Saturday 10th October 2015

It was a disappointing end to the first week as Toby and Ondrej lost in the semis of the doubles in the morning and then we waited 5 hours for Toby to go on for his first round Qualifying match but a storm came over just before he went on and play was suspended for the day!

We started the day with breakfast at 8am and then headed over to SLTA at 9am to watch Ondrej play his semi-final of the singles against Rishi Reddy (who beat Toby in Qualifying last year). After Ondrej took the first set convincingly we decided to warm up and get on court so that we had enough time to go through Toby’s pre-match hit as well as work on some doubles specifics that we identified from the 1/4 final yesterday. We trained for just over 30 minutes which gave us enough time to have a break and get prepared before the semi-final went on court at 11am.

Toby and Ondrej’s opponents were only confirmed this morning as they had to finish their 1/4 final match from yesterday. The match was suspended due to bad light at 6-3, 6-6 but when it restarted today Hung Minh Huynh from Vietnam & David Nguyen from America took the tie-break to seal the win.

When the match started I felt as though Toby and Ondrej had a slight edge over their opponents but after two Sudden Death Deuce games in the opening two games it was obvious that it was going to be a very tight match. At *1-2 Toby’s serve was broken despite him making 5 out of 6 first serves and from there Hung and David won the next 3 games in a row to take the set 6-1. The scoreline suggests that it was a very comfortable set but in reality 3 of the 7 games went to Sudden Death Deuce and another 3 games were decided by just 2 points.

At the end of the set Toby and Ondrej took a toilet break and when they returned they seemed to have a bit more of a spring in their step. At *1-1 Toby once again found himself in trouble on his serve but pulled out a couple of big first serves to come back from *15-40 down and then they took the game on a Sudden Death Deuce point. Hung then held serve to level the set again but in the next game Ondrej was broken and once David held to make it *2-4 it looked as though it was going to be a massive ask for our boys to fight back. In the next game Toby served the best game that he had in the whole tournament and suddenly it seemed as though the momentum was starting to shift a little. At 3-4* with Hung serving, Toby and Ondrej played some good returning points and raised the energy they were showing on the court which started to put pressure on their opponents. That led to Hung’s serve being broken and the set was once again levelled. The next two games were very close and both actually went to Sudden Death Deuce points but unfortunately they didn’t go our way and Hung and David ended up taking the set 6-4.

It was disappointing to lose a close match but it was still a very positive week for Toby who made his first ITF singles 1/4 final and first ITF doubles semi-final. Our attention had to quickly turn to the next tournament as Toby only had 4 hours from when the doubles finished to when he was scheduled to play his first round qualifying match!

We got some lunch in the Italian restaurant at the club and then spoke to the referee over at SSC who said there was a delay in some of the matches and that Toby would now not go on until at least 5pm.

At around 2.30pm we headed over to SSC and even though the cricket club is one of the best in Sri Lanka the facilities in the tennis club aren’t as good as at SLTA. There isn’t a restaurant or a player’s room and there also isn’t anywhere that’s air-conditioned so we might find ourselves heading back to SLTA between matches next week.

After waiting at the club for 3 hours in bright sunshine we were suddenly engulfed by thick dark cloud and it looked as though a storm was about to hit us. The cloud passed over the club and even though it looked dark enough to need the floodlights on the rain seemed to be holding off. That was until Toby said “I think it’s missed us” and 10 seconds later the rain came pouring down!!

Play was soon suspended for the day and we headed back to the hotel in a Tuk Tuk whilst trying not to get soaked!

Whilst Toby relaxed in the apartment I hit the gym for an hour and then it was time to get stuck into the buffet again for dinner. The quality of the food at the hotel is very high and now that we’ve made friends with all the chefs they are happy to make us pretty much anything we want! Just a shame we have to avoid the desserts!!

