My first tournament in Asia! In the doubles I am paired with another Dutchman, also a Peter...
Some photos below were not taken with my camera, but by Scott and Kelvin, the tournament photographers, and by Jan. So, Scott, Jan and Kelvin, I hope you don't mind me sharing some of your great work on my blog :-)
The organisers were very kind to me, as I had a bye in the 1st round of C-Singles, and my 2nd Round match was against Shane from Singapore.
It was a very tough, but good match. Shane was better, and he won 2-6 2-6.
Later on the Friday, Peter & Peter played our 1st Round C-Doubles match against 3rd seed Urasin & Preecha, both from Pattaya, Thailand.
Another tough match, I ran a lot and we worked very hard, but they were just too good. They won 3-6 2-6. But they made it to the C-Doubles Final, so it is no shame to have won 5 games off them!
So, the Saturday is all about Consolation Round for me. And in Consolation, you play a pro-set (up to 8) instead of having to win 2 full sets.
In the C-Singles Consolation I played against Jojo from Thailand. And even in the early morning, it was already 30C!
The home advantage paid off for Jojo, as he deservedly won 5-8 but I did play extremely well. A match where we both exhausted each other, and it lasted an hour and a half!
So, only 1 chance left to win a match in this tournament: Consolation C-Doubles, Peter & Peter played against Jan (also Dutch) & Kunkun, a real gentleman, from Japan.
This last photo said it all: it was a very tense and good match. Peter & I were 4-7 behind, which meant just 1 service game away from losing. But then we came back, and how!
We held our nerves and got back to 8-8, which meant a (regular) tie-break: we won that 7-3, to win this match 9-8!
The first opportunity after the match to take a photo of the 4 of us was only at the players' banquet, which was on the top floor of a luxurious hotel in central Bangkok.
So, this is an impression of this dinner party, with also an amazing night view over Bangkok from the rooftop bar.
Of course there was a show:
But this group stole the show :-)
Next day Sunday, time for the Semi Final of C-Doubles Consolation, against Irish guy Thomas & Nattaphon from Thailand.
I am not scared of the ball at all :-)
All smiles during the match, at a score of 4-4. But the video below is at matchpoint:
Thomas, and especially Nattaphon, outplayed us in the end and won 4-8.
No shame however losing to the later WINNERS of the C-Doubles Consolation.
Below are the draws and results in C-Singles and C-Doubles:
http://glta.tournamentsoftware.com/sport/draw.aspx?id=9AA6BDC8-653F-4C8C-BC92-E65603631E0A&draw=7
http://glta.tournamentsoftware.com/sport/draw.aspx?id=9AA6BDC8-653F-4C8C-BC92-E65603631E0A&draw=8
Here is the summary and details of my matches:
http://glta.tournamentsoftware.com/sport/player.aspx?id=9AA6BDC8-653F-4C8C-BC92-E65603631E0A&player=2
Some photos here below of the relaxed and very friendly tournament atmosphere:
I would like to thank, first of all, Uthai, Noon and Hein-Jan for organising such a great tournament.
Thank you also to "many people" who gladly used my phone camera to take these wonderful photos and videos on this blog.
Last, but certainly not least, many thanks to my doubles partner Peter for his support and tips.
I would like to end this blog post with this photo :-) and yes.... those calves are mine.
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