The Finnish Open

It is always interesting to go to a new place and this year's Finnish Open provided me with the opportunity of doing so as well as a chance to do well in this smaller sized event. With my hamstring troubles behind me and four weeks of decent training in the body, I packed my bags for my first trip to Finland expecting good results in my first tournament of the year.

8 February - Travel day

It was a comfortable flight on a lovely sunny morning in Amsterdam and after just over 2 hours flying northeast I was in snow-covered Helsinki. I had arranged to meet good friend Brad Hindle at the airport there and we caught up in detail on our three and a half hours bus journey to Mikelli. I am now nicely settled at the hotel and had a good sauna to loosen up the body but not before a few games of table tennis. Brad is also my first round opponent and I expect a hard match against my training partner and flatmate over the last year. I would be pleased if the result in our squash match goes the same way as on the ping pong table.

9 February - Day 0
It was a good settling in day today. The breakfast at the hotel was nice and we met some of the players in the qualifying draw. Soon after we headed off to the squash club which is a 15 minutes walk from the hotel. A very nice facility with a lot of history and run by an enthusiastic couple. The Finnish Open has been a long running event and they had a very nice collection of photos to show for it. The court played very well and I had a good hit for more than an hour followed by a good stretch. I got driven back to the hotel by a club member who told me a bit about Finland. There are over two hundred thousand lakes in the country which all have cottages for people to stay and all the cottages have saunas for people to warm up before a dip in the freezing lakes. Sounds fun - I might try it out myself!

The day has settled into a nice evening chatting with the guys in the restaurant downstairs. There is plenty to catch up about since we last saw each other in Saudi Arabia last year. 

10 February - Match day
My preparation was as good as it could be in the last few weeks that I have been training. I knew it was going to be hard against Brad and so it was. The match started at a decent pace. I was a bit slow and he took advantage by taking the ball short very effectively on the cold court. There were some good rallies but he took most of the points to take the first game. I expected to bounce back in the second but he didn't let me. He kept playing well and stuck to his game plan and made it very hard for me to shift the momentum. Soon I was down two games to none and things weren't looking good for me.

I gathered myself together and played well to bounce back. I was more determined and surprisingly it made me faster as well. I got a lot of his good shots back and played well to win the third game. I was back in the match an feeling fine physically. I played well in the fourth as well but he wasn't much behind me. I remember thinking that it was crucial at that stage and that I had to stick to my own game and not risk too much. I am glad I stuck to my own Squash. He broke away with a couple of tight shots at 8-8. He did well and hung in there even though he was feeling it - maybe more than me. He played a tight drop on the backhand on match ball which I got to but my lob was right in the middle giving him a stroke and with it the match.

Obviously, I am disappointed with the loss. However, I need to stay positive and keep focused on training. This was my first tournament back from injury and there are many more to come. The next event is in Istanbul and I have a good two weeks to build up my fitness further. I am in Mikelli for another three days and training resumes tomorrow!