February/March Recap

My first blog post!

I wanted to start documenting what I’m up to when I’m travelling for competitions, writing about each tournament that I’m competing in as well as showing the cities and experiences I’m gaining alongside this. It’s very cool to be able to travel the world as part of my job and so I wanted to be able to document these experiences and be able to look back on them in years to come! It’s also a great way for my friends and family to keep track of what I’m up to!

On this first blog I’ll be talking about two tournaments I competed in during February and March. I went on a three week trip to America where I visited Chicago for my first event, I then went down to Florida to do a week of training before travelling to Cleveland for my second tournament.

Windy City Open, Chicago

My first tournament of my three week tour in America was in Chicago at the Windy City Open. I came into this event as an unseeded player drawn to play Rachel Arnold (world rank #26) from Malaysia in the first round. When travelling to events overseas you need to arrive a few days in advance to get over the travel and jetlag, Chicago was a 5-hour time difference to London and so I went 3 days before my first round match. Unfortunately, I lost against Rachel 3/0 (12/10, 11/8, 11/8). The scoreline was close and there wasn’t much between us on the court but she managed to play the last few points better than I did. I was proud of my fight back in the third game as I went 7/1 down and managed to level out at 8/8 but I didn’t do enough to take a game. Some promising signs as I’m getting closer against the higher ranked players.

With a few days off before leaving Chicago, I was able to watch some great matches on the glass court which is very motivating as this is the kind or arena I want to be competing in. I also had time to explore some more of Chicago, a highlight being visiting Wildberry Pancake & Cafe who serve the biggest serving of pancakes I’ve ever seen! I went for the oreo s’mores pancakes and I was barely able to eat half of the portion!

Florida

In the week gap between events I scheduled in to go down to Florida, Boynton Beach to train at the Kinetic Indoor Racquet Club. During my time there I worked with Wael El Hindi, Pete Cheshire and Charlie Houlton. I really enjoyed training in a different set up, hearing advice from different people and working on some new things.

Squash in the Land, Cleveland

My last part of this trip was a $70k event in Cleveland. It’s my first time visiting this city so I was looking forward to this tournament. My first round match was against a Spanish player called Marta Dominguez (world #62) who I was seeded to win against. I haven’t played many events recently where I had the pressure going into the match that I was ranked to win and so there was a bit more pressure going into this one. I was really happy to come away with the win in 4 games (17/15, 11/6, 8/11, 11/9). The first game was crucial, we both had multiple game balls and so I was very pleased to convert those and win the game. By taking the first game my confidence increased which led to a straightforward second game win, but Marta never gives up so fought back in the third. We played some long fought rallies toward the end of the fourth game and I was very happy to close out the match.

My second round match was against Olivia Weaver (world #10). I was very excited to play against a top 10 player and to get stuck in. The first and second game I didn’t do much wrong but Olivia was hitting all her targets and not making any mistakes. In the third game I came out with a different tactic to lift the ball more and attack whenever I have the opportunity which worked much better but the end result was still a 3/0 loss (2/11, 3/11, 7/11). Olivia played a very clinical match and definitely showed me the difference in standard when playing the top ladies.

At this tournament I was hosted by a family to stay with them throughout the event. I always enjoy staying with families whilst away as they are always very welcoming and try to make me feel right at home with them. They recommended some great places to visit and the best ice cream in town, Mitchell’s which originated in Cleveland. A big thank you to Todd, Ann and Eddie for making my stay in Cleveland so enjoyable, I can’t wait to come back next year!

My next event is close to home next week at the London Classic, a new event on the tour which I’m very excited to play! The first round matches are being held at Coolhurst Lawn Tennis Club with second round matches being played in the Alexandria Palace theatre on an all glass court! I’m playing Fayrouz Aboelkheir from Egypt in my first round match which is on Wednesday.

Thank you for taking the time to read my first blog post, I’m excited to keep writing these throughout the rest of the season.