So at the start of this month I reached a huge goal of mine as I broke into the top 100 in the world, at 98. The next question people normally ask is 'How?' and it was mainly down to my result in Nottingham were I reached the semi finals. After Nottingham I was in Rotterdam for a 15 thousand dollar event. This event was bigger than the one in Nottingham meaning I had to qualify.
Qualifying was a straight knock out and each player needed to win two matches to qualify for the main draw. My first match was against Jan Van Den Herrewegen of Belgium, thankfully I managed to get through unscathed winning 11-5 11-3 11-7 in 30minutes. A perfect start as I didn't spent to long on court and still felt fresh and sharp. Next I played Adam Auckland of England, we played countless times as juniors nearly always going the distance, and shock horror we did it again thankfully with me coming out the victor 9-11, 6-11, 11-2, 11-2, 11-3. I was obviously pleased to come through especially from two games down showing that all my hard work over the summer was paying off!
The following day I was drawn to play Steve Finitsis of Australia a player currently ranked 59 in the world. It seemed as though my 3/2 win the previous day had taken it out of me and on top of that my opponent didn't make it easy, I struggled after the first game to get into it losing 11-8, 11-2, 11-4. I was disappointed with my last match however 24 hours earlier at 2-0 down I probably would have taken it, another set of good ranking points on the board!
It would be criminal of me not to mention the Olympics rejection, where Wrestling was chosen above Squash and Baseball/Softball to be entered into the 2020 Tokyo games after having been only taken out a short time ago. The result was obviously heartbreaking for myself and the whole squash community but it has not all been to waste, the sport continues to grow across the world and become a more spectator friendly sport, hopefully its just a matter of time before the IOC see that.
I leave for my next events this coming Tuesday, the first of hopefully two in America. The first in Charlottesville and then onto Madison. I will also be on BBC Radio Glos from 4pm today talking about my career and the Olympics rejection!
Qualifying was a straight knock out and each player needed to win two matches to qualify for the main draw. My first match was against Jan Van Den Herrewegen of Belgium, thankfully I managed to get through unscathed winning 11-5 11-3 11-7 in 30minutes. A perfect start as I didn't spent to long on court and still felt fresh and sharp. Next I played Adam Auckland of England, we played countless times as juniors nearly always going the distance, and shock horror we did it again thankfully with me coming out the victor 9-11, 6-11, 11-2, 11-2, 11-3. I was obviously pleased to come through especially from two games down showing that all my hard work over the summer was paying off!
The following day I was drawn to play Steve Finitsis of Australia a player currently ranked 59 in the world. It seemed as though my 3/2 win the previous day had taken it out of me and on top of that my opponent didn't make it easy, I struggled after the first game to get into it losing 11-8, 11-2, 11-4. I was disappointed with my last match however 24 hours earlier at 2-0 down I probably would have taken it, another set of good ranking points on the board!It would be criminal of me not to mention the Olympics rejection, where Wrestling was chosen above Squash and Baseball/Softball to be entered into the 2020 Tokyo games after having been only taken out a short time ago. The result was obviously heartbreaking for myself and the whole squash community but it has not all been to waste, the sport continues to grow across the world and become a more spectator friendly sport, hopefully its just a matter of time before the IOC see that.
I leave for my next events this coming Tuesday, the first of hopefully two in America. The first in Charlottesville and then onto Madison. I will also be on BBC Radio Glos from 4pm today talking about my career and the Olympics rejection!
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