My semifinal opponent today was an excellent athlete and smart squash player. He is the kind of player that can cause all sorts of problems if you get into a rallying match with him – so I did everything I could to avoid that. My goal was to put pressure on him and hurt him with every shot. In the first two games we had long points but I was able to limit the amount of running I did and inflict a fair amount of damage. After two games he was pretty beat up and I was up 2-0. Going into the third I made a conscious effort not to rush the points by attacking to the back, and I
US 45+ Nationals semifinals
started off by inflicting a fair amount of damage and got a solid lead. Midway through, however, when I should have picked up the pace and gone for the kill, I kept the points long and he started to get into a bit of a groove and won a few points (including an interesting stroke call). I took this as a bit of a wake-up and picked up the pace and rolled off the last few points to win 11-7, 11-8, 11-8.
I am looking forward to the finals tomorrow. My opponent is a very experienced, strong player from Quebec who had a great 3-2 win today avenging his loss in the finals last year. I look forward to going head to head with him and giving him everything I’ve got.