Only after arriving at Birmingham Airport at some ungodly hour of the morning, checking in and waiting for 45 minutes were we informed that there was 'fog' at Brussels and the flight would be delayed (but by how long was anybody's guess). An hour after the scheduled departure, the airline were forced to admit I had now missed my connection on to Chennai. As that was the one flight of the day, we had to start looking at other options. To cut a long story short, the airline paid for a taxi from Birmingham to Heathrow and I was put on a direct flight to Chennai that was only to arrive 4 hours after my original one.
Having never been to India before, I knew little of what to expect. Even at 5am, as I left the airport, I was startled by the warmth. I made it to the hotel and got my head straight down for a few hours kip.
My first match was against top Australian junior Jessica Turnbull. The courts were hot and bouncy as expected but I used this to twist and turn my opponent well and never let her settle.
The matches after this were all to be played on the all glass court (including glass floor). In both the quarter final and the semi final, I struggled, trying to hit the ball too hard and getting frantic far too often. I managed to calm it down after the first game in the quarter final but struggled in large patches of the semi final, needing to come from 2-1 and 12-11 match ball down against top Indian junior Anaka Alankamony to get the 3-2 win and progress to the final.
In the final I played my best squash of the week but, after a good first game, found the tin just a bit too often and Joshna, playing in her home city, showed her experience, picking off any loose balls I put down the middle. I managed to fight from 8-10 down in the 4th back to 10-10 but Joshna slotted my next serve straight into the nick cross court to give her another match ball at 11-10. I managed to get on top of the rally but once again tried to force it and made the error, giving Joshna the game, match and Chennai Open title.
A good tournament for me to back up my qualification for the British Open the week previous. These 2 tournaments pushed me up 17 places, to 43, in the June World Rankings released yesterday. Very happy to make my debut in the top 50 and just one more tournament in Corsica in a couple of weeks, before a hard block of summer training. This will hopefully give me a good platform to attack the top 30 next season!
Last Tournament: Chennai Open
Venue: Indian Squash Centre, Chennai
Opponent and Score: R1: Jessica Turnbull 3-0 QF: Victoria Bell 3-1 SF: Anaka Alankamony 3-2 F: Joshna Chinappa 1-3
Next Tournament: Corsica Open
Venue: Corsica
Seeded: 3
Date/Time: 19th June
Opponent: Qualifier
Current World Ranking: 43
