Joel #teamorange and myself #teamyellow are squash buddies for about 10 years now. In 2017 we started our Squash World Tour – the venues change, but the opponent remains the same. We thought it’s time for a new experience and invited Austria’s number 5 ranked squash player Lukas Windischberger to play an exhibition against us! We would play games against Lukas – while he remains on court, we change for each game and try to score as many points as possible.
Thanks to our friends from Eversports, the City & Country Club Wienerberg provided the court for our battle! We like to play at the City & Country Club. No wonder: The facilities are nice, two of their squash courts have been renovated in 2017 and we can book the courts via Eversports! 😉
And we have some great memories: In 2017 we played our first match on an all-glass show-court at the City & Country Club!
Read about our match 2017 in Vienna!
Try to stay alive
Before our exhibition we asked our community for advice. Apart from comments like “better don’t play”, or “try to stay alive”, we got some useful tips as well. The best advice was given by the Record Austrian Champion Aqeel Rehman: “Keep the ball away from the middle and stay on court as long as possible!”
We did not know exactly what to expect, because we never faced an opponent of Lukas’ quality. Joel #teamorange was – contrary to his usual habit – 30 minutes early at the venue. In comparison: On our trip to Břeclav he jumped in 30 seconds before the train to the Czech Republic left. Even earlier Lukas arrived at the City & Country Club where he did some footwork exercises.
Squash World Tour takes the lead
We could start right on time. And the Squash World Tour started in the best possible way: #teamorange won the first point with a nick-shot and could even double his point balance during the game. That gave me confidence! #teamyellow was on, and thanks to 2 stroke balls I rushed to a 3-1 lead and a respectable 6-11 game.
After such a start, we were hungry for more! But our hopes that Lukas would get tired, did not come true. Instead we became more tired and less concentrated with every game. I hardly sipped some water after a game and had to go right back in! #teamorange felt the same. Games 9 and 10 we lost 11-1 and 11-0. For the statistic freaks all the results: 11-2, 11-6, 11-3, 11:3, 11:4, 11:2, 11:3, 11:4, 11:1, 11:0.
After that we somehow managed it to get to the sauna to give our tired bodies some rest!
Summary
It felt like Lukas was just standing while we ran around in circles on the court. We are not used to this level of intensity! With a lot of effort we could sometimes stay in the rally, but Lukas took advantage of each mistake.
We want to thank Lukas for taking the time playing with us! Thank you as well to Eversports and to the City & Country Club for making this event possible by providing the court for our exhibition!
That’s what Lukas said:
Your project is helping squash to gain popularity – I like that! But in terms of your skillset there is still a lot to improve. You fight for each point – great! But you have to improve the efficiency of your footwork. Focus on your footwork – you can move much more efficient! Your level of play will improve – gaining the level of the whole Squash World Tour. That could help you gain popularity among better players!