Tuesday 5th August 2008
Phew! I'm back from the Australian Open and my subsequent holiday, and now it's time to reflect on my experiences at the tournament, and start plotting my campaign for next year. Let's get to it!
Competition
The Australian Open consists of two separate competitions, the Teams event and the Individual events. The teams event starts first, and the individual events follow later in the week. (You can find some of my favorite photos that I took over the week here)
As a member of the three man West Australian team (my team mates were Giovanni Cnapich and Craig Campbell), I knew I was in for a busy week, since each team match is a three man competition, so we had no fourth player that could fill in and give us each a rest. But I was hopeful that the extra fitness work that I've done this year would help me survive the two match a day schedule.
And so it proved, although I was starting to get a bit weary by our third day of competition, and the fourth day was a struggle to stay focused and fully mobile as fatigue and the aches and pains started to take their toll. Not just the physical side of things, but also mental tiredness after playing many tough matches in a row - much more than we are used to doing at back at home. But on the whole I got through all right.
Looking back on the teams competition (which was conducted in two seeded groups of six teams, with the teams then split up into playoffs for positions 1-4, 5-8, and 9-12), I can say that I am well satisfied with my performances - I beat a couple of good players, and didn't lose to any players that I would have expected to defeat on paper. I also had a couple of close matches against some of the top players that showed that I could be competitive with the top 10 players, losing 3-2. I'll save my opponents their blushes and skip naming names, but I finished the teams matches with a 13-8 win/loss record, which was the best I've ever done. Although I do need to keep in mind that since my team narrowly finished out of the running for positions 5-8 (missing out on a three way countback by one match), some of my wins were against lower rated opposition (the teams playing for positions 9-12) than if we had gone through to the higher 5-8 playoffs. It would have been nice to have the chance to play against the players in the higher division and find out if I'd improved enough to beat them, but that's the way it goes.
In the individual events, I did enough in my starting group to get through to the main draw of the Australian Open Mens Singles - again, something I had never done before. So that was a thrill for me. Unfortunately, my first match was against No 7 seed Kiet Tran, and although I wasn't disgraced, I couldn't quite get there against his close to the table power and spin (and nasty serves!). But I was pretty happy all the same.
One of the goals I had stated several times throughout the year was to try to sneak into the top 10 of the Australian Players Order of Merit for the tournament. Looking at my results, I actually had a good shot of sneaking in around positions 9-10. This was due to some of the top players pulling out of the tournament, and the fact that I probably picked up some extra wins by having to play in the 9-12 position playoffs in the teams events. But comparing my record to my competition for the last couple of spots on the list, I think I had a pretty good case to claim the No 10 spot at least. Alas, it was not to be, since it was decided to scrap the Order of Merit completely, and just use the new Australian ranking system instead. Arrgh! But I'll claim a moral victory anyway. Now my next goal will be to try to lift my ranking to a top 10 position - a tall order but you need to have something to shoot for, don't you?
Looking back on the tournament, I would say that my decision to focus more on my defensive game that I made after the Australian Closed was the correct choice. Even after only 6 weeks of solid focus, my improved defensive game really helped me against my opponents. My attack was still there when I needed it, but my defence is really the cornerstone of my game, and by defending better, I won more points in chopping rallies, and also set up more attacking opportunities. So next year I'll be spending a greater percentage of time on the defensive aspects of my play. Not to mention serve and return of serve, where I still could use some improvement too.
Mentally, I was a bit up and down during the tournament. Against the better players I was quite relaxed and focused, and I played very well. Against players of my standard or a little lower (on paper, anyway), I actually found it quite difficult to relax and play freely, and consequently my game suffered as I tightened up. I still won these matches, but I had a number of close calls along the way as I struggled to relax and play as freely as I was playing against the top players. So I can see I still need to improve my mental training a fair way to allow me to relax in these difficult 'should win' matches. Of course, my opponents could probably claim the same thing!
Conclusion on next page...
