Dissapointment!

Last night we played Scotland in the final match of the gropu stage. We won the match 4-1 with my singles being the only one we lost :( We were leading 4-0 in the tie when I had to play, so luckily it didn't really mean anything for the team. Nonetheless it was a great dissapointment for me to lose. My opponent, Gordon Thomson, fought hard and played well, but I'm very dissapointed about my own standard of play. I know I have been out of competitve badminton for a long time and of course it takes time to get back at the same leve as before. But I really thought I was much further in my progress than what I showed last night. There were moments that was good and a had a big lead in the 2nd set, but I still didn't manage to hold on and force the decider. I made some really stupid choices, especially from the front of the court where I really doubted my own skills. Generally I felt quite insecure throughout the whole match, my confidence is not what it used to be. I will have to work on getting this back as it is essential for me to believe 100% in everything I do on court. I'll get a few chances the next few weeks when I have to play an international series tournament in Austria and a grand prix in Germany. I don't think I'll get the chance to play any more matches in this Thomas Cup, which is fair enough! All I can do now is to cheer for my teammates and hope that we bring home the gold as I think we should with our current team! Right now I'm actually in the hall rooting for the danish ladies team to beat Russia, they are currently up 2-0 in their quarter final encounter against Russia. So things are really looking good.
The mens team will play Sweden in the quarter final later today, which shouldn't cause us too much trouble now that Peter Gade and Kenneth Jonassen has joined the team!
I'm off now to watch the rest of the Denmark-Russia match and then do a little training with my good friend and teammate Jan Ø. Jørgensen.

All the best,

HK