Schedule for tomorrow:

(3) Toby Huffer (GBR) (2306) vs Gaurang Gaurang (IND) (UNR) – 2nd match after 10am

Winner to play again in the afternoon not before 2.30pm

Friday 9th October 2015

It wasn’t to be for Toby today in the 1/4 finals of the singles as he went down to Ondrej but later in the day the boys teamed up and both put in very good performances to knock out the number 2 seeds to secure their place in the semi-finals of the doubles.

It was an early start this morning with breakfast at 6.30am and then we got a Tuk Tuk to the tennis club at 7.45am. When we arrived the weather did not look too good and just as we started to warm-up it started to rain lightly so we went inside the clubhouse to finish everything off. By 8.30am the rain had stopped and the court was dry enough for us to train so we went through Toby’s normal pre-match hit which lasted around 35 minutes.

Once we had finished we headed into the air-conditioned referee’s office to try and stop sweating but what we didn’t realise was that outside the rain was absolutely pouring down! Eventually we got the message as all of the first round matches came off court but luckily the delay didn’t last too long and as soon as the sun came out the courts dried pretty quickly.

The match before Toby’s was a very quick 6-1, 6-0 so at 12.15pm he went on court to face his doubles partner and number 3 seed Ondrej Styler from Czech Republic. Having trained with and played doubles alongside Ondrej we knew that he was a strong player who had a big serve and big forehand so it was always going to be a tough match. Toby won the coin toss and elected to serve but was a little inconsistent from the back of the court and soon found himself 0-1* down. He responded well though and immediately broke back with a much better level of hitting but once again he struggled to do enough in his own serve game to hold serve. From 1-2* down Toby found it difficult to find the balance between being aggressive and maintaining a consistency whilst his opponent continued to serve well and use his forehand to control most of the points. At *1-3 Toby had a long service game and had game points but he ended up losing that game, and then the next 2, to lose the first set 6-1.

During the second set Ondrej played very well and took complete control of the match; his serve seemed to get bigger and bigger and during Toby’s service games he always seemed to have an answer for everything that Toby threw at him. In the end Ondrej took the set 6-0 in 25 minutes to take a well-deserved win and advance to the semi-finals.

Toby was obviously disappointed with his performance but sometimes you come up against an opponent that is just much better than you on the day and when that happens you just need to learn from it and identify the areas of your game that need to improve to compete at that level.

After the match we got some lunch and debriefed before heading over to the Singhalese Sports Club where the 2nd ITF tournament is being held. Toby was 5th on the qualifying list and unfortunately because he lost in the singles today he didn’t get a Special Exempt for the Main Draw. Luckily the clubs are only a 5 minute drive apart so once Toby signed in we headed back to the SLTA to prepare for his doubles 1/4 Final against Christian Cummings and Rishi Reddy which was scheduled for a 5pm start.

From the start I didn’t think there would be any way that the match would get completed as it gets dark by 6.15pm but Toby and Ondrej had other ideas! After a very close first 6 games Toby and Ondrej broke Christian’s serve and then played two very good games to hold and break to take the set 6-3 in 25 minutes!

Toby seemed like a completely different player to this morning and having played a very good first set where he served 100% first serves in and controlled the net well, he was in no mood to let his opponents back in the match during the second set. Toby and Ondrej played very well to break Christian’s serve at 2-1* and then continued to hold serve all the way until they took the second set 6-3. I was really pleased that Toby played one of the best doubles matches that I have ever seen him play against two good players but I was even more impressed that he only lost 1 point on his serve and only missed 1 return in the entire match!

Once we got back to the hotel we relaxed in the apartment until 7pm when the buffet for dinner opened. Whilst at dinner the draw for the 2nd week came out:

We’ve now got an interesting day lined up for tomorrow where Toby will be playing a doubles semi-final on the hard courts at SLTA followed by a 1st round Qualifying match on clay at SSC!

