Yesterday 07. December was the last round of Grasshopper Team IV before we, as a society, decide to gain weight and drink too much.
The team arrived on time to warm up, which was definitely necessary, in the rather chilly Swissair Squash center in Bassersdorf. The team was confident and ready for action. Jonas and I (Ranil) were especially eager to play against our former club mates.
I had the honour of starting on court 1 against Patrik Merchy. I've never had the of pleasure playing him. Judgeing from his previous matches this season, I knew I had to bring my A game. I started strong, and got to an early lead. But then the tide changed, and I really started to struggle with Patrik's constant hammering and taking the ball early. It didn't help that my precision started lacking and had problems forcing him to the back of the court. So unfortunately I lost the first two sets. In the third set, with Tash's help, I tried to change tactics, took tempo out of the game as much as possible, add some holds and it worked like a charm, was able to win the third cleanly. But then unfortunately I fell for the same trap in the fourth and tried to counter his hammering with power squash of my own and it didn't end well. Lost the match 3:1.
At the same time Jonas on position 2, played former club mate Florian Dübendorfer. As I played at the same time, I can't judge how it went, but the score speaks for itself. Jonas managed to win the match cleanly in straight sets: 11-5, 11-7, 11-7. We were up by one set, so far so good.
Next up was Rene on position 4 against Jörg Mostert. Rene started strong with to clean 11-5 victories. There wasn't much space on court and so there was quite some interference between the two. Rene struggled in the third and had to enter a tie break, which he lost. In their last encounter Rene lost after having a two set lead and he was determined not to repeat the same mistake. Which thankfully he didn't: he came back strong in the fourth and won 3:1.
Last up was Tash against Ralph Wutscher. The crowd was uncertain how this one would go. Tash's technique vs Ralph's endurance and speed: only time would tell. The first set was a tight back and forth that ended in Ralph's favour. Tash wasn't intimidated, she stayed focused and showed some formidable squash. A perfect trickle boast here, a tight drive there. Point after point went Tash's way and she was able to send Ralph all over the place. Winning well deserved 3:1.
After the walkover win agains Royal Cham this was finally the first desperately needed win for the team.
Result on Tournamentsoftware
Ranil Wijeyratne