How good and strong these guys are! So much pressure in the service, so fast and so skilful. Today Dave and I lost from the best men’s doubles in the world: the Olympic Gold medalists Hendra Setiawan and Markis Kido.
At 12.55 PM we were ready for the match and so were Kido and Setiawan. We all were eager to go on court. Unfortunately, there were long lasting matches before us, so we started 50 minutes later than scheduled. That is not pleasant when you have had your warming up. Anyway, they have the same problem, I thought.
The match started and very soon we were 7-0 behind. What a sharp services and how difficult to cope with. Because if the return was not really good, you could expect getting the third stroke right on your nose. At a certain stage we managed to play more rallies, but we never came close and we lost the first game with 21-12.
The second game went a lot better. We had more control when receiving the service and also our own service was much better. Some good rallies were played and on the break we were behind 11-9. Not bad, I thought. Then again they scored quickly and steadily and we were behind 19-12. Well, then at least we try to make one point more than we did in the first game, I thought, and that, fortunately, worked out well. With 21-13 we lost the second game.
All together, we again added a wonderful experience to the many we already had. As we don’t leave for Taiwan until Sunday we can train here, watch fantastic matches and hopefully also do some sightseeing the coming days, because Macau is not a bad place to be!