Schedule for tomorrow:

Week 1 Doubles Semi-Final:

Toby Huffer (GBR) & Ondrej Styler (CZE) vs Hung Minh Huynh (VIE) & David Nguyen (USA) OR Kabir Manrai (IND) & Muzammil Murtaza (PAK) – 3rd match after 8.30am

Week 2 Singles Qualifying:

(3) Toby Huffer (GBR) (2306) vs Gaurang Gaurang (IND) (UNR) – 7th match after 8.30am (not before 4pm)

Thursday 8th October 2015

It was another good day here in Colombo which saw Toby win both his singles and doubles matches to progress into the 1/4 Finals of both events.

We’ve now been here for one week and even though Toby has only completed 3 matches due to the rain, we both feel as though he’s dealing with the heat and humidity better than a lot of the other players. This time last year Toby struggled in the conditions and his inexperience in this type of environment really showed in qualifying, but a year on he’s a completely different player who has learnt to accept things outside of his control.

We had a bit of a lie in this morning which should have meant more sleep but I was rudely awoken at 1.30am by my 21 month old son who somehow managed to call me from my wife’s phone . . . twice! It’s not actually the first time that he’s done that so I didn’t panic too much but it was the first time when I’ve been away on a trip! So . . . after a broken night’s sleep I met Toby for breakfast at 8.30am and then at 9.45am we headed to the club to warm up for our practice court at 10.30am. The last two days have been very hot and now that we’re on the hard courts the heat is even more intense. It’s therefore important to make sure that each minute on court is valued and that we’re not wasting any time discussing things that can be talked about off the court or sitting resting in the sun too much. Toby’s pre-match hit lasted around 35 minutes and included him warming up everything he needed to plus a few specific drills based on the opponent he was about to play.

Once we were finished we went straight into the restaurant to be in the air conditioning and also to get some lunch. The next few hours were spent eating, drinking, watching Ondrej in his singles match (as if Toby won then he would play the winner) and also checking the score on Toby’s court continuously so he knew when to warm up!

At just after 2pm Toby went on to play Vishnu Puyalraj from India who had won through 3 rounds of Qualifying and also won his first round match yesterday. We watched a lot of the match yesterday so knew what we were up against but when Toby started the match he got his tactics a bit back to front! The plan was to dictate the points but also stay solid for the first 3 games to see if Vishnu would raise his level. However, Toby went out like a man possessed and tried to blow his opponent off the court with hard flat hitting down the middle of the court which Vishnu found comfortable to deal with! After 13 unforced errors in the first 3 games Toby found himself 1-2* down but to his credit (and with a little encouragement from me) he worked out what was going wrong and changed his hitting from hard and flat down the middle of the court to heavier and wider to push his opponent off the court more. That tactical change led to Toby breaking his opponent straight back and then winning the next 4 games to take the first set 6-2 in 55 minutes.

Toby maintained his discipline in the second set and broke his opponent 3 times whilst not facing a single break point on his own serve to take the set 6-0. It was another good performance from Toby and even more satisfying that he was mentally switched on to change his tactics when needed – if he hadn’t made those changes early on then his opponent might have grown in confidence and gone on to make life very difficult.

As the conditions were very hot and humid it was imperative that Toby ate and drunk enough in the hour and 25 minutes between when his singles match finished and when he needed to go onto court to finish his doubles match. The only problem was that nobody likes eating or drinking a lot when they’ve just been running around a court for the last hour and a half! He was very professional though and had a good plate of pasta as well as a litre of electrolyte drink before he needed to start warming up again.

At 5pm Toby and Ondrej resumed their match with Avindra Perera and Vibudha Wijebandara from Sri Lanka at *1-1 in the second set with Ondrej serving. The boys started well and held and broke to take a *3-1 lead but the Sri Lankans then played a very good game to break Toby’s serve to put the match back on-serve. Players can often let their heads drop at that stage as it’s a big game when serving with a 3-1 lead, but to their credit Toby and Ondrej responded well to break straight back after a Sudden Death Deuce point and then go on to win the next two games to take the match 6-1, 6-2.

