R.D.I. Polska Enjoy Open Preview: Jarota Excited To Test Himself

The R.D.I. Polska Enjoy Open Challenger 3 takes place in Bielsko-Biala, Poland, over the weekend, and top seed Filip Jarota is looking forward to testing himself.

Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, entries have been restricted to only those living in Poland currently. There will be two foreign players in the 16-man draw, with Israeli No.1 Daniel Polsechuck and Ireland’s Eddie Mcfarlane featuring.

Jarota will be the top seed at Enjoy Squash in Bielsko-Biala this weekend, and the Polish No.1 will be the favourite to take the title and became the first Polish male to win a PSA title, after Karina Tyma made history by winning the SOAP Engineering Open earlier this year.

We spoke to Jarota, who faces Szymon Papierkowski in the opening round, ahead of the event, and he admits that winning is not his first thought, but he is excited for the test that lies ahead.

“I’ve been working pretty hard for the last seven weeks and I feel better and more confident on court with every single day. I am very happy with the way my game is progressing. I hope I would be able to perform at the same level at the tournament,” the Polish No.1 explained.

“I would definitely like to win this tournament. However, it is not the main goal. The main goal is to test what I have been practicing for the past few weeks and get some nice matches in, before the Polish Nationals which starts June 10th.”

The 19-year-old will only be featuring on Tour for the third time, and he is trying not think about the extra pressure of being top seed. However, he already has his sights set on his next ranking goal.

“I am trying not to think about that but obviously there is some kind of pressure on me, especially when it comes to playing with other Polish players. But as I said, I try to avoid thinking about it and just focus on playing solid squash,” he said.

“My next goal in terms of ranking is breaking into top 200. I can definitely achieve that by performing well in the upcoming PSA tournaments in Poland, and in the future PSA tournaments all over the Europe after the restrictions connected to traveling and competing will be lifted.”

The event takes place from Saturday 29 to Friday 30 May at Enjoy Squash in Bielsko-Biala, where Filip Jarota is the top seed for the tournament. Follow the PSA Challenger Tour on Twitter and Facebook for daily updates from the event.

Men’s Draw: R.D.I. Polska Enjoy Open Challenger 3
[1] Filip Jarota (POL) v Szymon Papierkowski (POL)
Wiktor Korczyk (POL) v [6] Wojciech Gorczycki (POL)
[8] Jakub Pytlowany (POL) v Dominic Calupnik (POL)
Tomek Czana (POL) v [4] Kajetan Lipski (POL)
[3] Jakub Gogol (POL) v Eddie Mcfarlane (IRL)
Piotr Szostek (POL) v [5] Nataniel Hernas (POL)
[7] Przemyslaw Atras (POL) v Wacek Staszkiewicz (POL)
Mateusz Godzić (POL) v [2] Daniel Polschuck (ISR)