I must admit I've been putting this blog entry off for a few days as I'm not quite sure where I'll end up with it. The Australian Open was played in Gosford (80 km north of Sydney) last week. It would be silly of me to say that my goal was anything less than to go undefeated through all my matches in all my events. I've managed to do this at the Australian Open for the past three years and was hoping to repeat the feat once more.

The event started poorly for me. The first evening when we turned up was a practice night. I'd been training hard beforehand and knew how unreasonably strenuous the Australian Open is on the players so I took the evening off. I sat at the hall with double jumpers on and was shivering with cold very quickly. Little did I know how much colder the mornings would be...

Central Coast Table Tennis Association was hosting the event and I was impressed by how helpful and diligent the club members were during the week. Any time there was something that needed doing, it wasn't a matter of who was going to do it - it was a matter of who was going to get in first! I've been blown away in recent times during my visits to clubs around Australia just how hard-working and passionate people are. It bodes well for the future.

First on the agenda was the team's event. I've never managed to win the team's event in any age group from U15 back in 1994 to open seniors.  We've been ever so close so many times but have never fallen over the line. Immigration has done wonders for the New South Wales team who were nr 1 seeds and very hard to beat. My South Australian team polished off Presidents, New Zealand and VIC B before losing to New South Wales in the group final. Some truly unbelievable scheduling saw the SA vs. NSW match (5 of the top 10 players in Australia in a vital match) played in a freezing cold hall at 9am on one of the back tables with no spectator seating. Table tennis does itself no favours and yet another chance to showcase our sport was lost.

NSW had a strong team with Australian nr 2 Justin Han, new Chinese player Chris Yan (roughly the same standard as Justin) and Kiet Tran. I think I could have counted the amount of sets I've lost against Tranny over 10 years of play on 1 hand before last week. At the same time I've got amazing respect for what Tranny has done with his table tennis - he has kept working tirelessly at his game over many years and their would be few players in the country who love their ping pong more. Tranny came out blazing in our match playing his quick forehand off the bounce, smashing with his short pimples, flicking my serves aggressively and generally reeking havoc with my game! I felt stressed and unsettled and made many more errors than I would have liked, especially off my opening topspins. At two games all I was looking down the barrel of a first time loss and a bad start to the teams match. I'm really disappointed by my return of serve in the 5th game which was passive, uncontrolled and often a fair way off hitting the table. Tranny took the 5th game 11-9 with some amazing reflex shots on the final point.

I went to worse in my next game against Chris. He is an all-round player with good topspins off both sides, good blocking and reasonable serves and returns. No killer strengths but no weaknesses either. I quickly went down 2-0 without any real chance. I was a long way behind the 8-ball and was not moving, being aggressive nor creative (all of which are crucial to me). The SA bench really helped me with constant support and encouragement to get myself back into the match, taking the next two sets 11-9 and the 5th set 11-7. We were 5-1 down and the match was lost. Both sides wanted to stop the match to prepare for the semi-finals (that were scheduled to start in 5 minutes time...) however we were ordered back on court with the threat of forfeit if we didn't play the matches out. Amazing! I beat Justin 3-0 in about 5 minutes in a lack-lustre match that should never have been played.

