Well so far so good at this year’s 2010 Canadian International. I have successfully gotten through two days of the competition, but let me tell you it was not easy. On my first day I had two matches, one against Arak Bhokanandh (England) and my second round against Timothy Ma (Canada). In my first match I was able to always be on top of my opponent by keeping a high tempo and making sure that I never gave him a chance to dictate the rallies. This allowed me to win my first round pretty comfortably 21-7 21-9. My second round was a little similar in the sense that if I kept in control of the rallies and took control of the net then I would win. But if I got a bit sloppy then Timothy would make me pay with some good attacking shots. Lucky for me I kept control of the rallies and won the match 21-13 21-11.
On the second day I had to play my quarter finals against Kristian Midtgaard (Denmark). This was a difficult match in many ways. Firstly he is a very good player and secondly he is also a player that I train with at the IBA in Copenhagen. We have played each other many times in practice and were quite aware of each others style. The first set was very close and we both were neck and neck for most of the set. I had a lead of 17-14 but then he quickly came back to 19-19. With two very good net rallies on his part he took the first set 21-19. In the second set it was all me….I was able to control the shuttle much better and was able to pin him at the back which created some errors on his part and some good strokes by me. After taking my big lead I kept it all the way through the set and won 21-12. The third set was very tricky…We started of very close and we were playing a bit of cat and mouse with the net. I got a good break at 9-8, where he hit a very good cross slice but just out. This allowed me to go up 10-8 and then 11-8 for the switch of sides. That was important because I was playing on the good side for the final half of the set. This gave me alot of confidence and I was able to rack up alot of quick points to then close the match 21-14.
Today I will be playing a Lithuanian, Kestutis Navickas. He had a good win over a Japanese player in the quarter finals. I will be looking forward to our match this evening.
In order to view the draw please click on the link below
DRAW
