WINNER Brazil Grand Prix :-)

Hey,

Sorry its a few days late but didn't have one second to write my feelings down after the final because of all the messages of support i received. I absolutely couldn't believe the amount of messages on my phone, Facebook, twitter, email i received.. it was overwhelming!!

Well what can i say.. i won the final in 5 sets against Dieter Domke. Dieter is a very good player so i knew this would be a tough challenge from the beginning. It started out a lot worse than i expected losing the 1st and 2nd set. I wasn't following my tactic 100%. The rallies i played where i followed the tactic i was winning but i couldn't seem to continue doing it point after point. So i lost the 1st and 2nd set and was starting to think it was going to be a very quick final if i didn't get my act together. I worked really hard between the points to keep reminding myself what my tactic was right and that if i could hold it for each rally i had a good chance to win. I also felt good on court so i had no reason not to go for it.

The 3rd set was better.. still struggling a bit with the tactic but slowly i could feel it was getting better and better. I got lucky at the end of the 3rd where we played a long rally and i played a net shot and Dieter came forward to tried to make a net kill, the shuttle hit the net as i was kind of going backwards i somehow hit the shuttle up and dieter had turned around and shouted as he didn't realise i had hit the shuttle.. and as he turned around he tried to hit it again and missed and that put me in front 10 - 6 instead of 9-7. I think this was a crucial point and it gave me more confidence and my game was gradually coming together very nicely. Towards the end of the match i felt very good and had total control of my tactic and i think Dieter found it hard towards the end to win points and he was more relying on me to make mistakes.

This was my 3rd international victory and my first Grand Prix title and it is something i am extremely happy about. I had a good tournament and learned a lot about my game which i will use to continue improving.

I mention tactic a lot in this blog and i have really realised this week that this part of my game has improved a lot over the last 2 years. I can still improve more on it but it is definitely going in the right direction and thats something i am very happy about.

I would like to really say a big thank you to everyone who sent me a message over the last few days. I don't think any of you will ever really understand how much it means to me and i really appreciate it. It makes these moments so much more enjoyable.

Thank you all again and i hope we will have more successful times like this in the future.

Scott