When you play a tournament one of the hardest things to do is to wait until you play. Until you play, the tournament is only in your head and it is so easy to let our mind race ahead with all sorts of truly meaningless thoughts about matches in the later rounds or anticipation about how well you will play. I find it helpful to not hang around the tournament site when I am not playing, and ideally go and do something that has nothing to do with squash. In this way your mind stays fresh for squash and you also remind yourself that there is a lot of life out there that has nothing to do with the tournament.
I played my quarterfinal match this morning and played well – I won 11-3, 11-3, 11-1. Afterwards we got away and took a walk through Old Town Bari and had an incredible lunch. It was so relaxing and now I am on my way over to play my semifinal match. I feel good and am excited to play.