2011 XVI Peru International Overview

*I know this is a little late, I have been really busy latley and found the time to sit down and write this up.*

So I traveled to the 2011 XVI Peru International Challange April 13-17 this year. I was put into qualifications for mend singles because my world ranking was not high enough. My flight into Peru was a long one, I left Calgary the Wednesday morning at 10am and didn't get into Lima, Peru until 12:30am Thursday morning. By the time I got to my dorm room at Club de Regatas and into bed it was 3:30am. I had my singles match at 9am the next morning. Needless to say I did get a decent sleep only waking up once in the night. The next morning I awoke at 8:15 ate and got ready they walked over to the venue for my match.




So I was in qualification B which consisted of 6 players. The first round I played a player from chili. Because I arrived so early that morning I was unable to have a hit in the club so my warm-up was my first time hitting there. The venue wasn't bad at all though I didn't have any trouble seeing the shuttle or with height of the roof. That match went well with the final score being 21-8, 21-12 in my favor. The next match that I had was against a player from Mexico, that was a different story though. I lost that match 15-21, 16-21 but am happy to am extent with how I played. It was a flat game for the most part something which I have recently started to work more and more on in my singles play. Anytime I was able to hit down I was able to win the rallies but anytime we played flat for a while things got interesting. Overall the singles portion of the tournament was good and I'm happy with how I played. I can see improvements in my game but still much to work on.




Doubles was next and I partnered with Toby Ng of Canada for that. We had to qualify against a pair from Mexico. Unfortunately I have never really trained for doubles so the fast and flat style associated with doubles is quite foreign to me. I will get put under into pressure situations that shouldn't happen and am unsure at times what shots to play. But I was a little nervous partnering with such an amazing player like Toby, he was kind about it. That doubles match was a close one with the Mexican pair coming out the victor 21-19, 21-19. So after that match it marked the end of my tournament but I still had one more day in Peru before I headed back home to Canada to finish off the exams I couldn't get deferred.




The next day I was able to relax and have a bit of a vacation for a change. I ended up watching some of the first round matches and there were some great ones on. After that I ended up spending around 5 hours on the beach sitting and reading my book with a little bit of tanning here and there. The water was pretty cold but I did go for a dip in the ocean. My day came to an end by watching a wonderful sunset and then I headed back to my dorm room to pack and wait to go to the airport. My flight left Lima at 2am so I was picked up to head to the airport at 11pm. We detoured a little through Lima and got to see a little of the night life in the city but that's the most that I saw of Lima the entire trip. Both landing and leaving lima was in the early am hours so I was unable to see any of the landscape or anything, well another time.






And thus an end to my trip to Lima, Peru had come to and end and as I border my flight I had a sense of accomplishment leaving the country and tournament.