Although I am basically in my summer training programme at the Aspire academy and working full time, I will not let an opportunity to travel, play squash and hopefully add some cred to my world ranking, slip away.
It is a 5K tournament, in Amman (which I believe is the capital), and I am 2nd qualifyer. I have no expectations at the moment, and I refuse to put any pressure on myself. It's just nice to get out of the rock hard focus in training, relax, and just play. And like my team mates always say: Die on court.
Day 1:
facility with access to the sea.
Other Jordanian experiences worth mentioning: Watching Jordan UFC in the streets with random parents, a coloured truck filled with minors, a guy sleeping between garbage bags in the back of a truck, tasting Yellow curry coffee, an arabic wedding party in my hotel room, and seeing a donkey.
Day 2:
Early morning, bad brekkie, no people, taxi tour Amman, squash centre...no people..no opponent...WO. Back to the hotel, blog, need to eat
First match against Mr Rawden from England, who beat his opponent 3-0 in his first match today. I lost 0-3. 2-11, 9-11, 9-11.
Even though I said I would not have any expectations, it it still difficult to lose for a competative soul. Question is: should I wait until I am 100% matchfit to play? I feel it comes down to not playing enough tournaments, as I fell into old habits. With this I mean lessons learned about myself from former matches that is now forgotten as I didnt play a tournament of this stature for months. So I do the same mistakes, and see after the match that this was something I worked on 6 months ago.
I will keep on working on my technique until next summer and from then on I will try to have a full program playing tournaments for a year. I believe that I can then progress more in a linear curve and gain what they call routine"..
Day 3:
Oh wait!!! there is more!!
I was planning on a couple of physical sessions today in combination with some sightseeing at the great al petra, but I got a phone call from the tournament organizer this morning. An Egyptian player pulled out, so a spot opened for a lucky loser. The Kuwaiti went home, The Jordanian didnt want to play (!), and so it was between me and Welsh David Haley. The little girl drew me, and so I will face the same opponent as yesterday, Pablo Rawden in the first round...except this time the result will not be the same
Post match report:
Yesterday the tactics worked great, although I did not move at all or was anywhere close to hitting a normal shot. Today Pablo played better as well, cutting down his errors. It was more like a proper squash match though with good play, winners instead of errors. Fair and fluent. I lost in 3 again, 9-11, 10-12, 5-11. I stepped up from the beginning and it was neck and neck in the first 2 games. I oticed I was a little rusty, not playing competatively for a while, making the correct decisions, only not executed well enough. Then again experience played a major role as I did not play the big points well, gave away easy lets and did not take my strokes. When it is this tight, these small things can make a match. Lot better than yesterday, but still not enough to win. In the last game, Pablo gained more confidence and I did not step up as I did in the first 2 games. Also something I have been aware of doing before. Old habits die hard...Yippie Ki Ya.
At the end I am still walking away from the tournament with a better feeling, and I am glad I got the opportunity as a lucky loser.
The rest of the tournaments first round created some surprising upsets, as the local Jordanians did really well. Almost all the matches I saw, I would put my money on the loser, and both top seeds lost lost their matches. weeeeird
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