Last week i did a very solid tournament as reported here.
I had another one here with 2 categories for me (open + over 40s)
I was actually the defending champ in the over40s from last year, so i was seeded #1 but there were many better players. I got an easy draw to the semis rather quickly but i made one of my worst matches there. a non-match. i was afraid of the guy , i thought he was better (he probably was), and I rushed on everything, made tons of mistakes. from 4-4 in G1 it was a total disaster 0-3 (-5 -3 -3)
in the open category in the afternoon, it wasn't easy to get out first of my round robin group of 3. I was the 1st player, the 3rd player level was a veteran who seemed to have just restarted TT but the 2nd player was a young student about the same level than me. I think I was just a little better in rallies and a bit more agressive (and moving better) while he had the better technique. Only his fast serve caused me some problems while my serve didn't provide too much of an advantage as well so there were many rallies. I had a fantastic start 11-4 then leading 5-3 i played badly the 2 points on my serve and it went downhill. 7-11 then 9-11. Down 1 set to 2, and 5-8 in the 4th i tried to focus a maximum and just play it point by point and i won G4 11-9. that boosted my confidence, was up 8-2 in the 5th but he did almost come back but i managed to cross the finish line first at 11-9, phew !
Then in Round 1 of KO tournament, I played a guy with whom i played some training matches over the years but only scored 2 sets before today, and that was at our last meeting last month. He was probably at least 1 rank above me. I didn't want to have any regrets like this morning, so i went all out against him. We both had a great match, playing above our normal level and exchanging many loud CHOREIs to each other. I played without any fear at all and grabbed G1 11-8, it was 9-9 in G2 but he closed it 11-9. Then i had a really excellent G3 11-6. G4 i was always trailing by a little then 9-10 big rally finished by a big counter FH. There was a huge BH counter against a missile FH which went in straight line almost in the corner not long before that. The match was not won yet. I played it point by point so did he, but I think i had a little more grit and he had a bit more pressure and i won with a miss from his side, god thanks because at that time it felt like i couldn't score any more point just by myself.
No Round 2 because the seeded guy didn't show up, for the first time i get as far as Round 3 (last 16) where i play the guy who won the spring open tournament. So he's probably like 400 points above me. But like the previous match i go all out. I think I really get him by surprise and lead 8-2. I'm really in the zone. But he's not panicked at all and gets back to 8-8 showing me what he can do. i managed to get a good point 9-8 but 9-9 to him. Then he serves short 2 times, 2 times i managed to keep the receive very tightly short and he misses the flick or whatever he wanted to do , it goes in the net, i win 11-9 !!! wow !!! i can't believe it !!!
I still play very good in G2, but so does he 7-7 , then he is gearing up 8-11. From there i get more nervous when I serve, its all a bit too high, too much in the middle of the table i get destroyed by BH and FH flicks i lose 6 and 6 G3 and G4...
6 wins 2 losses today, and I believe that win in R1 of the open is my best match EVER since I started playing TT more than 30 years ago. in the following game, i played at the same level but only during one game and a half. I was really pumped up and in the zone.
The fun thing is that in the game I won, the wife of this guy (she plays TT as well) was supporting her husband but she was saying good play and smiling at me when i scored some good points. This is Japan ! Very nice handshake at the end.
TLDR, if you like TT its not too late to get better and reach new highs even if you're not young anymore !