Highest World Ranking #82
Het doel, de droom, de hoop, de illusie of hoe je het ook wilt noemen, om de beste squasher van de wereld te worden is voor mij ten einde gekomen. Na zo’n zes jaar professioneel squasher te zijn geweest ben ik tot de conclusie gekomen dat ik ermee stop. De honger om mijn doelen na te streven is er niet meer.
It has been a while since I have posted something on my blog. Also it has been a while since I have been on the squash court. Last time was in Rhodes end of June(!). The reason for the break is my body not willing to perform to the level I need it to compete on my level. So I am taking a break of squash.
By losing in the quarter final last night my season has come to an end PSA wise. The day started well by a 3-0 win over David Haley. In the evening my opponent exposed me in the first two games, I started to do something back in the third, but in a close fourth he just was a little more fortunate.
Lost my first round yesterday in the Swiss IT Open. I felt fine going in the tournament, physically the last couple of weeks have been pretty good, no injuries. For some reason I just could make explosive movements, which made it extra hard to stay in the rally.
The tournament is over, we did not make it to the semi final based on games, and we also did not stay in the A group, also based on games. If we would have beaten Spain in our last match, we would have became fifth. But we tied, and that means we became seventh, and so we drop to the B group next year.
First day is over, and we are still in the race to go through to the semi final. First of we won two and lost two matches against Germany. We won on third and fourth position (Dylan and Bart). This means that Pië and I lost.
Yesterday the Dutch team arrived in Warsaw for the European Team Championships. In the team are Piëdro Schweertman, Dylan Bennett, Bart Ravelli, Marc Ter Sluis and myself. Unfortunately for us LJ Anjema is not playing this year, he has his own reasons not to play.
Unfortunately I did not make it to the final again here in Salzburg, I lost 3-1 to Joshua Masters. Not fully happy with my performance, I feel I let myself down in the first to games, being a bit passice and impacient. In the third I stepped up and pushed the pace, this worked, I just could not sustain.
Yesterday I won my quarter final in a quite strange encounter with Auguste Dussourd. After losing the first game 11-5 I had to change my game, and I picked up the pace. It seemed to work, I was now 10-4 up, but Auguste twisted his ankle on this point. He got a 15 minute injury break, and it did not seem as if he was going to walk again.
Back in Salzburg for the Austrian Open, where last year I made it to the final. A great setting here in Europark, all credits to Aqeel Rehman who has been organising this tournament for eleven years now. Which of the last two times in the Europark shopping mall with a glass court!
