We wanted to celebrate our anniversary in style. We chose Tunisia to be the 10th country to host a Squash World Tour match. A small step for mankind, a big step for the Squash World Tour…
On Wednesday November 9th 2022 at 18:40 we started our first match on the African continent. Joel organised our trip to Tunisia – he set up the match first followed by a four day trip through the country with amazing #sightsquashing spots.
The Squash Match In Tunisia
We played at Le Club de Gammarth, close to Tunisia’s capital city of Tunis. The courts are even more expensive than in many parts of Europe, but the club is nice, the staff is friendly and they all speak English – which is not to be taken for granted in Tunisia.
Early in the match we had a questionable point: I thought Joel’s boast hit the tin, Joel disagreed. The video could not bring clearance on site, so we decided to replay the point. (I later checked the video on the big screen: the ball was down!) After that everything went my way. I felt the ball very well, dominated the points and thanks to Joel #teamorange serving high drops, I was able to stay in rallies that I probably should have lost.
11-3 #teamyellow
At the start of the second game we had some great rallies with the better end for Joel. #teamorange lead 3:1 – but I managed to win 10 points in a row.
11-3 #teamyellow
In the third game I could not take a significant lead. Joel #teamorange threw everything he had left into his strokes, fightet for each and every point in his distinctive manner. The rallies were now longer and they definitely left a mark. Joel managed to get to 9-9 after being 7-9 down. But it was his last rearing up, his power faded and I sailed to a magnificent 3:0.
11-9 #teamyellow
It felt good to leave the court as winner, as my last victory on the Squash World Tour is dated in October 2020 in Ljubljana. Several lockdowns and painful 5-game-losses later, I’m now back on the winning track! I’m looking forward to a deciding match later this year.
Talking about tracks: On the road through Tunisia
The day after the match we left on a trip through Tunisia. Our first stop was the Amphitheatre of El Jem – a great #sightsquashing location. We spent the night at Star Wars Hotel Sidi Idriss – a filming location for Star Wars Episode IV, A New Hope. After a stop at the hot spring of Ksar Ghilane we headed into the desert. According to our guide Anis we were the first people bringing squash rackets. We made good use of them as you can see soon in our video:
