Adeline Kilchenmann claimed her first Women’s Elite singles title in Norway last weekend, in the most dramatic fashion.
The Swiss player won a gummi-within-a-gummi against Denmark’s Mathilde Deleuran after some tennis which was, by her own admission, and very understandably, rather nervous.
The group gummi arm now involves both or all players playing four points in each sport, spinning before each mini match-up to decide who serves their two serves first.
Kaisu Anttila of Finland was the other woman involved, and she had 14 points with all her match-ups played, with the other two on 15 to play tennis, meaning a win over the four points would take the title, while 2 2 would send it to a gummi.
Adeline took the first two points, setting up two match points. Mathilde fought back, winning two looong rallies, probably over 20 shots each.
Adeline won the spin and, unsurprisingly, elected to return. Mathilde progressed into the service boxes, aiming to come towards the net, but a forehand to the middle of the court allowed Adeline forward. A good, angled drop shot got Mathilde out of position and Adeline finished it off with a well-placed volley, which Mathilde, despite a desperate dive, could not get back into court.
It caps a fine year for Adeline, having risen from ten in the world at the end of last year to six now (not that she knew until she was told – she is a very humble player), with wins in elite doubles at the German Open and Racket Masters Augsburg and silvers in Turkey and Austria, as well as a mixed silver in Turkey.
She beat Kaisu Anttila 21 5, 21 11, 19 21, while Mathilde beat her 21 15, 21 18, 22 24, 15 8, a match that included brilliant badminton from two of the best players on tour. Kaisu, meanwhile, staged a brilliant comeback to beat Mathilde 14 21, 10 21, 21 15, 21 7.
It shows how competitive the top of the women’s standings are, as Mathilde and Kaisu lie nearly 30 spots below Adeline. Both are set to move up several spots after their performances here and Mathilde especially could move up quickly, as she is just 21 and has improved a lot the last few years (with a silver at the Worlds Girls u21), particularly in squash, which even a year ago was significantly weaker than her other three sports.
The other woman in the draw, Saga Jönsson Slättsjö from Sweden, gamely stepped up to Women’s Elite as there was not enough in Women’s B. She got 14 in two of the table tennis sets, but did not get to tennis in any of the matches – a shame, as she is a fine tennis player (Swedish first division when she was active, until recently).
Just 21, she is improving in the other three sports and, if and when, she gets enough points in those to, regularly get her to tennis with a bit of breathing space, she could be a strong Women’s Elite player in the future.
Ola Ulmo, the Tournament Director, won both the 16-draw Men’s Elite and the 10-draw Seniors +40, defeating Greg Lorkiewicz in the final both times.
Greg, a Pole living in Norway, had progressed to the second round with a bye, as Matthew Davidson, the would-be number one seed, unfortunately came down with COVID/flu that he could not shake off in time for the tournament.
It would have been an extremely unlucky first-round draw for Greg, who was outside of the seedings merely by dint of not being such an active player on tour recently. In reality, in terms of quality, it is probably fair to say he is effectively a top 50 player. (If anyone saw Matt play in the final of the tournament last year, where he battled for around two brutal hours against Kresten Hougaard and then collapsed after he lost 24 22 in the tennis.)
All the other first round matches were relatively comfortable, with none getting into double figures in tennis.
In the quarters, Greg beat Magnus Bäckström plus 24 to set up a semi-final against his brother Bart (who also lives in Norway, having moved a few days ago).
He had beaten Joel Durston 21 10, 21 10, 17 21, 4 4 and then had an excellent gummi arm win against Magnus Edby, 21 17, 12 21, 18 21, 22 13, sealed with a fantastic single-handed backhand passing, the type that few would have the courage to play with such conviction on a gummi! Greg proved too strong in the semi-final, with a plus seven win.
On the other side of the draw Ola had two comfortable wins to set up a semi final against Keith, who had a tough quarter final against Swede, Anders Lätt, World No.100. In the tennis, Keith got the requisite five points when Anders had 13.
This set up an enticing semi between Keith and Ola, two of the best over 40 players on tour, with a record then one apiece, and, as expected, it was a great game, with the Brit and Norwegian, respectively, sharing the first two sports comfortably, before Ola won tennis by a slightly higher margin than Keith won squash, just as with the first two sports, for a plus four win.
In fact, it proved, in a way, more of a final than the actual final, where Ola only needed to play three tennis points to take the title against Greg. These two have had multiple battles in the finals of Norway tournaments, where at first Greg had the upper hand, but recently Ola gained the edge, largely due to fitness, especially in tournaments with many matches like this.
Competing regularly at all four sports, he is extremely fit, and injury- and niggle-free, and his squash has improved significantly to be a solid sport for him. Meanwhile, Keith took the bronze with a convincing plus 22 win.
Ola and Keith were set to also meet in the final of the Seniors +40, but Keith this time lost to Anders Lätt, who Ola beat 17-21, 21-9, 21-18, 11-15.
Ola had in the semi final again beaten Greg, who took bronze as Keith gave a walkover, due to the high amount of games and tight schedule with a flight he needed to make.
Elsewhere, Pekka Tennilä won the Seniors +60, and without dropping a set, although that record was run pretty close by Victor Solomon – 21 19, 22 20, 21 9, 7 4. Victor is a Greek man from the island of Rhodes who travels, as the only active Greek racketlon player, to many tournaments and scrabbles around to play what he can, with a lack of facilities on the island, including on one squash court at a hotel and table tennis on his dining table in his kitchen!
He also took silver in the Men’s C/first timers, losing to Jens Deleuran, father to Mathilde, in the final 2 21, 16 21, 21 7, 21 7.
