Tuesday 16 Nov - Day 1
Rotterdam is a 90 minutes train ride from the base in almere. The qualifying draw was scheduled at 12 and the matches started much later. I decided to travel on the day instead of a day earlier like in most cases. Things went according to plan and we reached Rotterdam centraal in good time and caught a cab to Victoria. The cab driver was friendly and we had a good chat. He dropped us off, said goodbye and drove off - with our bags still in the boot. Rasmus Neilsen who was with me was shocked and ran after the speeding car but to no avail. I couldn't help but laugh. We had nothing except our wallets with us. After an hour waiting for our friendly cab driver to come back and speculating various scenarios we got very concerned. Tommy berden helped us find phone numbers of cab companies and I was on the phone for a while but couldn't find anything. In the end I decided to go back to the train station in hope of finding the guy there. Tommy lent us his car, rasmus drove as I navigated us through Rotterdam in a rush. Soon after I got off to look for our man, I saw his car. After waiting for five minutes I found him! with a surprised look on his face - he didn't know what was going on and was very apologetic once he found out. We had our bags and we were quite releived and happy with our efforts.
Meanwhile back at the squash, I had drawn a talented Dutchman by the name of Sebastian Weenik. I had played him twice before and both matches had been hard. The match was scheduled for 9:30 which meant plenty of time to rest and focus.
The match started well but I found myself reluctant to move to the front. After a few lunges I got more confident and took the hard first game. I seemed t have relaxed after that and didn't work hard in the middle of the second which saw me lose the game and the score was level. Sebastian played excellent squash to take the important third game and I was down 2-1. It was a hard fourth to level the match but I felt more I control at this stage and played decent in the 5th to take it 11-5 and with it the match in 57mins. In the next round I am up against another capable dutchman Piedro Schweertman and it promises to be another tough one.
Wednesday 17 Nov - day 2
No taxi dramas today as the tournament shuttle took me to the court on time for my 11o'clock practice session. It was more to get the body moving and I did a bit of running on court after the hit. I had a good rest after lunch and felt good for my 8:30 pm match against Dutch no.3 Piedro Schweertman.
It was a decent match with both of us playing well. Piedro was determined and played excellent Squash to take me out in four hard games. It was a long and tiring end and I felt the lack of fitness in the limbs. The 4 weeks off from training were definitely showing. On top of that the skid off another drop of sweat in the first game didnt help the hamstring either. Hats off to Piedro for a good performance and causing an upset.
As for me, this is another disappointing loss and another test for the mind. There are also concerns about the hamstring as its still not 100%. This might mean that I won't be able to play for another week. I am going to see the physio tomorrow and see what is recommended. At this stage all I can do is ice and stretch as much as I can. Hoping for the best.
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