[15] Sarah-Jane Perry (ENG) bt Jasmine Hutton (ENG) 13-11, 7-11, 11-8, 11-8 (48m)I
I guess it’s not easy when you just spent a whole week playing a team event (Europeans) supporting each other, and suddenly back to reality, and playing your team mate in the World Champs…
Today, I thought we were going in a decider, but Jasmine seemed to disconnect mentally from the middle of the fourth and made errors at crucial times…
SJ : The only COME ON you heard from me was at the end of the first game. I knew how important that game was. And rightly or wrongly, I felt that I was in the middle more than she was, controlling the pace a little more often than she was. When you are in that situation, you’ve got to take advantage of that, what is the use of controlling the middle and be too passive! You’ve got to take advantage without overcomplicating it either.
I sensed she got a bit frustrated in the middle of the 4th, she was up 6/2. I played a good rally then she gave me a cheap one, and suddenly, you are 4/6, that’s a big difference. From that point on, I felt I was finding my targets just a bit better and I could see her forcing it a little bit.
So I knew I would get some nice openings if I kept fighting these targets. She still hit a couple of great shots, but she also hit more errors than winners from that point.
She started to read my trickle boast better, and funnily enough, when I spoke to Rob (Owen, SJ’s coach), he told me ‘don’t play too many trickle boasts’…. Ironic that I got to match ball with one of those, but I hadn’t played it for a while, it’s all about playing it at the right time. And I played one and only forehand drop, and that was to win the match…
I didn’t have the couple of years I wish I would have had, due to some lost of confidence, illness. As I often say, I’m someone who believes you leave everything you have on the day, without any excuses. Which actually made me NOT to address what the real problem was, chronic fatigue things and other things.
I’m past that hill now, and enjoying my squash again, and during the match, I was telling myself, these are the battles and the matches you train for, and working my ass off to get back to the level I want to play at, and that I know I can play at. Still a way to go but I’m back on the road there and that’s a nice feeling.