After the match we checked the schedule for tomorrow and then headed back to the hotel to have a recovery session in the pool. We then had about 45 minutes to relax in the apartment before it was the time we’d been waiting for all week – the return of the buffet dinner!!

After dinner our attention returned to the tournament and preparing to take on Toby’s doubles partner in the singles 1/4 Final and the number 2 seeds in the doubles 1/4 Final.

Schedule for tomorrow:

Toby Huffer (GBR) (2265) vs (3) Ondrej Styler (CZE) (965) – 2nd match after 8.30am

Toby Huffer (GBR) & Ondrej Styler (CZE) vs (2) Christian Cummings (IND) & Rishi Reddy (IND) – 4th match after 8.30am

Wednesday 7th October 2015

It was another positive day today at the Sri Lanka Lawn Tennis Association even though we didn’t actually get to complete a whole match!

The day started with a thorough debrief of yesterday’s singles match in the apartment before we headed down to breakfast at around 9.30am. Toby was feeling much better this morning and having not eaten much for the last two days he set about destroying the buffet breakfast!

Once we returned to the apartment we got an update from the tournament to say that due to rain overnight the schedule for the day had completely changed and from today onwards the tournament would now be on the hard courts. That was a little disappointing but for the last three years they have struggled to get the tournament completed on the clay courts due to it being the rainy season so it was probably a wise decision to do it today before there was a backlog of matches.

As the tournament was now on the hard courts we could use the court at the hotel rather than have to fight for a practice court at the club, but the only problem was that the court at the hotel gets booked up quickly. We went down to the court at about 11am but after going through our warm-ups we were told that it was booked from 11.30am until 2pm. We then headed straight to the club and managed to get on a court there for an just over hour which gave Toby some very valuable time on a surface that he hasn’t hit on yet this trip. It was definitely the hottest training session so far and even though we spent most of the time on a half court, due to sharing with two other players, we still managed to work on specific areas of Toby’s game to prepare him for his doubles match.

After the session we went over to court 4 to watch Toby’s next round singles opponent and then went to the on-site Italian restaurant for a well-deserved lunch.

During the next couple of hours we watched some tennis and tried to stay out of the sun while keeping an eye on how the match was going on court 3 as that was the match court for Toby’s doubles. At around 4.30pm Toby and Ondrej had a light hit for 25 minutes to warm up for their match and then at just after 5.15pm they took to the court to take on Avindra Perera and Vibudha Wijebandara from Sri Lanka.

We didn’t know a huge amount about the Sri Lankan pair but unlike many Wildcard pairs we knew that these guys were going to be anything but a pushover! The Sri Lankan’s held serve to love in the opening game before Ondrej served very well to level the set at 1-1. Our boys then found a good level in their returning game to break Vibudha and with that they relaxed a little more and started playing some very good doubles. At *2-1 Toby struggled a little with his serve but focused well to hold to ‘Sudden Death Deuce’ and from there they won the next 3 games in a row to take the opening set 6-1.

By this time it was around 6pm and it was already starting to get quite dark but the boys played on and soon found themselves in a bit of trouble! Toby was broken in the opening game and at the change of ends at 0-1* the umpire said that there would only be one more game played before it was suspended for the day. Toby and Ondrej played a much tighter game and after saving a game point they played a very good ‘Sudden Death Deuce’ point where Ondrej hit a great return and Toby crossed sharply to finish the volley – and with that the match was suspended at *1-1.

After the match Ondrej’s coach and I had a quick chat with both boys and then we headed straight into the restaurant for dinner. We had another good meal and then at around 7.30pm we got a Tuk Tuk to take us back to the hotel.

