It's been a little too long since my last blog post so apologies for that. The past 5 weeks have been hectic to say the least. I've had 3 major tournaments, sold our apartment, gone through the end of financial year at work and have tried to keep my training up at 3 days per week.

We finished the Oceania Cup on Tuesday night in Bendigo. It's one of, if not the biggest event of the year, with $5,000 for the winner and a spot at the World Cup in Belgium in October. I've heard that the World Cup will revert back to its old structure this year, which will mean I get to play 3 of the top players in the World! $5,000 is a fortune in Australian table tennis money and will basically pay for most of the costs of playing and competing for the entire year. I was going for my fifth Oceania Cup title in a row. I don't get a chance to win tournaments I haven't won before in Australia so I have to try to motivate myself by collecting numbers.

Footage of the finals session can be seen here: 2013 Oceania Cup. My final against David starts at 3:03 if you don't fancy watching through until you find it!

I had an easy run through to the semis where I faced New Zealand no. 1 Philip Xiao. Phil is a dangerous player on his day as he has a strong attacking game and can dominate the game when given the chance. You don't want to be playing predictable table tennis against him - like several cross-court shots in a row to the same spot - as you are playing to his strengths. I was able to steer the game to my own strengths, by constantly changing the pace and placement of my shots. The decisive moment came in the 3rd set where I fought back from 2-9 down (maybe my biggest come back ever!) to win 11-9.

In the final I played against David Powell who had comprehensively dispatched Robert Frank 4-0 in the other semi. I've beaten Robbie in the final on the past 3 occasions so it was a surprise to see David prevail so comfortably. I lost to David earlier in the year at the Australian Top 10, but had beaten him twice since, so I was confident I could win if I kept it together.

An all too familiar scenario awaited before our final. Australian Miao Miao was playing Kiwi Li Chun Li in the women's final. The women are usually evenly matched and their matches can go on for a long time which makes warming up difficult. Their match could go for 20 minutes or and hour and 20 minutes and I need to stay warm and active for that entire time. Li Chun Li had match points in the 5th game, so I was warm, sweating and mentally pumped up to go straight on. Then Miao fought back and I was left in limbo for another 20 minutes. It's all quite exhausting!

David and I were both noticeably nervous for the final and play was scrappy for the first couple of sets. I think having been in that situation so many times before (probably in 25 major finals over the years) certainly helps me deal with the situation. At times you just have to try to ride out the storm and not get stressed by the fact that you're not feeling good or that you're missing poor shots. The 1st set was important and I saved a few set points to win 15-13. Scores were even to 6-6 in the 2nd set before I pulled away to win 11-7. Up until then, the game has been closed with both of us trying to lock the opponent down with short or very agressive returns of serve and short disjointed rallies. I was kind of expecting that my tenseness would sort itself out at that point and I tried to open up the game by going for more consistency on my opening shot of the rally and more open rallying. I'm happy to play either game (ie closed, scrappy game or open rallying game) but was hoping to find my more consistent game.

Instead I played the worst set I remember for a long time, missing 4 or 5 returns of serve and 4 or 5 first topspins. Sometimes holding back on your shots can make you miss more often. Maybe I relaxed too much after going 2-0 sets ahead or maybe I'll be having more of these lapses as a non full time player. I came back to my corner after losing the 3rd set a little stressed. I knew I needed to get my game going again as the next set was going to be crucial. I reverted back to my style of trying to wreck the game and it worked well. I won the 4th set 11-4 and the 5th set 11-1. Winning events in Australian and Oceania is mostly a relief more than a joy these days and boy was I relieved to have won this title. The prize money will come in very handy.

I leave tomorrow morning for the Australian National Championships in Sydney. It's the event with the most amount of sentimental value for me as I was extremely proud to have won my first Australian singles title in 2001. I always try to make sure I'm in good form for the nationals.