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By Jamie Baker

November 2005:

IT WAS a cold winter’s Sunday evening and we had just checked into our hotel for the coming week. If I was buoyed by my 300-place surge up the rankings in the past ten months, then this hotel room brought me down to earth.

One of the difficult aspects of attempting to climb the rankings is that in terms of accommodation, it doesn’t matter whether you are ranked No 650 or No 250. Finances mean that in most cases I am looking for a budget room. Ninety per cent of the time this does not bother me. However, as this was my tenth consecutive week of competition, the week definitely fell into the other 10 per cent!

Having made the final of week one of the satellite event in Nottingham, I headed for week two in Sutton still feeling confident but starting to become aware of fatigue. Predictably, this mounted up over the next few days and led to neck and hip problems. For the first couple of rounds I would play my match in the morning in Sutton and then drive to Queen’s Club in the afternoon for extensive treatment.

I limped my way through the opening two rounds but then lost in the quarter-finals. Clearly my body was telling me it was time for a break and my mind was starting to believe it. My obvious problem was that I was halfway through a four-week satellite circuit. This meant that for me to get any ranking points, I had to complete the circuit — even though I had already made the final of the first week.

Inevitably, I lost in the first round of week three (my first opening-round defeat at this level since early July). At this point I had two options. I could sit back and accept what was happening and just let it be, or I could do everything in my power to be in the best possible shape for the fourth and final week. Being a firm believer in judging myself and others on the ability to cope with adversity, I chose the latter option and produced some positive qualities before losing to Martin Lee for the second time on the circuit in the quarter-finals.

There is no doubt that my smooth and successful year will be slightly dampened by my limping over the finish line. However, the Nos 2 to 6 in the world were not even able to do that, as we saw in the shambolic season-ending Masters Cup in Shanghai. I think the manner in which the issue of “overplaying” has come to a head has forced the sport as a whole to look at what can be done. This is a delicate area as there are so many different agendas to cater for.

To read the full article go to : http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,175-1901576,00.html