Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Open.
Hong Kong is one of my favourite tournaments of the year so I was pleased to arrive a few days before and get settled in. Danny was with me and so we did abit of sight seeing.My first round match was against Annie Au who is from Hong Kong. She was the wildcard for the competition but a good up and coming player. I played the match on the glass court because of Annie being local. She is a left hander and it took me the first game to settle. She really took me by surprise in the first game and I struggled to read her game. I lost it 11-3. After that I calmed down abit and although the match was never easy I won the next 3 games and was glad to get off with a 3-1 win as she was playing well in front of her home crowd.
The next round I was due to play my England team mate Alison Waters. She was 7 seed and I was 9 seed so the match was always going to be close. To add to that I won last time we played 10-8 in the 5th in the final of the Irish Open. I made a great start to the 1st game and Alison was also paying well. We know each others game so well from the years of playing that the rallies were really long. I lost the 1st game 12-10. The 2nd I played well and took a lead which I kept for that game and finished it 11-4. The 3rd was tight until the back end of the game. I knew the 3rd was crucial as you want to get a 2-1 lead if possible. In the end after a long game I lost it 11-7. In the 4th I was still playing well. I ended up being 10-8 matchball down. After saving the matchballs and getting it back to 10-10 I eventually won that game and levelled the match at 2-2. The 5th was always going to be close. It was level the whole way through until again we were tied at 10-10. Alison won the rally to go matchball up 11-10 and we had a massive rally and I put a backhand drop in the tin. I couldn't believe it. Gutted to have lost such a tight match but I played well and it could have gone either way.
After that Danny and I went to do more sight seeing and chilled out for a few days before flying home. Pictures to follow soon!!!