Austrian International 2010, First Round

Yesterday I played my first round at the Austrian International 2010 against Simon Manoury of France. I had played once about 5 years ago in Latvia where he beat me in two straight sets. I was hoping to have a better memory of our match up this time. In the first set we started out pretty even and I took an 11-9 lead. The second half of the set continued to be good for me with some clever net play and some crafty defence. However once at 17-13 for me something changed and I seemed not to be able to recover. From having a 17-13 lead I suddenly lost 8 out of the next 9 rallies. which meant that I lost the first set 21-19.
In the second set we continued to be quite even, both of us gunning for the net since it was very difficult to control the fast shuttles. Keeping the net was the best way to force a mistake out of your opponent. We were even all the way to 19-19 where I played a bad serve to give him match point and then he played a very good rally to counter my offence and win the match.
Not so happy about that result and do not like losing again when I have taken a good lead. However hopefully this is just a one month phase and I will be back to my winning ways next month….which is in Germany.
See you there!