. “I started to get the feel for winning bigger titles and it was really a nice team experience there. Those years there was just so much drama and tight situations.”
“Another one is me and Kresten in the Doubles World Champs in 2019. A strong draw. Kresten and I had already played for a few years there and we really got it together at that tournament. Even though we were behind, we managed to pull out some comebacks in tennis.
“I remember against [Dan] Busby and Peter Duyck we were really down and out halfway through the tennis. It just felt like it all clicked and it was really emotional for both me and Kresten. I remember some pictures of that match where we’re hugging and jumping in the air. It makes me happy to think back.
“So to pick two, the first Teams and first Doubles World Champs would be my main ones.”
Detailing his passion for the team aspects of racketlon, he also highlights winning three titles with Hamburg in the German Bundesliga, where there are teams from all regions of Germany and one international player per team allowed.
Jaksland is also one of only two Danish national champions, with Ratzer winning it from the inaugural national championships in 2014 until 2017 and Jaksland ever since. “That might be the only record I have on him,” Morten jokes.
Overall, he feels, like many others, racketlon’s community and atmosphere sets it apart.
“I’ve been in a bad mood, but it has more been over my own performance,” he explains. “It has never been because of cheating or because of bad behavior from the other guy, or any discussions or whatever. If I’ve experienced a bad atmosphere or something it would almost always be my own fault.”
“You have such a passionate environment you just instantly bond with those people who know what it takes to practice four racket sports regularly and share experiences and share passion. That makes you bond immediately.”
I think I speak for everyone in the racketlon community in wishing Morten the best of luck in the future with all his padel and tennis endeavours!
Joel Durston
