Victor Crouin (FRA) 3-2 Cesar Salazar (MEX) 10-12, 11-4, 5-11, 11-1, 11-4 (42m)
A bit of a weird one for Cesar today, as he seemed to be suffering from his hamstring, but was running and anticipating very well, putting Victor under pressure.
Then he would stop completely running, like in the 2nd, then dominated the 3rd completely, moving very well on the left side. But the last two games, visibly impaired on the right side, with Victor making it pretty long and difficult, enough to force errors galore from the Mexican…
Victor
He was pretty tricky to play because he was running and retrieving so well, guessing most of my shots, then stopped running and got it wrong, but it was very hard to know where to play the ball!
I still made the rallies as long as I could, to keep his breathing short and prevent him from having a clear view of what I was up to.
When we started the third I kept saying myself I could be up 2/0 as I was up 10/7 in the first…
But in the first game I didn’t see he was suffering from the hamstring; I didn’t play where it was hurting him. Then Grégoire Marche told me to play on the right side and I was able to expose his movement.
Although he was injured, it’s my best win ever, he is 22nd, and I’m so happy to get to the next round even in the circumstances.
had a good start of the season, I won the Marietta Open, then runner up against Lobban in Cleveland, I was happy with that match, I just lacked consistency I felt. So I’m pretty happy so far!
After my baccalauréat, I took a sabbatical year, and I travelled on the PSA Tour for a whole year, preparing at the same time for my exams in Harvard. I played something like 16 tournaments, it was amazing! What’s not to like on the tour?!
Then for my first year in Uni, I had great grades, but then again, in the States, the first year is the “discovery” mode, you do a bit of everything and then you choose. So this year I chose “mathématiques appliquées en économie” and things became very complicated: I have been overwhelmed with Maths, Stats and Economics!
So I’m trying to balance the mornings with work/revisions, then afternoon training, but sometimes, I take a bit more time training, I have to work later in the evening, so I suffer a bit more in the morning and it’s not like you can take a morning off to sleep!
I have 15 hours classes per week, plus an enormous amount of homework/research, so I cannot train twice a day like a pro player. But I’m not too unhappy. Last year, my aim was to stay in the 100’s, I’m now 61 and hoping to get 56 next month.
I’m happy to go on PSA events when I can during the school year, it’s a nice break from the studies, I have more time to work, to sleep, to train, and I still have the support of my Squash Team in Harvard, we are a good group, and that’s crucial I feel.
Of course, to balance studies/PSA, one has got to make choices, but overall, I’m pretty happy. And last night, you know it’s my first Platinium event, and that party was, COME ON!!! The other players were like, ok, I want to go back to the hotel, and I was, let me enjoy a bit more, I’m having the time of my life here, it was just amazing…
So yes, pretty happy with my life at the moment, it just doesn’t get better than this…