Schedule for tomorrow:

Toby Huffer (GBR) (2265) vs (Q) Vishnu Puyalraj (IND) (UNR) – 4th match after 8.30am

Toby Huffer (GBR) & Ondrej Styler (CZE) vs (WC) Avindra Perera (SRI) & Vibudha Wijebandera (SRI) – TO FINISH – 6th match after 8.30am

Tuesday 6th October 2015

We had the same start to the day as yesterday but a very different outcome which saw Toby not only get on court but also beat the 5th seed from India.

I woke up at 6am this morning to a very wet and overcast Colombo (no change from yesterday then!) and, as there was no way we were going to get on the clay courts, plus the fact that Toby’s not been feeling very well for the last 24 hours, I sent him straight back to bed while I headed to breakfast. I then got a Tuk Tuk over to the club at 7.15am hoping that the referee would be there by 7.30am and give us a decision on what would be happening with the matches. Much to mine and all of the other player’s and coach’s frustrations the referee didn’t actually get on site until 9am when he immediately said the next update would be at 12.30pm.

With that I headed back to the hotel where Toby was still asleep in the apartment so I left him there and hit the gym. As he was still feeling quite rough I let him sleep until about 10.45am but needed to wake him in the end so that he could get some breakfast before it closed. He wasn’t very hungry but managed to get some breadsticks and cereal in him which was much better than nothing!

At 12pm we went back over to the club and were told that the clay was drying well and his match would be first on court at 2pm. Straight after getting that updated we both went through our own 30 minute warm-up routines and then hit the (very soft) practice courts. Despite the fact that the courts didn’t have any lines, the net probably wasn’t the right height and the court was so soft that our serves left big divots in the court, we actually had a very productive 30 minute pre-match hit and even though Toby still felt rough he hit very well.

At 2pm Toby went on court to face 5th seed Christian Cummings with the clear plan to give it everything he had, even if it meant he had to be carried off the court at the end!! And to his credit he did just that …

From the first game to the last Toby worked very hard and maintained a discipline and focus that 12 months ago would have been non-existent. I knew it was going to be a real mental battle for him today as he wasn’t feeling well but we spoke before the match about playing one game at a time and not thinking about if he would have the energy to compete for the whole match.

The first six games went with serve but, like in a lot of tennis matches, one player can often be building momentum despite the scoreline being even. At 3-3* Toby had won all three of his service games without losing a point and had created breakpoints in 2 out of 3 of his returning games. That led to him raising his level just slightly in the seventh game to break his opponent for the first time and then hold serve with the loss of just one point to take a commanding 5-3* lead. The break and hold gave Toby a big confidence boost and he went on to break Christian’s serve to Love to take the set 6-3 after 27 minutes.

We know that none of the players out here are going to just roll over after losing the first set, especially a seed, so it was really important that Toby maintained his hitting level and mental application at the start of the second set. There were a total of 26 points played in the first two games of the set and I was very pleased to see Toby fight off break points and game points to win 15 of the 26 to take a 2-0 lead. He then served very well to hold to love before Christian was able to get a game on the board. At *3-1 with Toby serving I was a little concerned that the heat and humidity was starting to get to him but he fought very hard and played some smart tennis, especially at Break Point down, to hold serve and take a 4-1* lead. Winning that game was even more important as it meant he now had the end with a lot of shade at the back of the court to try and close out the match. Toby took his time and used the shade well between points to take the next two games (with the loss of only one point!) and the match 6-3, 6-1.

Winning that match was a big achievement for Toby as not only did it give him his first ITF singles points, but it was the first time that he had won through to the Last 16 of an ITF and also the first time he had beaten a seed in the Main Draw – all of that on a day when he probably felt less than 50% fit!

After the match we cooled down and had a little stretch at the club before heading back to the hotel to go through a pool recovery session to make sure Toby recovers well for his doubles match tomorrow.

We then ordered room service for dinner and relaxed for the rest of the evening.

