Danny Bajwa has been on his travels again, this time to Aberdeen’s Sports Village for the first Scottish tournament of 2023. Here he was the top seed in the men’s singles. A lack of training over the Christmas break left him struggling at first, but he won two of his group games 3-1 and the last 3-0.
A bye to the quarter-finals pitted him against the group eight winner, Andrew Nimmo (Dundee), which resulted in a comfortable 3-0 for Danny.
The semi-final with David Hay (Dundee) was potentially dangerous: Danny’s last three encounters with him had all ended in 3-2 wins, but in one David had been 2-0 and 10-6 up. This time Danny was more prepared for the battle. Good tactics resulted in a comfortable win, 11-1, 11-5, 9-11, 11-2.
In the final, Danny faced Niall Cameron, an experienced veteran and a wily opponent. Even though Danny started off sharply, he lost the first set quite easily. He won the second and third sets just as easily, 11-3 and 11-2. The fourth set was going well, with Danny 5-2 up, when Niall took a time-out. This worked in his favour, as he overhauled Danny to lead 8-6. Refusing to give in, Danny hung on to gain a match point at 10-9, but Neil came back to take the set 12-10.
The fifth set was nip-and-tuck: Danny lagged behind 1-3 but recovered to lead 5-3 at the change of ends. Then it was Neil’s turn to forge ahead to 7-6 but Danny fought back to lead 9-7. Neil was not yet subdued and levelled at 9-all. At this stage Danny had two services and took both points to win the set, 11-9, and the match 3-2.