Next up was Victoria in the semi-final. VIC and SA used to contest the final of just about every teams event. In fact Victoria has one the team event every year for about 20 years before being knocked off to NSW last year. I beat David Powell 3-0 in the first match. I've had a good running against David recently, dropping just 1 set in our last 5 matches after losing to him earlier in the year. Next up was Robert Frank. Bob played very well right from the start, basically outplaying me to go 2-0 ahead. We've practiced a lot together over the past two years and there is almost nothing we don't know about each other's games. I won the third set easily before Bob went up 9-7 in the 4th and was on the verge of victory. I got a very lucky edge while lobbing(!) at 9-9 before winning 12-10. I finally got the upper hand in the play in the 5th set leading from start to finish to win 11-5. Bob played very well this match and it's clearly just a matter of time before he beats me. The score was 3-3 when I was to play Simon Gerada. I don't think our battles over the past 18 years need too much introduction. Simon has tried many tactics against me in recent years and it looked like his tactic this time was to play very defensively, quite happy to let me get the first topspin in and then try to work me around the court with his blocking. This tactic worked well in the first set and I felt that I struggled to find my rhythm against his slower play. The 2nd set was quickly mine. I don't really remember what happened in the 3rd set but read that I won it 11-9. He couldn't maintain the pressure in the fourth and I won 11-3. David Powell played against Alex Swanson at the all-important 4-4 match. David wasn't haven't the best of tournaments by this stage and his poor run continued. Alex won a comfortable 3-1 to record one of SA's only victories against VIC.

By this stage we were about an hour late for evening's doubles matches. As if playing 6 straight matches against high class opposition each day wasn't enough, the doubles events were scheduled each evening. Miao was excellent, as usual, in the mixed and I thought we played very well. I know I say this every time but I Miao is an awesome doubles partner. She is so aggressive with her shots, has a wide repertoire and plays the same at 0-0 as she does at 9-9. We were untroubled on our way to a fourth straight mixed title beating some strong Koreans along the way. I have a few issues with men's doubles over the past couple of years. Dave Zalcberg was my regular partner for years and we played well together however he has now retired. I did manage to win the Australian Championships with Trent Carter then John Tawadrous but neither pairing felt quite right. I actually entered the Australian Open with Justin Han this year (following our win at Oceania's in April) but found out he had already entered with Chris from NSW. So I was paired up with Bob which is an unlikely couple in my mind. Neither of us move particularly well around the court nor have a real kill shot and his 6 foot something frame is sure to get in the way! We played surprisingly well right from the word go cleaning up all opposition easily on route to the final. In the final we played Justin and Chris who I knew were going to be tough. Both allround players who move well and don't have glaring weaknesses, which are often easy easier to exploit in doubles. We held our own well, mostly winning the short pushing game which allowed us to get the first attack in. Bob has very good short play and I thought he mixed up his short pushing and aggressive flicking very well. We won the important points when it was close to go ahead 2-0. We had match points in the 3rd set but lost 13-11 before taking the 4th set 11-5.

The final of the team's event against NSW was scheduled for, you guessed it, 9am the next morning. We managed to negotiate a 9:45 start (presumably to give the large boisterous crowd time to settle down before the action started) but that was as far as we could push it. I started against Chris in the first match and played really well, winning 3-0. I continued to play well taking the first set against Justin before getting pumped in the next two. Justin was playing very well I thought. He's spent the last year training back in China. His forehand topspin is his main strength and he can hit some amazing countertopspins. His backhand was unusually strong this match and I just couldn't find a way through. My backhand flick, normally a reliable point winner, had little effect and he was able to get the upper hand in the rallies. Very disconcerting. I took the 4th 11-2 but couldn't maintain the form in the 5th losing 11-7. Once again I was disappointed by my play when it counted in the 5th set. I missed a serve, missed a few returns and some opening topspins. Unacceptable really if you want to win those matches.

Sharad Pandit is a phenomenon. He is almost fifty years old is playing better than ever, keeps beating some of the best players in the country and doesn't look like slowing down. He had been suffering from tennis elbow at the Australian Open and had a cortisone injection that morning so that he could play. The injection didn't really work as he most likely had torn the muscle. But out he came, in a lot of pain and restricted in what he could do. He cleaned up Kiet Tran 3-0 and went down 11-9 in the 5th to Chris (who he'd beaten the day before). Amazing stuff from an amazing guy. SA went down 5-3 and NSW took the title for the second year in a row.

I’ll continue this blog soon. In the meantime enjoy watching Phil Smith’s (pbsmick on youtube) videos from the men’s singles final. Below is set 1, click on the video to view the other sets.