This morning at 5 AM the remaining players left Frederikshavn for the long journey back to Papendal. Fortunately we had no traffic jams and we arrived at 1.30 PM. For the first time since a long time I have a good feeling about a tournament.
After we had arrived Wednesday afternoon we went to the training hall for some exercising. After that I made it an early night because I was very tired of the long journey and the next morning at 9 AM a training was scheduled. That training was not really satisfactory but luckily I didn´t have to play on Thursday. The rest of the day I spent with studying and watching a few matches in the fantastic main hall. In spite of Denmark being the European badminton country there were hardly any spectators.
Friday morning I played the mixed double for the first time with Samantha. As I wrote before the next tournaments will be used for trying out which mixed pairs have the best potential. We had bad luck with our draw against Bonde and Helsbol who were the runners-up of this tournament. We played a very good match but individually we lacked quality from time to time. Still we played good rallies and we communicated very well. Despite the loss I had a good feeling about this match. Â After I had watched some other matches I went to the hotel to take a rest for the men’s double of Friday night.
Our opponents in the second round were two Danish youth players.  Dave and I met another Danish youth couple earlier this year and we lost against them so we had to be fully concentrated. After a close finish in the first game we managed to win the second game rather easily. Saturday morning we played the quarter final against again a young Danish pair. Both games of this match were decided in our favour but only at the very end. Since long we had reached the semi finals again and again Bonde was the opponent together with his partner Kristiansen.
In this semi final Dave and I finally reached the playing level again which we are able to play. Especially the second game went very well. We managed to keep an advantage for quite some time but we didn’t succeed to keep it. So we lost in 2 games. Still I am very satisfied with this match and with the entire tournament.
Next week we are at Papendal for training and preparing for the Sudirman cup in China. May 18th we’ll leave. I am ready for it!
Tags: badminton, jorrit de ruiter, Papendal