A loss 3-1, 11/9 4/11 7/11 8/11, but a wonderful weekend of squash. Unfortunately David Palmer was too strong for me today and in all honesty there is no shame losing to a player of his caliber, Former World No. 1 and two time World Champion. Of course it’s never fun losing, but I played well and I was beaten by a better player on the day, so I’m extremely happy with the match and the tournament. There were no shenanigans or blocking during the match, it was perfectly clean and Palmer won fair and square. It just means I have to get fitter and stronger if I want to earn myself a victory against him next time.

I felt relaxed as I went on court to warm up and as soon as we started hitting the ball I was thinking, wow, this ball is flying. This could make things very interesting for me. It was a bit scrappy to start with, with the ball flying around the court and I didn’t actually mind it. The pace was high, but the rallies I felt weren’t too extended, which is what I was trying to stay away from. I didn’t feel like I was out of my depth at all and my confidence grew. The ball was ricocheting like a bullet, which didn’t allow me too much time to think, so that I could just react and let my body do what it’s been doing for so long. I won the first game 11/9.

It’s a shame that Palmer uses his brain so well, because he totally changed up how he was playing in the second game and started taking the pace off the ball, which I don’t like. It gives me too much time to think. It certainly rattled me and I was not happy with how I played the second game at all. Palmer dominated the “T” and just had me moving around the court and I felt like a slug. I didn’t feel like I was moving or reading him well and was getting frustrated. I lost that game very easily 4/11.

I wanted to try and lift the intensity again and try and suck him back into hitting the ball hard with me, but he kept his control and composure and the balls that I was firing in hard and fast were too short. He was still able to cut the balls off and work me around the court with what I felt was ease. My head was much better in that game, but I still ended up losing 7/11.

I figured for the fourth game, well if I’m not hitting great shots, I might as well get a good workout. So I went into the game determined to chase down every ball and see what happens. It ended up working out quite well. I was working ridiculously hard, scrambling around and managed to pull a few rallies together. I felt like I was back in the match again. I was exhausted, but hanging in there and was quite confident up to 8/8 where I thought I might be able to win that game, but either Palmer lifted into another gear or I dropped off a little I can’t say…………….I’ll just say Palmer stepped up a gear  From 8/8 it went pretty quickly to 8/11 and even though I made a valiant, albeit once again unsuccessful, diving attempt the match was over.

So I’m a little bruised and battered, but overall extremely happy with the weekend and also on becoming the 2013 PST World Championship Finalist.

I would like to thank everyone for their support and kinds words before and after my matches this weekend. I’d also like to thank everyone that took the time out of their days to watch me play. l hope everyone enjoyed the weekend of matches as much as I did.

Wade

Another great day for me. It was a very close match, which started out very comfortable, but turned very tough in the end, with me winning 3-1, 11/5 12/10 8/11 11/9.

I felt ridiculously relaxed in the first game and was hitting a great length which, if you remember, was my game plan and I felt like I was attacking short very well on my backhand volley drop. I sailed through that game winning 11/5.

The start of the second I still felt really relaxed and even after hitting some errors, I still felt super comfortable and not under any pressure. My brain started talking to me and asking me if I should feel this good and comfortable. That may have been either the time that Sherbini upped the tempo or my brain said no and I freaked out a little. I was getting a great length again and still felt comfortable going short, but at the end of the game Sherbini started putting me under more pressure. I was lucky at a crucial point where I believe it was 9/9 and Sherbini hit a good crosscourt, which I wasn’t in position for, I reached back and snapped my wrist at the ball and luckily framed it above the tin for a straight drop winner. Pretty much exactly what Sherbini did to me in the PST Bottini World Open 2 weeks ago, although his was at 10/9 match ball down in the fifth. I’ll take my shot, but Sherbini’s was definitely a better timed frame  I squeaked out that game 12/10.

I went into the third game still feeling relaxed and ended up being a little too relaxed. I was a little slower getting to the “T” and I was too impatient and was trying to go short too early. Even though the score suggested it was a close game I was always behind and didn’t feel in it at all. I lost that game 11/8.

So in between games I had super coach once again and she was once again giving me great advice. Sometimes even agreeing with what I said  It also didn’t hurt after the 3rd game that former World No. 1 and multiple World Champion, David Palmer from Australia told me that I was being too impatient and attacking short too quickly. I guess if someone like that gives you advice, you better listen. Luckily it coincided with what Heather had been telling me anyway.

The last game, I was a lot more patient and a lot more bouncy on my toes. I got back to the basics of hitting a better length, before going short. I even noticed during the last game that when I got the front position and hit it deep again, I had Sherbini running forwards for the short ball and having to backtrack to get the length shot. It’s always good when the game plan works. So from there it was still really tough as Sherbini upped the tempo again and I tried to play smart squash and it was neck and neck, to which I finally won the match on two errors from Sherbini to take the final game and the match 11/9.

I’m obviously very happy to have won and am looking forward to playing David Palmer in the Final tomorrow at 2.30pm. I hope everyone gets a chance to watch. GO TEAM WADE!!!!!!!

Wade

Things went well today, I won my quarter final match against Shahid Khan 3-0, 11/5 11/7 11/5.  I was never under any serious threat and I was very happy with how I played. It was more to the game plan that I like to play of getting my opponent deep behind me before attacking short with my volleys. Once again my super coach Heather, was there to grant me the wisdom of her years watching me play squash. I believe she has learnt a lot from me sitting her down to make her watch my matches over and over again on video.

I’m hoping to continue implementing the same game plan tomorrow against Mohamed El Sherbini in the Semi Final 2.30pm. I don’t feel like I utilized that game plan enough when I lost that close match two weeks ago. So that’s the game plan for tomorrow, to make sure I hit a good length to get front position before attacking short with my volleys. I hope everyone gets a chance to watch and you’re enjoying the squash so far.

Wade