So we decided that the third stop of the Squash World Tour should be Berlin – Germany, since our media team for the first stop (Peter’s girlfriend) had some Roller Derby business there and Peter decided to join her.
I had never been to Berlin before and only heard good things – so it was an easy choice.
After leaving work in the early afternoon with beautiful sunshine I hopped on the plane for an easy 1:30h flight to rainy Berlin. Forgot my jacket. Damn.
#teamyellow kept me busy
Already being a little sick and having some muscle ache after dragon-boat racing the prior evening resulted in me getting sick that evening.
Peter had been in Berlin since the morning and I had to find them at some obscure place on the other end of Berlin, dragging my luggage on a rainy day with only my shirt on.
But I couldn’t show any weakness. So we went from one place to another, having some original Asian food, taking pictures of the television tower in the rain, shopping in a futuristic sports outlet (btw, if the guy working there reads this: Thanks for telling the girls the store closes in 2 minutes! Best bro ever!).
On Saturday the weather remained bad and I bought a jacket and tried to save energy during sight seeing. I had to be at my best to get the lead on the Squash World Tour.
Peter and the media team seemed to sense this weakness and carried us from one obscure place to another. This continued on Sunday when I already felt better after a good 9 hours of sleep.
Somehow they found the coffee shops farthest away from any station one can imagine – passing a lot of nice other coffee shops on the way just to end up at a “special” one – where the coffee tasted just like in any other place I have been.
Anyways, after 50 kilometers of walking through Berlin, we finally made it to the Squash center near the airport – it’s called Airport Squash & Fitness.
We played a game to warm up and I felt good. Peter seemed a little bit slow and I took the unfortunately unofficial game 11-6.
No mistakes
But it was not all he had in him. He immediately changed when we started our competition and Peter’s strokes became more powerful. I managed a small lead at 3-2 in the first game, and then he began with a furious serve-series where I made easy errors and never could get the lead in a rally. #teamyellow took advantage of the situation masterfully – not making a single mistake. I had no chance. He took the game 11-3.
I knew I had to risk more at the return of serve. So I tried. But today seemed not to be my day. 5 easy mistakes gave Peter a 5-0 lead in the beginning of game two – crucial for that game, as it turned out. I began to get some feeling for the ball and managed to keep up with Peter at the time, but the lead turned out too high and he took the game 11-6.
Being down 2-0 is not easy mentally, but I had to try my best. Still having trouble with Peter’s service he now also had some lucky strokes, where the ball hit the corner exactly and bounced off unpredictably, or he hit it with the edge resulting in a perfect drop. And again – this made all the difference and in a (for me) frustrating manner, Peter also took the third game 11-6.
It was time to go home. I have to acknowledge that his serve and backhand were too strong for me today and on the fast court, my running performance was not enough to compensate for my weak strokes. I know what I have to work on – so be prepared for a beating next time #teamyellow.