The Australian National Championships wrapped up in Sydney last weekend. Around 120 players from around the country competed in singles, doubles, mixed doubles and teams. We were all playing for the title of Australian Champion as well as $10,000 in cash.

The Nationals has always held special significance to me personally. It was a very proud moment when I won my first Australian singles title back in 2001 when I was 19. There's just something special about being national champion of your country. I make sure I prepare as well as I'm able to for the event and feel motivated to do well. I've had a really good run at Nationals, having won the singles title on 10 occasions; '01, '02 and then from '05 - '12.

It's generally a gruelling event, played over 7 days. The teams event is played all day and then there are doubles events in the evening. One of the hardest parts about playing 6 - 8 matches per day in the middle of winter is getting yourself warm before each match. That could be 2 hours of strenuous warming up plus training plus match time each day.

This was certainly the year of narrow escapes for me. Miao Miao and I won the mixed doubles after being down 10-5 in the deciding 5th game. Robert Frank and I won the men's doubles after a close final. In the semi final of the singles I faced David Powell, who I'd lost to earlier in the year, but had beaten 3 times since including the week before in the final of the Oceania Cup.

David played well in the semi and dominated most of the match. He took a commanding 3 sets to 1 lead and looked to be cruising to victory. I clawed back to win the 5th set but fell behind early in the 6th. David moved to a 8-2 lead and was just points away from victory. A comeback looked almost impossible. At that point I accepted defeat. I didn't give us or stop trying, I never give up, but I acknowledged to myself that I was going to lose. Doing so released much of the tension and pressure I had been feeling and my arm suddenly freed up. I think David sensed victory and began to tighten up. Those small changes to each player were enough to shift the tide of the play. I took the 6th set 12-10 and you could see the life draining out of David. The 7th set was 11-5 and had pulled off a lucky escape.

I faced Robert Frank in the final, who I'd lost to once and beaten once this season. We've done countless hours of training against each other over the past few years and know each others serves, returns, spins, tactics and placements inside out. That makes for technical but not necessarily entertaining play as we are mostly focused on playing each other's weaknesses. The final was the first match in a year that I didn't put a foot wrong. My play was tactically, consistent and there were no losses of intensity or concentration. I won 4-0 without really being threatened in any set.

There's no doubt my playing level has subsided over the past year and that I am going to be having more losses. It's sad to feel your skills slide and hear the pack of players closing in from behind.