The Far East!
In my last post, I tried to give you sense of Flushing Meadows and New York, and how much I loved the off-court experience. However, the tournament itself was a bit of a dampener for myself and Aisam Qureshi, as we lost out to the experienced French pair of Sébastien Grosjean and Marc Gicquel in the first round. The fact that we lost so early was disappointing, especially given that we were both in such great form coming into the tournament. But as I've said before, I love the US Open and I'll be back for sure next year, and hopefully do better.
After the last Grand Slam of the year, I decided to take a few days off at home in Bangalore. In between my training I found time to meet up with a few friends and also get a couple of rounds of golf. I really enjoy playing golf because it helps relax your mind. Next stop on my calendar: The Far East, with the ATP tour events in Bangkok and Tokyo.
The Bangkok experience started off on the right note, with me winning my first round in singles qualifying.Unfortunately, I couldn't make it to the main draw as I lost a really close match in the last qualifying round, with the third set going to 4-6. In doubles me and Aisam were drawn against the experienced top-seeds Leander Paes and Lukas Dlouhy. We realised that this match was going to be especially tough, because this team had been enjoying a good run of form together, reaching the finals of the US Open. However, I am very proud of the performance we put in. We were quick off the starting blocks in the first set and were looking good to win it. Unfortunately, we ended up losing the set. We kept our cool and our effort rewarded us with the second set. The third set could have gone either way in the super tie-break, but they held on to win 10-7.
Next up was Tokyo. I had to fly in to Tokyo on Friday as my qualies were due to start on Saturday. The conditions in Tokyo were a bit different compared to Bangkok. The tournament was held outdoors and the courts were much quicker. Hence, it took a couple of days to get used to the conditions, and therefore, I think my first round singles qualies came a bit too early for me. Still, I played a good match and lost 6-7 in the third set. Partnering American Eric Butorac, we were up against the 2nd seeded pair of Simon Aspelin and Julian Knowle. The match was scheduled to happen on Monday. Heavy rains, however, forced it to be postponed to Thursday. When it finally happened, though, it seemed worth the wait. It was an extremely tight match where, after winning the first set, we had three match points to win it in the second. We were so close to victory again, but we lost a tight super tiebreak in the third in the end.
These past two weeks have definitely been challenging in many ways. After having been so close to beating top-class teams, we missed out. The draw hasn't been particularly kind either. But I think the positives that I'll be taking from this period is that I am performing well. That is the key in the end, and with the same level of performance, I'm sure the results will improve soon.