So we had our Autumn tournament in our local league with an open tournament and sorted-by-age-category tournaments, so 40-49 for me
There were 22 entries in that tournament but a few guys cancelled. First, I was in a group of 4, together with the 1st seed, but he didn't show up, and #4 of the group didn't show up. I won my first match 3-0, 11-2 in the 3rd but it wasn't easy at all in the 1st and the 2nd, i fought from behind.
et voilà, directly in semis as on that part of the table, there was no QF. I meet there my teammate. He's a stronger player than me overall [judging by his results against other players both in training and in tournaments, and his former French ranking], but I'm his nemesis and beat him more than 70% in training. I am leading in the 1st set 10-8 but I'm a bit unlucky on one point and kind of choke, 10-12. Im behind 3-7 in the 2nd, oops, but I make a strong come back 11-8. At that stage I can feel he lost his confidence and starts to express negative feelings. It boosts my confidence even more 11-5 in the 3rd. In the 4th, i am a bit behind in the beginning, but I finish strong again 11-9 for a nice but not unexpected victory.
So I'm in the final against my nemesis, a guy who i couldn't take even one set for more than 10 years but whom recently I beat 3-2 in a tournament, back from 0-2. This time I am well prepared as I'm having both a physical and mental warmup before the final, and I make my best match of the day against him. I win 3-1 but it was domination for me. I dropped one set when leading 2-0 because i scratched my rubber (need to buy a new Tenergy grrrrrr) against the corner of the table during the match and got a bit upset about it. I could finish the match with the same racket. Fortunately, I could close the match 3-1, I was always in the lead in the 4th and never let him come back at me.
So I'm the local over40s champion, and its the 1st time I win such a tournament so I can tell it feels really great. So great that when i was called very shortly to play my match in the qualification group for the open tournament, I'm losing 0-3 to a guy i beated without too much trouble last time. I just wasn't able to focus 100%. I played decently but he played a bit better than last time; I missed 2 set points when leading 10-8 in the 1st, and from there it was a bit downhill, especially mentally.
I wasn't too upset about that counter-performance...
I beated only 3 players to get the tournament win (other players would have needed 5 matches to get there...) but its still counts as a win, and all 3 players I beated were good players. 1 or 2 years ago, I would have probably lost all 3 matches. I am also happy because for the 1st time, I feel I played all my matches as well as I play in training.
I want to thank all my teammates, training partners and coaches for this small - but important for me - achievement. and TTD followers who've been helping me as well
!