Dear Friends,
I have had a successful first day at the World Championships, here in Kuala Lumpur. It has been a very busy four days, moving out of my apartment and into the tournament hotel, then finding out that the whole Canadian team had to change hotels, and a day later, after numerous cockroach sightings in our new hotel, we were able to move back to the very nice Holiday Villa Subang. I have always played my best when under pressure like this, and today was no different. I met Vladislav Druzchenko of the Ukraine in the first round. He is a very high level badminton player, but a little past his prime (4 years ago he was near the top 20 and now he is in the top 60). I was expecting a tough match and that it was.
I lost the first game 21-16, and was getting well beaten the whole way through; he got an early lead and I was trailing by 4-6 points for the most part. That being said, I was still able to sting him and make him feel uncomfortable with some very very long rallies, so all was not lost. In the second, I definitely had the edge, and was leading most of the way through, though only by 1 or 2 points at the most. He was getting VERY tired. From 18-all, I managed to score the next three points to clinch the game. This was very big, and in the third, I had the extra bounce in my step to get a big lead and keep it until the end. I won the third game 21-16.
I am very happy with this win because it is a huge event towards the Olympic qualification. But I am not content with this. I have my second round match tomorrow. It will be a re-match of my second round at the Philippine Open, where I played Park Sung Hwan. There I lost it 23-21 and 21-16. I am looking to better this result tomorrow.
So that is it for now. It is a glorious stadium - with a capacity of over 10,000 spectators...it has only been maybe an eighth-full so far, but as the tourney goes on, it will get busier and busier...
Signing off from Kuala Lumpur!
Andrew
ANDREW ROBERT DABEKA (c) 613.222.3302 www.AndrewDabeka.ca
Last email on Jult 31 and July 10, 2007
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