Every year since 2002, Jurgen Melzer has spent the last few weeks of his summer competing in one of the biggest events in his sport –\u00a0the US Open. In 2017 he still competed in one of the biggest events in a sport. The only difference is that the sport was Racketlon, not tennis.<\/p>\n
Instead of gliding across the blue courts of Flushing Meadows, he found himself a little closer to home. This summer he was\u00a0on court\u00a0in a quaint country club on the outskirts of Vienna, taking part\u00a0in the 2017 European Racketlon Championship.<\/p>\n
It is\u00a0not unfair to say that the majority of people have not heard of Racketlon<\/a>. The sport, originating in Scandinavia in the 1980s, has a growing community around the world and especially in Europe.<\/p>\n The sport itself is a combination of four different racket sports<\/a>. Athletes compete against their opponent in table-tennis, then badminton, then squash and lastly tennis. Each individual sport is played to 21, with the winner holding the largest cumulative points total. The trick to winning? Consistency across all four events.
\nEmbed from Getty Images<\/a>