Hans-Kristian Vittinghus

Unfortunately no good news today! I lost to Petr Koukal in 3 sets this morning, 21-8 15-21 21-19.

It was not a good match for me, starting it off in the worst possibly way. For some reason I felt clueless on what to do as nothing seemed to work for me on court even if I felt well prepared for this match. It was easy for Petr to take control of the game and when he wasn't in control I committed simple mistakes. Not a set that is worth rememberring for me in any way...

The second set gave me a fresh new positive start as I quickly got into a 5-0 lead. But today just a single bad shot was enough to make me doubt myself. I never got that comfortable feeling on court that is there when I play my best badminton. Of course it was also partly due to Petr's performance today as he played a very clever and well executed gameplan. I have never seen him play this good from the front of the court, so I also have to acknowledge his performance! I still managed to win the second and take the match to a decider.

But the deciding set was all Petr's as I was never in the lead. He got a bit tense and perhaps a bit nervous in the end letting me back into the game with a GIGANTIC chance to level the scores at 19 all.... but I missed an easy kill at the net to hand him two matchpoints. He won it on the second one when my flick serve got a bit too flat so he could smash it down.

This is a very disappointing tournament for me. I feel like it was mine to win, but I wasn't even close. It also means that I now almost certainly will have to play qualifiers at All England. I had hoped to avoid that, but now there is no way out of it. I will just have to earn my spot in the main draw the hard way

As disappointing as this is there is still lots of other tournaments to look forward to. As soon as wednesday I have a league match and my national championships are on in just 10 days. I will try my best to avenge myself at these events and show that I'm still going strong into this season!

All the best,

HK