R2: Victor 3-1 Dimitri

[8] Victor Crouin (Fra) 3-1 Dimitri Steinmann (Sui)  7-11, 11-9, 14-12, 11-9 (80m)

I keep being amazed by Dimitri’s intensity. Ok, sometimes SLIGHTLY over the top. I know. I agree. He got penalised for talking too much to the ref, quite rightly. But whoaaaah, what a performer, he enjoys the crowd, the noise, the challenges. He loves, breathes, shouts squash. Love the boy to bits.

After his coming back from 2/0 down yesterday, 90m match, I didn’t believe Alex our PSA photographer when she said it could be a great intense match. She was right. Intense, it was indeed.

The length of the games give you how tough they both worked: 12m, 20m, 22m, 21m. And always in doubt of the winner to be honest! ,Victor finally closing down the third, he needed 4 game balls to close it, and got the better of the fourth, 8/8, 9/9, 11/9.

Superb squash. Loved it.

Victor.

We’ve been playing since the juniors, since we were very young. There is always a huge contrast between his attitude outside the court, cool and fun, and the face he shows when stepping on court!

Sometimes he can be a bit sharp with the ref, which put a bit of negative on court, but on the other hand, I think that’s his way to let go of the steam to perform better, to each their own.

I felt from the first game he was tired but this is the last event of the season, each match can be the last one and we just give it every thing we have. And before that big shunk of training, I kept telling myself on court that it could be my last match of the season. And when I was losing a few points, or when I was getting tired, I was saying to myself, this is now, you have to push now, you have to give the best you can NOW.

And not to have regrets when the match would be over.

That’s those dialogues with myself that allowed me to dig deep and at the end, win the match.

Those past weeks have been tough, not just because I didn’t get the results, it was also hard to find motivation and the mental resources to be fighting on the court.

But I find my inspiration within the most experienced players, take Tarek for example, he wins his match coming back  from I don’t know where, although he is not at his best physically, with niggles that are really spoiling his life, it’s been going on for a few months, and he still wins the matches he needs to win. I get my motivation from that king of attitude.

I got into the top 8 because of hard work and what I can give on court, I have to show to myself I deserve that ranking, and yet, deserving in sport doesn’t mean much now does it.

TOmorrow, a good match to play and maybe a revenge to take against Aly Abou Eleinen, he took me out of the worlds in Round Two. We always have great battles, we both give the best out of ourselves each time, some really good squash, our games are complementary.

Of course, I prefer when I win, but even last time I lost, I told him you did the effort required to win the last points, you wanted it more than me today, and you got it!

Going to focus on my game plan, and see where it takes me.