[5] Nick Wall (ENG) 3-1 Sam Osborne – Wylde (ENG) 11-8, 11-6, 8-11, 11-8 (59m)
Nick : Sam is a couple of years younger than me, so we actually haven’t come across each other too often, we’ve been on court a few times in training.
I respect him as a player, he is obviously improving, he is a very solid opponent, so I had to be on my toes, on my game.
First two games, tried and kept things simple, and didn’t overcomplicated it, I didn’t want to give too much away cheap, didn’t want to give him too many opportunities. But in the third game, a little bit of lack of concentration, found myself, 7/1 down, taking the ball in from behind too often, giving him the opportunity to get to the front and get on to the ball too quickly.
I slipted on the pace slightly, but I was happy from 7/1 down, I pulled back quite wellin the game, which is good for me, because I learned what I was doing wrong, he was really pressing in that third game, the fact that almost halted that took that momentum away going to the next game…
First game of the season for both of us, a little bit of scrappiness around the middle, just working each other out a little bit. But actually, quite happy with the intensity, and maybe that’s why it was physical, we were both trying to push up and volley from the T, around the middle, because that’s where we are both strong and want to dominate. When you fight for that T, we are both quite explosive, you are going to get a bit of that…
I actually enjoyed that, a good start of the season, it’s a foundation to go further.
