I leave for England and the World Singles Cup in Liverpool in a couple of hours. The tournament doesn't come at the best time for me to perform terribly well - I had a month off after the Olympics and have eased myself back into training over the past 3 weeks. However it is has been a struggle and I am doing my sessions early in the morning before work which doesn't necessarily mean that I get the most out of them. I've focused on getting back into the swing of things at work and have been consumed by a data analysis project that we have just started running. So this feels quite different to before London where I had done virtually everything I could to get myself in the best form and best shape possible.

I will be playing in the Intercontinental Cup first which comprises a top player from Oceania (me), South America (Thiago Monteiro), North America (Pierre-Luc Theriault) and Africa (Ali Saleh). The winner of that event goes into the main world cup and will be drawn against 3 of the top ranked players in the world. I came 2nd in the event last year, one set behind winner Tsuboi from Brazil.