Heartbreaking thriller in Bordeaux

The first international French Open took place this week-end, and even if it was only a Challenger, the field was very decent with almost all the best frenchmen, and some international players.

Being among the favorites, this was a good opportunity for me to finally win an international event, but such was the case for all the other contenders, as no one present had ever won an Elite title on the Tour.

I eased my way to the final by taking out a promising french-freshman, followed by an experienced one, and finally the always stylish brit Luke Barnes in the semis.

In the final which was to be the 3rd singles of the day, I would face Daniel Busby, an ex-PSA (pro-squash) player, who is now fully focusing on Racketlon and who is currently dominating the UK Tour.
Needless to say, legs were feeling heavy beforehand but fortunately, the organizing team had recruited an army of osteopaths here to relieve players of any itch, injury or fatigue… Even though I usually can’t bear 3 singles in a day, I felt that this time, I could do it.
Not wanting to start the men’s final at the same time as the ladies as programmed so that spectators could enjoy both, we decided to let them a head start of 2 sports… What seemed a detail at that time will actually have a huge impact in the end.

I started out strong battering Dan in Table Tennis annihilating his extraordinary progress of the past months, and then gave him the hardest time I could on the badminton courts to stay in front by +9 before going to the announced slaughter in the squash cage. After 2 points, the outcome was already clear : he was moving me around in long rallies with his skillful shots and I wasn’t fresh enough to take advantage of the very few opportunities he let me have. Even though I gave it all in that cubicle, I could only get 4 meager points from the beast, still thanking mentally the osteos as the cramps hovering by had finally never really kicked in.

It was to end on the tennis courts and Dan needed 14 points for the win, which could go either way, all was set for a thriller. Coming out of the squash, we could see that light had terribly faded, realizing too late that the previous’ night switch to winter time had just cost us an hour of playtime, and we had to hurry to be able to play tennis before night fell completely.

Despite 2 doubles faults on opening, I hammered Dan 11-3 with ease before the changeover which is when we both realized that there was a clear difference in visibility and that I had been on the better side until then ! I would then have to finish the match on the bad side, and things could drag on for more than 14 points… I think it’s fair to say that until 19-10, conditions worsened only slightly, and at that point, we had both played the same amount of points on each side.

But from then on, it became completely impossible to see the ball from my side, I had to rely on the sound of the bounce to guess where the ball was and rushed to the net after one stroke. This worked once with Dan making a bad mistake, bringing the score to 20-11, meaning 2 championship points for me. First one was saved by a great lob from Dan on the line (moonlight reflected on the white line) which would have been a winner in any circumstances. But the remaining two points were a joke, the mediocre balls played by Dan half-court in the middle bouncing near me, absolutely clueless as to where the ball was.
EndGame, final lost by 1 point in an ultimate anti-climax.

Even though we had played an outstanding final for an hour, Dan’s victory did not get any crowd applause as the ending was so sad and ridiculous (or maybe because the onlookers couldn’t see a thing). There is no shame losing a match to him as he is a fantastic player and a great guy.
But given these circumstances, I just felt cheated, wanting to run away and jump off a cliff. I don’t want to see the podium pictures as my brain just couldn’t process a smile, in spite of my efforts.

Defeat should never be your friend.
Some losses are harder to accept and need more time to fade away.
But this one is a scar that will stay with me for sure.

Hopefully, despite time playing against me, I’ll come back stronger and have another shot at a title on home soil to erase this sour taste in my mouth…

And with hope, the smile will be back in a few minutes-hours-days-weeks-months-years !



PS : this article was written on the return flight, 1 day later, I feel a bit better remembering how our first international tournament was a great success.