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| Tommy suffered a set-back |
After a successful start of the year, Tommy suffered a set-back in mid May when he tore the ligaments of his right ankle during a clinic for one of his sponsors. This injury forced Tommy to miss the Dutch League Play-Offs and the Mamut Dutch Open. Luckily his team Rixax/Squash Almere managed to win the national title without him. Dylan Bennett proved a fantastic replacement for the Dutch Champion, beating Glenn Keenan decisively in the first and probably most important tie of the match. In the second match Gregory Gaultier beat Renan Lavigne convincingly, which meant John White and Davide Bianchetti only had to score a combined total of 31 points between them to clinch the title for Almere. However White got beaten 3-0 by David Palmer and Bianchetti lost the first game against Bradley Ball. In the second game Bianchetti took a 6-2 lead, which secured the necessary amount of points for Rixax/Squash Almere to win the title.
A few days later Tommy had to watch from the sideline as the Mamut Dutch Open got under way. This was especially sour, because Tommy was the initiator of this event in his home town Almere. All that was left for him to do was make sure that the event ran smoothly, which it did. In the women’s event both top seed Vanessa Atkinson and second seed Natalie Grinham lost in the semi finals against respectively Nicol David and Linda Elriani. In the final the young Malaysian came back from 2-0 down to beat the experienced English women. In the men’s event top seed Bradley Ball claimed the Dutch Open title, beating Italian Davide Bianchetti in the final. Ball was made to work hard for his win, twice coming from behind to eventually triumph 11-6 in the fifth game.
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