Atwater Cup
I had a nightmare journey to Montreal. It's the worse trip of my career and i'm glad it's over. I left Manchester at 9am and arrived after an 8 hour flight into Newark. 1pm local time. I got some food and went to my gate for a 3pm flight. At 2pm the flight was cancelled. I managed to get on standby for the flight at 5pm which was then delayed until 8pm. At 7pm the flight was cancelled again. Again I queued at customer services and got a seat on the 9pm flight. That then got delayed until 11pm. At 11pm we had a plane but no crew for it. Finally, at midnight after 11hours at the airport we boarded and set off at 12.30am. I had the people picking me up who I was staying with. I felt terrible that at 2.30am they were there to pick me up. Worse of all I was missing all my luggage!!! At this point I was glad to get to Montreal in one piece. I finally got to bed at 3.30am (8.30am UK time) 25 and a half hours after I left home the day before!The next day I got up late and waited to hear about my bags. No information. I bought some kit and went and did solo with someone else's racket! I could borrow some of Laura Hill's kit as she arrived that night.
Tuesday and still no news on my bags. I practised using other people kit and what I have bought. Finally that night my bags came. Just before my match the next day! I drew Fiona Moverley and even though my head had been a bit mashed since I got there I was just pleased to be back on track!
My match against Fiona was at 6.15pm. I practised in the morning then went back to our billets house and had lunch and a nap. I went down to watch Laura Hill play Nat Grinham at 5.30pm before warming up for my match at 6.15pm. I made a great start in my match. I was feeling lively and I think the pace caught Fiona out abit. I won the 1st game 11-1. The 2nd was similar and I won that 11-5. Then I completely lost concentration. My focus between games was all over the place and I went on mot really concentrating. Before I knew it I had lost the 3rd 11-5. I'm not sure what happened. I don't often do that and so I just had to make sure I got my focus back in the 4th, which I did. I won that 11-5 and although I was disappointed to lose the 3rd with the few days I'd had before I was glad to have won my 1st round and be through to the quarters to play Jaclyn Hawkes who beat Wildcard Tara Mullins 3-0.
The quarter final was at 6.15pm. Again I made a good start and was moving and playing well. I went 2-0 up 11-8 11-9 and although the score seem close I felt I was always ahead in each game to go on and win it. However, the 3rd I was disappointed with - Again! I lost that game 11-3 and although Jackie played better there was definitely a drop in level from me. Something I need to address for the next lot of tournaments..... I managed to get my focus back for the 4th and won it 11/5 which I was pleased with. Tomorrow the semi will be against Natalie Grinham who beat Suzie Pierrepont 3-0.
The semi final was always going to be tough. Playing the number 1 seed who looked sharper than the last time we played a few weeks ago in KL. Natalie made a good start and was chopping the drops in from everywhere early on. I was picking alot of them up but they were going in really well. I got a few points back towards the end of the game but lost the 1st 11-6. Between games I re-grouped and told myself that she played almost perfectly in that game and to get my length better and hope she couldn't keep that sort of level up! The second went better from my point of view. I got onto balls earlier and started to attack more myself. My better length meant it was harder for her to attack me and I won the 2nd 11-8 and the 3rd 11-7. In the 4th I let my game plan slip. I as playing well and seemed to go from doing things with a purpose to just pushing the ball around and being reactive. I lost the 4th 11-7 and never really looked like winning that game. So into the 5th.....I was feeling ok. It had been a good match and both of us had done quite alot of movement all over the court. We both made a similar start a few winners and a few errors until we were at 6-6. I made a big push physically and a big push mentally not to give away any errors and it game me a 2 point cushion at 8-6. Again we shared the points until I was at 10-8 matchball. I had tried to stay attacking in the 5th as I thought that was the best way to get the result. Luckily she hit a hit on matchball to give me the match. Really pleased to get my 2nd consecutive win over her and pleased to be in the final against Natalie Grainger tomorrow.
The final was abit earlier than the previous matches. I played at 2pm. My legs were abit stiff but I felt ok. Natalie on the other hand looked sharp having not dropped a game so far in the tournament. I didn't make a good start and Natalie was all over the volley and I felt alittle slow to react. Even though I didn't feel too bad it's just that split second difference between getting there early and just getting there. I didn't feel great through the match and even though I tried mixing it up abit it didn't really work. I needed to be onto the ball earlier to give me more options and to beable to attack more. I probably needed to hit straighter aswell. I lost 3-0 11-6, 11-9, 11-4. Pretty disappointing not to do better but pleased with beating the number 1 seed.
Irish Open next at the end of April.