The past three weeks were marked by the German Open, the All England and finally the Swiss Open. The latter, just like the German Open a Grand Prix Gold tournament, is traditionally very strong because after the All England the majority of the world top players always travels to Basel to conclude their European tour.
In the mixed double Samantha and I first played a pair from Chinese Taipei. Our start wasn’t too good, we moved more backwards instead of playing forward but along the way we picked up our usual routine. We put pressure on the lady, who was significantly weaker than the man and it paid off. We won the first game by 21-15. In the second game we dominated from the beginning. At the interval we had a comfortable lead which we didn’t give away, 21-11.
In the evening Dave and I had to play our first match versus the very strong English pair Adcock/Ellis. The first game was won by the English mainly because of our own errors but in the second game we could oppose them very well. Especially Adcock wasn’t really focussed and made quite a few unusual errors. We got a gamepoint at 20-19 but unfortunately we couldn’t cash it. Our opponents scored the next three points which made them the winners.
In the eighth finals on Thursday Samantha and I were playing All England champions and present numbers 2 of the world Tontowi Ahmad and Lilyana Natsir. Natsir has been one of the world’s best mixed ladies for years and also thanks to her Ahmad could develop himself to a world class player. In fact such a game should be considered as a training as you know in advance that you won’t be able to match the level of your opponents but of course there can be enough learning moments in such an encounter. Still I wasn’t satisfied shortly afterwards, mainly because they had much more class. However after a couple of hours I had analysed things and put into the right perspective I realised that this game had brought me a lot. I am talking mainly about the awareness to which kind of game type we should work on. Next Thursday Samantha and I will probably enter the top 30 on the world ranking and the next target is the top 20. Fortunately the coming weeks there are no tournaments which enables us to focus on this target but, as far as I am concerned, also on training my physical condition which was neglected the past month and a half mainly because of the frequent travelling.
Saying this I am also aware that there isn’t much certainty at the moment. March 15th has been the date for quite some time on which would be announced which National Players will be maintained in the Elite Badminton program and which not, but also where the Elite group training centre will be, as from August 1st when we have to leave the Olympic Training Centre Papendal. Until now the players still are in a state of suspense. The only thing we have heard is that there might be a chance that the Federation will focus on and invest in the mixed doubles.
Tomorrow all players will have an individual meeting with the Technical Staff in which they will be notified whether they still have a future in the Elite Program or not. It is about time to put an end to these uncertain times because it is a very annoying period for everybody. At least we all know than where we stand and if necessary if we have to switch to plan B! It is also time that we can focus again on playing badminton instead of on all the bureaucratic and organisational hassle.
To be continued!