Diary of a European junior tournament
Andy Holland recalls ... |
Draws & Results
Boys under 19
Boys under 17
Boys under 15
Boys under 13
Girls under 19
Girls under 17
Girls under 15
Girls under 13
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11th
January 2010
Closing date for the Austrian Junior Open 2010. 165
Entries. |
4th
February 2010.
Organiser recovering from Illness!!
The first cancellations have already come in. |
8th
February 2010
The last entries come in for the hotel package!!
Collect the trophies, change hotel bookings
(hope they have enough rooms!!), start to receive flight
arrival times, do the draw. |
10th
February 2010
9am – Collect tournament T-Shirts.
10am - Receive another bunch of cancellations. Redo the
draw.
2.55pm - Times for all Matches completed. First triumph!!
3pm - On court for lessons.
6pm - Receive the next bunch of cancellations. Change
the draw.
7pm – Back on court!
9pm – Another couple of cancellations. Change the
draw and times again!!
10pm – Head to the bar!! |
11th
February 2010
Sleep till 11am!!!!
4pm - Hang up draw, astounded to have not
received any withdrawals today!
9pm – A Withdrawal. Try to forget about it! |
12th
February 2010
11am - First day and problems…..flight cancelled,
injuries, draw amendments etc. etc. Total number of
withdrawals 23!!
1pm – Old friend Colin White (old because
he’ll be 40 in 4 weeks time) just mentioned that we have
three former World top 10 players in the club. He’s right;
Geoff Hunt, Dan Jenson and Phil Whitlock are all here
on coaching duty.
3pm – Something must be wrong….everything is running
smoothly!
4pm – Actually quite bored now!!
5pm – I guess I ought to report something on the squash
(about time I suppose). There have been one or two upsets,
but mostly the seeds are coming through, which is certainly
the case with the top seeded players. Maybe tomorrow we will
see some upsets?
8pm – End of day 1 and there are some exciting
matches scheduled for tomorrow.
9pm – The usual suspects have retired to the bar, so
I think I’ll join them. |
13th
February 2010
10am – Start of play.
12noon – It seems that we may have had a final
(effectively) in the quarters and the first upset. Boys
under 13 number 1 seed Paul Mairinger from Austria came up
against James Peach from Yorkshire. A tough battle
for both players, with James finally winning in four. I’m
pretty certain, at this moment, that he’ll go on to win the
event.
2pm – Players and coaches were queuing up to watch Qatari,
Abdulla Al-Tamimi. His fascinating skill with the
racket is even able to entertain those with an untrained eye
for squash. After this ¼ final win, the semi-final against
top seeded Belgian Tom De Mulder will be a real
treat.
9pm – Semis finished. Top seed De Mulder beaten. So
am I
10pm – Head home and crash out. |
14th
February 2010
Valentines Day??? Lucky I got the wife a present!
Finals day in Vienna.
3pm - There was some quality squash on show today, but my
main impression of the weekend has been the amount of young
talent on display. Abdulla Al Tamimi, Ahmed Habib, Emily
Whitlock to mention just a few.
The winners in the under boys and girls 19 categories were
Rick Penders and Emily Whitlock respectively.
This was Rick’s 4th Austrian Junior Open and his first and
most likely last win, after celebrating his 18th birthday
yesterday. He took the title after 45 minutes, with a 3/1
win over Slovakian Miroslav Celler.
In comparison to Rick, this was Emily’s first trip to
Austria and the 15 year old English girl secured a 3/0 win
over home favourite and last years winner Sandra Polak. This
final ensured both of them points for their WISPA ranking,
as the tournament was registered as a WISPA Rising Stars
event.
4pm – A long week comes to an end and although it was
hard work at times, it has been enjoyable.
4.30pm – Off home after an 80 hour week to relax
and string all the rackets I haven’t been able to do
this week, write a report for Squashsite ……… phew!!!
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