I'd be pretty happy if every week was as good as last week! I must admit I went through a tough time with my table tennis after the Worlds and Commonwealths earlier this year. I was very disappointed by my results and especially my game was going. I'd put a lot of work into improving the weaker parts of my game since the start of the year - my footwork, forehand topspin and short pushing especially. After the Worlds and Commonwealths I felt that I'd lost much of what has made my game unique and successful and was determined to try to get back to what I do well.

I changed my exercises at training, did less multiball (which I'd been doing a lot of) and tried to get rid of the tenseness that was strangling my shots. The benefit from these changes was apparent almost immediately. As soon as I stopped trying to hit the ball harder I noticed that I was much faster in my reactions close to the table which meant that my rallying improved. I focused on playing strong backhand topspins instead of running around trying to play forehand loops. My footwork has never been particularly quick and these changes really helped cover that weakness.

My results at training improved very quickly. More importantly I felt much more comfortable with the direction I was taking my game. It's important to recognise that improvements to certain parts of your game can mean that other parts, and your overall game, can suffer.

The last two Australian Opens (2007 and 2008) had gone pretty well. I'd managed to win all my matches in the teams events and win the doubles, mixed doubles and singles events. I was feeling really motivated to do well and play well this year. I thought my toughest competition would probably be Justin Han. He has good servers, a strong forehand topspin and not too many exploitable weaknesses. Simon Gerada is always dangerous when his mind is in the right frame to play well and Robbie Frank has made some big steps forwards in the past year.

The week got off to a hectic start with the biannual Oceania Cup being played on the Sunday morning. The Oceania Cup is the qualifying event to decide Oceania's representative at the World Cup that will be played in Moscow in October. I played two Kiwi's and Robbie Frank in best of 7 matches. Robbie and I both beat the New Zealanders comfortably and faced off in the final. My matches against Robbie are a little strange. We both try to keep the ball short and out of reach of letting the opponent get the first topspin in so you could say that they are mostly defense oriented games. It's often a matter of pushing short until the opponent pops one up that decides who is victorious. I think I have a few more options than Bob in this game and pick off the shots that get put a bit too high or long better than he does. I won 4-0 in the final.

The team event of the Australian Open began on Sunday afternoon. The team event is more like an endurance event than top level table tennis. We had two matches per day and after playing with the second match starting pretty much as soon as the previous match had finished. Playing best of 9 team's matches that go for 4 hours is long outdated. We (the South Australian team) were seeded 1st in group two which left the two strongest teams - Victoria and New South Wales in the same group.

We won our group without any problems and faced Victoria in the semi-final. I was really happy with my form. I was keeping my concentration from start to finish in all my matches which is something I've often struggled with in the past. I'm nowhere near as good when I take my foot off the accelerator just a bit and don't push myself to play every point as well as I can. My legs and body become a little straighter and I just start missing shots. Robbie played better this time around and had a lead in one set and set points in another. I played almost flawlessly against Simon and won all three sets very comfortably although he did seem to be below his best in that match. We lost the match 5-3 and played Victoria B for the bronze. NSW beat Victoria in the final which ended Vics 19 year run as champions. We cleaned up Vic B and took the bronze.

Miao and I got to the final of the mixed easily enough. We quickly went down 2-0 against John Tawadrous and Claire Campbell-Innes. John has one of the most amazing flicks I've ever seen. He flicks very flat, without any topspin off a ball that is below the level of the net. I'm not quite sure how it is physically possible for the ball to clear the net and land on the other side of the table, but it does. John's flick dominated the first couple of sets before Miao and I really picked up our game and played very, very well for the next three sets.

Dave Zalcberg and I won the doubles without any troubles. I think we play tactically well for having limited doubles games. We aim for quick points where we outmanouvre the opponents in the over-the-table game and then play low spinny topspins.

I was a bit worried about how my body would hold up during the tournament. My body really adapted to playing constant match play under pressure while I was full time overseas. Playing matches puts a whole different level of stress on key table tennis muscles like your shoulder, rotator cuff, groin, hips and bum compared to training. Now that I'm doing a lot less of both, I had no idea how I'd go. Of course I was doing my ice baths every night to give my legs the best recovery I could and that helped a lot. Thankfully the rest of me managed to keep up to.

I had an, on paper, easy draw for the singles tournament. Justin, Simon, Robbie, Dave and John were all in the other half of the draw and the two highest seeds on my side Kiet Tran and Trent Carter both lost early on. The route to the final was comfortable I felt like my form was still good. One thing that was evident during the week is that there are very few players in Australia who completely understand the importance of making it difficult for the opponent. I saw loads of spectacular play with both players tospinning and smashing and running all around the court. There were ooohs and aaahs galore. Personally I'd rather push short and make sure my first topspin stays low over the net and barely bounces on the other side. In fact I'll try to make sure I do something that I hope will make the opponent feel uncomfortable on every shot I ever play.

Justin was plying along these lines in the final. He was varying the length and speed of most of his returns - subtle differences but enough to cause a bit of uncertainty in my play which he could exploit in other areas of the match. The last time I played Justin, he really struggled with my short topspin tomahawk server to his backhand. He did at first this time too but adjusted, as good players do, and played it well enough for me to have to change tactics. I won most of my points to keeping him away from his strong forehand topspin. This gave me the chance to get the first topspin of the rally in which is oh so important in table tennis. I thought my backhand topspin in the rallies let me down at times but it relates back to my point about how mixing the length and speed of his shots caused uncertainty in my timing.

The first set was neck and neck before I pulled away at the end to win 11-8. I breezed through the second set 11-5 before he took the third set 11-7, the only set I lost in any of my matches in the teams and singles events. The fourth set was in effect the decider. He led 7-6 but I think I remember lifting the pace at that stage. I served faster, went for my flicks, put a bit more spin on the ball and took the ball a bit earlier off the bounce. 11-8 to  me. He was on the back foot from the start of the fifth set and took the match by winning 11-4. I was really happy to have won, even happier than I've been the last couple of times. I succeeded in staying very focused for virtually every point I played for the whole tournament which I see as my most important achievement for the week.

The next few weeks will be busy. I've got an exhibiton tournament in Traralgon next weekend, the Vic Open the week after that, Javor Cup, tournament in Dandenong and then the Australian Closed at Croydon to finish it off!