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Another tournament is finished. When there are plenty of tournaments following after each other, which has been the case recently (Pakistan Open, British Open, Qatar), if the event hasn't been as successful as hoped, it's easy to concentrate on the next one rather than dwelling too much on lost chances. Sometimes it's crucial for maintaining a positive outlook to learn from a loss, but also to move past it and not think about it too much.

Joe Kneipp attacks Peter Nicol (in Boston)

I've definitely had my chances recently and perhaps not capitalised on them or been unable to get the best result. In Pakistan I played Thiery Lincou in the first round. We had played a few weeks earlier in Dutch league (I play for Zwolle) and I had won comfortably 3-0. He may have been tired from the French National championships that he had just won, but the league win still helped my confidence. In Pakistan I won the first game 17-16, but in doing so pulled a muscle in my Glutius Maximus (bum). I tried playing the next two games., but it was pointless. I was unable to lunge properly, and the standard is so similar a the top of professional squash that a seemingly minor injury like that makes a win nearly impossible.

In the British Open I played Stewart Boswell in the first round. I led 10-7 in the fifth game, but couldn't close the match out and lost. I'm not taking this opportunity to whinge and whine and carry on like a bad loser, but trying to show that there are different circumstances that help determine if a tournament has been a success. These factors can include your form, the form of your opponent and how the match affects your rankings. Rankings are an average derived from your tournaments over twelve months. Provided you exceed your average, your ranking should continue in the right direction. So some players will determine the success of a tournament simply by how it affects their ranking. Other factors come into play, like how you went for the same month last year, but that's a general overview.

So going on my form and my opponents form and rankings, how successful have the last three tournaments been? Thierry and Stewart are two of the in-form players at the moment, but in both Pakistan and the British I still expected to win and saw that as my first and most important goal for the tournaments. Injury in Pakistan was never expect and always a very disappointing way to lose. I should have closed out my game with Stewart in the British, but credit also goes to him for continuing to fight so hard. So I didn't consider either tournament to be a success.

So how do I rate Qatar? My first goal was to get past Chris Walker. I'm sure his goals were the same: win your first match, then re-evaluate from there. I did that and then faced Peter Nicol. Never an easy prospect, but I know there's little difference between winning and losing against him in our matches at the moment. A win is getting closer all the time. So for this tournament I bettered my average, but I didn't really achieve anything more than I was hoping. Not a highly successful tournament, but not a failure either.

So who do I think had a successful tournament? Who is sitting on a plane at the moment with a slightly larger smile and ordering an extra complimentary drink?

Jonathon Power of course. He would have gone to the tournament expecting to win, but there's a big difference between expecting to do something and actually achieving it.

Stewart Boswell – He was seeded to lose in the quarter finals. He has been one of the in-form players for the last six months. In this tournament he beat Graham Ryding, Alex Gough (who retired injured), Lee Beachill, David Palmer and nearly Jonathon Power in the final. Not much more you can do in a tournament.

Karim Darwish – Beat Del Harris in the first round, then in the battle of the former world junior champions had a great win over Ong Beng Hee. I didn't see his quarter final loss to Peter Nicol, but heard second-hand that he should have won the third game, but only Peter's extraordinary retrievals and relentlessness won him the game and the match.

Amr Shabana – At the start of Qatar we were discussing together the fortunes of his tournament draw. I'll go into this in more detail in a later column, but you can get fortunate and unfortunate draws depending on who you have to play and when. What one player sees as a good draw another will not, depending on your style of game and who you like playing. Shabana is one of the best shot makers in the game. He beat Paul Johnson in the first round and Shahid Zaman in a fierce display of attacking shots in the second round. He lost to Jonathon Power in the third. Heaven help us when Shabana gets it into his head that he can beat anyone.

Nick Taylor – Nick lost in the second round as I did. I think this was a successful tournament because of all the reasons I stated at the start. He did quite a bit better than his average, but more importantly Martin Health (who he beat in the first round) has been in great form at the Pakistan and British Opens. I was warming up for my first game while Nick and Martin were playing. Martin won the first two games and looked like he was going to finish the match. I didn't see the end as my game started, but for Nick to grind out a win from two love down is always impressive.

So that's the break down of Qatar from my perspective. Team Kneipp returns to Amsterdam with a small break before we resume training at Squash World. It was such a treat to be in sunny hot weather in Doha, which we took great advantage of.

The rumours of me and Dan playing 36 holes of the Doha Championship golf course in one day are true, and also of Danny driving a 270 yard par four and sinking the eagle put. It'll be great to be back in Qatar later in the year for the Classic.

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