Sometimes magic just happens. And you find yourself there with a table where you're expected to put 1€ for each game that has decided to be on free play all the evening.
Then you have a player, the number 1 in your country, who proposes to take advantage of that crazy table and play a free challenge match to whoever was willing. This is Arnau Martin, my young apprentice, the guy who was raised on an air hockey table in the days where we used to have our own Table at Sabadell sports club and grew up winning all kind of tournaments. The boy who wants to plays always.
And then you have another player who knows to perform much better at challenges than at tournaments, and to be more underrated than the rivals on his top. This is Mauro Sturlese, me, the old teacher. The man who wanted to have the chance to challenge all the players above him and especially Arnau.
Presentations made, here you are the results:
Mauro 4-1 Arnau (16-11)
set1 4-2 (5-7, 7-2, 5-7, 7-4, 7-3, 7-4)
set2 0-4 (4-7, 5-7, 6-7, 6-7)
set3 4-2 (6-7, 7-1, 6-7, 7-5, 7-6, 7-6)
set4 4-2 (7-6, 4-7, 4-7, 7-5, 7-5, 7-5)
set5 4-1 (7-5, 5-7, 7-4, 7-3, 7-1)
In my opinion, the turning point that made a tied match lean towards me was game 5 of set 3. I started winning 6-1, then Arnau came back to 6-6 and i scored the 7th. Until that game, Arnau was winning all the 6-6's, from that game on, i was.
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