Player Diary: Werner Schlager - April 24, 2006
Apr. 25, 2006

Courtesy ITTF First day of the Championships, I wanted to be well prepared for the match in the evening, so I came to the stadium to practice in the morning after breakfast.

It was a good practice session and at the end, I was relieved because I've had to rest for four days owing to a back injury. After the practice, my back hurt a little but not too bad, just a little stiff, so I went for a massage.

The massage certainly helped to loosen my back and physically I felt in good shape.

However, as it is the World Championships, I wanted to make absolutely sure that everything was right. Therefore, I decided to go to the racket control center to have my bat checked. The reason for that was that today I used new rubbers on my bat and sometimes the chemical reaction with the speed glue when the rubbers are fresh can cause a problem.

I didn't want to be in a situation where my bat was checked by the glue testers at the end of the match and didn't fall within the legal limit, so I made sure. I need not have worried the bat was fine.

After the racket test, that would be about 1.00pm, I went for lunch and then I returned to my room to relax. I watched television and read for a while to wind down and make sure I was mentally ready for the fixture against Poland; then I went with the team to the stadium to practice at 5.00pm and I felt ready for the match.

It was tough against Poland; I lost to Lucjan Blaszczyk in the second match so that meant it was one-all. Robert Gardos lost to Daniel Gorak but Chen Weixing won both his matches, so I had to play the last match when it was two-all.

I managed to win against Wang Zeng Yi, so we won the match, it's a good start.

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