World Open this year was arranged in Doha, Qatar from the 6.-14. of December. Lucky for me, I had already lived here for 3 months, so the tournament was just in the neighbourhood. Unlucky for me 3 months of solo training makes me kind of slow on court. Even more unlucky was the fact that I had an annoying ankle injury 2 weeks before my first match, that took 10 days to settle down. I had some quality training the last 3 days before my match, but because of all this, my expectations were not too high.
I had to play the first match against Oliver Pett from England in the qualification's first round on Thursday the 6th of December. This was a player I had not heard of before, seen play, or played myself. I was expecting english style squash, which is a very honest squash, in terms of having to play proper squash to win and being punished when I played badly.
The first game was competed well. I was glad my ankle was ok, and I pushed all I had, putting together some nice rallies and finding good length. In the crucial end, Olivers experience got the best of me and he finished the rallies a bit better than me, getting the first game 11-7.
In the second game I did not play to well, and lost my length a little. I was pinned in the back, and responded with poor shot selection, losing the game 11-3.
The third game was scorewise very poor, but I was actually not too displeased with the performance. The length were better, and the rallies longer, but Oliver did no mistakes, and seemed to be plucking away points. I lost it 11-0. Steve told me after the match that I only dropped slightly behind the T in the last two games, and that made a big difference. I did not notice this, but I will definitely take that into consideration for future matches.
Overall I am happy with my performance, and excited for the upcoming tournaments. Looking to knock in some good results soon!!! :)
My internship period has come to an end as well here in Doha, and I will be returning to Holland today, before celebrating christmas in Norway with my family :)
