Finland, here I am!

Hi all,

I'm now in Helsinki, Finland where I'm staying at a very nice hotel only 15 minutes from the hall. Everything about this hotel is perfect, the food is great, the rooms are nice and tidy, internetconnection free and high speed and the showers are excellent! It's nice to stay at a place where everything just works perfectly, makes it a lot easier to focus 100% on what I'm here for: play badminton!

For the first time in a very long time I have to play qualifiers at a european circuit tournament. Not something I look forward to, but I guess it's not too bad either as it gives me a chance of getting some more games under my belt! First match tomorrow morning will be against malaysian Salim Sameon, who is based in Finland. He plays in the 2nd danish league so I know a bit about his game, but not too much. Given the few things I do know and his results taken into consideration I really believe this is a match I should win. I'll try not to put too much pressure on myself though. Will just try to go out there and get my game going, then the result will take care of itself I'm sure! If I beat Salim next up will be Koen Ridder from Netherlands whom I have played once before and beaten! If I succeed in doing so again, Kasper Ipsen from Denmark will probably be my final opponent in the qualifiers. I know him very well from the danish national training center where we both train every day. A really tough match as he is the type of player that just keeps on rallying forever! I have played him twice and won on both occasiones, but it's always hard to play guys you also train with on a daily basis. Obviously we both know each others game very well. Anyway, all of my focus right now is on Salim Sameon as I should really just take this one game at the time. That's the only way to overcome 3 matches in one day!

You can follow the scores on: http://www.tournamentsoftware.com/sport/player.aspx?id=20293&player=260

Not sure how much time I will have tomorrow as I hope my schedule will be pretty busy, but hopefully I'll be able to pop in and tell you all a bit about my matches...

Thanks for reading,

HK