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Queenswood U18 ITF Grade 4, Day 2

Sunday 12th July 2015

I had a pretty good Birthday today as Toby took out the number 8 seed in the 1st round of Qualifying and is now still locked in battle in his 2nd round match as they had to stop for bad light this evening.

As Toby was scheduled for 1st match on at 9.30am we were up and at breakfast at 6.45am this morning having managed to convince the Travelodge to open breakfast for us an hour and 15 minutes early! When we arrived at Queenswood School the courts were still very wet from the overnight rain but we were told that they should be fit for a 10am start. With that we headed straight to the AstroTurf courts behind the pavilion to warm up. Toby then had a good 30 minute hit with Cameron Price and even though the court was much faster than the clay would be, at least it gave Toby a chance to hit some balls and loosen up before he played his match.

Toby and Cameron warming up on the AstroTurf courts / Hockey Pitch this morning!

At 10am Toby went on court to face 8th seed Miguel Romanello from Italy and after a disappointing match in Edinburgh last week he was ready to make amends this week. The first couple of games were quite tight with both players trying to work each other out but at *1-1 Toby suddenly stepped up a gear and dictated play in each of the next 5 games to take the set 6-1.

Having only missed 3 balls in the entire set I was expecting a few more unforced errors to creep into Toby’s game and when he gave away his serve cheaply at *1-0 I did start to get a little concerned. However, after exchanging a couple of breaks of serve, Toby raised his intensity level at *2-3 and hit 7 winners and only 3 unforced errors in 4 games to take the second set 6-3. It’s sometimes hard to continue to reproduce a high level of tennis when the 1st set is so comprehensive but Toby did well to refocus and get back on track to finish the match well.

The match was finished by 11.15am but as Toby’s next round opponents were still on court we decided to watch the whole of their second set before getting some lunch and debriefing. At that stage the weather turned and the rain that had been forecast for the afternoon started to come down.

Another heavy downpour this afternoon

After a couple of heavy downpours we got a ‘not before’ time from the referee and decided to head back to the hotel so that we didn’t get tired or bored just sitting around waiting for matches to go back on.

After watching the conclusion of the Men’s singles final at Wimbledon on TV we headed back to Queenswood to prepare Toby for his match and even though the skies were looking very dark we were told that the match would get started tonight!

At just after 7pm Toby and Jack Gibbens went on court for their 2nd round Qualifying match and Toby started exactly where he left off after his first set this morning! He broke Jack in the opening game and then produced some high quality tennis to race through the first set 6-0 in 25 minutes.

Toby and Jack battling the fading light as well as each other!

Having seen Jack fight back from a set down this morning we knew that he wasn’t about to roll over and give Toby the match but with Toby leading 3-1* in the 2nd set I thought he’d control the set all the way through to the end of the match. Jack had other ideas though and after he held serve for the first time in the match he broke Toby to level the set at 3-3*. Toby responded well and immediately broke to take a *4-3 lead but Jack got the break straight back to level things up once again. At that stage both players upped their games and that led to the rest of the set going with serve until the tie-break. Jack took an early 2-0 lead and then extended it to 4-1 before Toby started a mini fight-back. It wasn’t to be however and Jack played some of his best tennis of the match to eventually take it 7-4.

Once the 2nd set was completed it was 8.40pm and the referee decided it was too dark to continue so play was suspended for the day.

Toby went straight off court to cool down and have a shower before we left site and drove into Borehamwood to have a very late dinner –and there wasn’t even a birthday cake for me!!

We had a debrief over dinner and talked about the positives of the 1st set as well as the areas of the 2nd set that we need to avoid when they start the deciding set tomorrow.

Schedule for Monday 13th July 2015

Toby Huffer (GBR) (2087) vs Jack Gibbens (GBR) (UNR) – TO FINISH 6-0, 6-7(4)

WINNER to play Rohan Sikka (GBR) (UNR) – After rest

Queenswood U18 ITF Grade 4, Day 1

Saturday 11th July 2015

After being eliminated from the doubles at the Edinburgh ITF on Tuesday we didn’t have long before the next event was due to start in Queenswood which is just north of London.

The beauty of playing tennis is that there’s always a chance to improve when you play your next event and as there’s a tournament every week of the year you don’t’ have to wait too long to do it. In other sports you might have to wait weeks or months, or in terms of the Olympics it could be every 4 years, but with tennis you can put the disappointment of one tournament behind you pretty quickly.

I met Toby this morning and we made our way to Queenswood School for 9.30am so that we could get two good sessions in on the clay before he plays his 1st round Qualifying match tomorrow. The U14 Tennis Europe event started yesterday so 8 out of the 12 courts were being used for that but 4 were reserved just for practice. After warming up we got on court at 10.15am and despite having to move courts a couple of times we managed to train for an hour and 45 minutes. During the session we talked a lot about the matches last week and based all of our drills on areas that Toby really wanted to sharpen up before his first match. By 12pm we were both pretty tired so we headed into the pavilion to get a good lunch from “Racquets” café and then chilled out until our second practice of the day at 2.30pm.

As I’ve said many times before, I believe that it’s the player that should control exactly what they do on and off the court the day before a tournament starts so that they feel 100% comfortable and confident going into the match. With that in mind Toby set up the afternoon session and constructed a really good hour and a half of drilling, conditioned points and then finished with a few service games each. We both pushed each other in everything that we did and that led to some very competitive point play which is exactly what he’s going to get tomorrow.

At 4pm Toby signed in for Qualifying and after cooling down, showering and changing we headed 15 minutes down the road to our hotel for the week. Despite only being just over an hour away from home we decided it would be best to stay locally this week so that 1) we don’t have to spend too long in the car each day and 2) so that we avoid the M25 traffic!!

Whilst at dinner this evening the draw came out:

Schedule for Sunday 12th July 2015:

Toby Huffer (GBR) (2087) vs (8) Miguel Romanello (ITA) (1956) – 1st match at 9.30am

 

ABOUT I.t.c.

Since 2010 my aim has been to make it more affordable to travel to international tournaments with a coach. Over the past 20 years I have coached players at over 250 international tournaments ranging from U12 Tennis Europe events to a semi-finalist at a Grand Slam.

 

For more information please click here.

contact

Rob Smith

Tel: +44 (0) 7866 362251

Email: rob@itc-tennis.com

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