This year the tournament was organised by a new team consisting of 3 ladies, 3 squash addicts - Denisa Linhartova, Renata Nejtkova and me, Sonja Brabcova. The tournament hit an absolute record in ESF Masters Circuit history with a total number of 207 players; another record was achieved in the number of new local players and also new players from Europe to the Masters circuit.

Prague hosted players of 24 nationalities not only from all over Europe but some also coming from overseas. The player coming from the furthest distance was John Musto from the USA and Flemming Helgeland, a Norwegian living in Caracas. John as well as Julian Wollny played through the draw with confidence coming from being unknown and unseeded  to winning their categories; John in the M45+ and Julian in the M35+ category still active in the German Bundesliga. For John it proved to be  good training and prepared him for the Canadian Masters Championship 2 weeks later which he also won.

We had some fantastic finals, but also witnessed many great matches not only from an athletic point of view but also full of fair play. Not every player would admit to a double hit off his racket not seen by the referee nor his opponent, which meant he lost the set and the match. What a formidable gesture!!!

Players also enjoyed themselves during the party on Saturday evening with the last dancers leaving the dancing floor at 3 o clock in the morning to continue their matches not that much later…. J

There was not much missing in Prague. The organisers went the extra mile to bake home-made biscuits and cakes – we even arranged photos of European players for our 2018 calendar.

What could be improved for next year is the number of women players. We missed them playing as well as dancing. So maybe next year?  Hope to see you all again next year! J