I think its fair to say blogging isn't my strongest point but here we go, my season has just come to an end with my last two events being the British Open (The Wimbledon of Squash) and the Sekusui Open in Switzerland.
I received a last minute call up for the British Open to play as a local, England Squash are given 8 places into the qualification draw to hand to whoever they see fit. I was over the moon to be given one of these spots as the British Open is arguable the greatest event in Squash! Although I would be lying if I said I wasn't slightly daunted to come up against one of the worlds best. I was drawn against Marwan El Shorbagy the current world junior champion and No.30 in the world! Not the easiest of draws but in some ways it was better than it could have been as I had played him before and performed well, so I knew what to expect and was looking forward to it. Sadly I went down 11/8, 11/7, 13/15, 11/2 (53m), although I wasn't happy to lose I was pleased with the performance and proved to myself that I can compete with those top guys if I perform at my best. I have put a link up to the match report for those interested. http://bit.ly/15OTiyY
After this it was down to Surrey for the first of two weekends where I will be hoping to qualify as a level two coach come July, who knew coaching was such hard work!
From there it was almost straight off to Switzerland for the last event of my season, first up I had a local and the wildcard for the event Patrick Miescher a tricky opponent especially on such warm courts. I somehow managed to squeeze through in four games not my greatest performance but very happy to get the win. Next up was the American No.1 Julian Illingworth who has a highest ranking of 24 from this time last year. Sadly Julian was to good on the day but another decent performance against a high ranked opponent.
All in all I am happy with my progress this year moving up 62 places to a career high of 101. I have also changed coach and tried some new training methods which have begun to help my game. But for now I am looking forward to some time off before getting stuck in to a good summers training!
Also as the selection process to which sports gets into the 2020 Olympic games approaches, I did a piece on BBC Radio Gloucestershire with Steve Kitchen all about squash in the county. Which you can listen to by following the link below, enjoy!
http://bit.ly/15EGMS1
I received a last minute call up for the British Open to play as a local, England Squash are given 8 places into the qualification draw to hand to whoever they see fit. I was over the moon to be given one of these spots as the British Open is arguable the greatest event in Squash! Although I would be lying if I said I wasn't slightly daunted to come up against one of the worlds best. I was drawn against Marwan El Shorbagy the current world junior champion and No.30 in the world! Not the easiest of draws but in some ways it was better than it could have been as I had played him before and performed well, so I knew what to expect and was looking forward to it. Sadly I went down 11/8, 11/7, 13/15, 11/2 (53m), although I wasn't happy to lose I was pleased with the performance and proved to myself that I can compete with those top guys if I perform at my best. I have put a link up to the match report for those interested. http://bit.ly/15OTiyY
After this it was down to Surrey for the first of two weekends where I will be hoping to qualify as a level two coach come July, who knew coaching was such hard work! From there it was almost straight off to Switzerland for the last event of my season, first up I had a local and the wildcard for the event Patrick Miescher a tricky opponent especially on such warm courts. I somehow managed to squeeze through in four games not my greatest performance but very happy to get the win. Next up was the American No.1 Julian Illingworth who has a highest ranking of 24 from this time last year. Sadly Julian was to good on the day but another decent performance against a high ranked opponent.
All in all I am happy with my progress this year moving up 62 places to a career high of 101. I have also changed coach and tried some new training methods which have begun to help my game. But for now I am looking forward to some time off before getting stuck in to a good summers training!
Also as the selection process to which sports gets into the 2020 Olympic games approaches, I did a piece on BBC Radio Gloucestershire with Steve Kitchen all about squash in the county. Which you can listen to by following the link below, enjoy!
http://bit.ly/15EGMS1