Schedule for tomorrow:

Toby Huffer (GBR) & Ondrej Styler (CZE) vs (WC) Avindra Perera (SRI) & Vibudha Wijebandera (SRI) – 5th match after 9am

Monday 5th October 2015

It was another rain interrupted day here in Colombo but despite not getting to play a match Toby still managed to have a good session on the clay with his doubles partner.

Our original plan for today was to go over to the club around 11am, hit from 12-1pm, have lunch and then get ready for Toby’s singles match which was scheduled for ‘not before’ 2.30pm. However, just as we were about to leave the hotel we saw an update to the schedule which said that play would not start until 12pm due to the courts not drying from the rain yesterday.

I decided to still head over to the club while Toby stayed in the apartment and shortly after the referee told me that, apart from the last round qualifying matches, play would not start on the other courts until 2pm and Toby’s match would be rescheduled for tomorrow. I decided to stay onsite until 12pm to check that Toby’s doubles partner, Ondrej Styler from Czech Republic, signed in and then I headed back to the hotel to meet up with Toby.

Toby and I returned to the club at around 1pm to get some lunch and then, as his match was also cancelled, we trained with Ondrej from 3-4pm on the bottom clay courts. Despite the courts still being quite wet the boys had a good session and it gave them a chance to get to know each other before their first round doubles match tomorrow.

After the session Toby and I debriefed to prepare for his match tomorrow and then we headed straight back to the hotel to relax before dinner. While we were getting ready for dinner the doubles draw came out:

Once again we thought that the buffet was open in the hotel restaurant but someone finally explained to us that it’s only open on a Thursday, Friday and Saturday!! With that we headed up to the pool restaurant and had a good meal under cover while the rained poured down again!

Schedule for tomorrow:

(5) Christian Cummings (IND) (1108) vs Toby Huffer (GBR) (2265) – 1st match at 9am

Toby Huffer (GBR) & Ondrej Styler (CZE) vs (WC) Avindra Perera (SRI) & Vibudha Wijebandera (SRI) – 5th match after 9am

Sunday 4th October 2015

After a busy summer at British tournaments and then a good 5 week training block at the start of September it’s been a while since my last international event but it’s always good to come out to Sri Lanka for my first event of the winter. This is the third time that I’ve travelled to these events and they always turn out to be very well organised tournaments even if the weather causes a few problems!

Toby Huffer and I left London on Wednesday evening and have spent the last 4 days working hard on and off the court and getting used to the heat and humidity. The clay courts have been looking in very good condition (despite being more like sand than clay!) until today when we had rain overnight then a heavy storm at lunchtime.

We got up at 6am this morning and after breakfast at 6.30am we headed to the club to warm up for our scheduled 8am practice court. Unfortunately when we arrived at the club all of the hard and clay courts were out of action due to rain overnight so we jumped back in a Tuk Tuk and went back to the hotel. The plan was then to train from 12-1pm and then again with Toby’s doubles partner from 3-4.30pm but just as we were having lunch a big storm hit Colombo.

That meant that the courts were completely out of action for the day so we decided to go back to the tennis centre to sign-in and then return to the hotel to go through a good gym session. Whenever I travel to tournaments I always try to find good deals on hotels to try and save the players and parents money but sometimes it’s worth paying a little more to have facilities like a gym, swimming pool and on-site tennis court so that we can train even if the weather is bad.

We had planned on having dinner at the hotel this evening but that changed when we realised the buffet wasn’t being served on a Sunday! It was then straight into a Tuk Tuk to head the short journey across the city to eat at TGIs where we had dinner while watching the Everton vs Liverpool game.

While we were at dinner the draw came out:

After dinner we headed to the supermarket to stock up on water and supplies for tomorrow’s match and then went back to the apartment to relax for the evening.

Schedule for tomorrow:

(5) Christian Cummings (IND) (1108) vs Toby Huffer (GBR) (2265) – 5th match on after 9am (not before 2.30pm)