Thursday 15th October 2015

It was a disappointing end to the trip today as, after waiting 3 days to play their doubles, Toby and Ondrej ended up going down 12-10 in the 3rd set.

We started the day a little earlier than the last few days and were both up and at breakfast by 8am. We then headed over to SLTA to join the rest of the players in a scrum down for the practice courts! We managed to get on one of the courts at 9.30am and after going through our physical warm-up for around 30 minutes we spent the next hour and a half working hard on Toby’s doubles game to get him ready for the match. Like yesterday most of the session was spent training in half a court but we still managed to get everything done that we wanted to and even had a full court to ourselves at the end of the session to play some points.

At 11.30am we had lunch in Santoré and then waited for Toby’s match court to become available. The match was originally scheduled for ‘not before’ 1.30pm but, like all of the matches in the last two weeks, it was never going to be on-time! We first warmed up at around 3pm as were told that we were going to move and go on a different court, then that got changed and it went back to the original schedule which saw Toby and Ondrej finally go on court at 4.30pm.

Having played Christian Cummings and Rishi Reddy last week in doubles (and winning) and both Toby and Ondrej playing one of them in singles last week (and winning), plus the fact that Ondrej had beaten Rishi yesterday in singles too, meant that the boys were going in reasonably confident! That confidence showed all the way through the first set as Toby and Ondrej played very well and took it comfortably 6-2.

Towards the end of the first set some light rain began to fall and even though it continued through most of the second set it wasn’t hard enough to cause the match to be suspended.

Having served very well in the first set, which saw Toby and Ondrej only lose 3 points on their serves, it was a big surprise when Ondrej was broken in the second set at 2-3*. That break gave Christian and Rishi a massive lift and after Christian held serve to make it *2-5 they looked like a completely different pair to the first set. Toby’s serve was under pressure straight away in the next game and that led to Christian and Rishi getting the break to take the second set 6-2.

At the end of the second set Toby and Ondrej took a toilet break and when they came back it looked as though they’d worked out exactly what had gone wrong in the last set. They were fired up for the Match Tie-Break and raced to a 4-1 lead by displaying the same level that they produced in the first set. The next two points on Toby’s serve were split but at 5-2* it was Christian and Rishi’s turn to raise their games. They went on to win the next 6 points in a row to take a 5-8 lead but Toby and Ondrej kept the points close and ended up levelling the breaker at *9-9 after saving two Match Points. They saved another Match Point at 9-10* with a superb volley from Toby but they couldn’t make it ‘third time lucky’ and eventually went down 12-10.

After the match Toby and I had a debrief to identify the positives and learning points from the match and even though we were both very disappointed to lose in the opening round of the doubles we both agreed that overall the trip has been a success. Before these two events Toby had never picked up any ITF singles points and was ranked around 2300 but after making the 1/4 finals of the singles and semi-finals of the doubles last week he’s now going to be ranked around 1500. He’s also learned a lot about his game and the areas he needs to develop before his next tournament.

For dinner tonight we stayed at the hotel and had the buffet which once again was superb value for around £10. As it’s our last night and as we’ve been very disciplined with what we’ve been eating for the last 17 days we decided to give the desserts a try . . . and I must say they were pretty good!

Thanks to everyone that’s been reading the Blogs over the past 2 weeks and for the messages of support on Facebook. Until next time . . .

Wednesday 14th October 2015

It was almost Déjà vu today but this time it wasn’t the rain that prevented Toby’s doubles match from going on, it was all the other matches going on too long!

Our day basically followed the same timetable as yesterday; an early morning gym session followed by breakfast and then we headed to SLTA at 11.15am to train on the hard courts.

We starting warming up on court as soon as we arrived as we were told that there wasn’t actually a practice schedule, all you could do was jump on a court when it was free! As we were warming up Ondrej arrived to prepare for his singles match and asked if Toby could warm him up so they trained together for around 25 minutes. I then took over from Ondrej and trained with Toby for the next hour with our focus again being on doubles tactics and specific volley work. As we were sharing the court we were often restricted to doing drills in the half court but that wasn’t a problem and actually made it more specific to doubles.

By 1.45pm we had gone through everything that we both wanted to work on so we finished the session with some points and then headed to the restaurant for lunch.

Over lunch we managed to get Muffi to give us a ‘not before’ time of 5pm which gave us enough time to head back to the hotel for a couple of hours rather than get tired hanging around at the club.

At 4.30pm we called Muffi to get an update on how things were going and he said that as Ondrej was still on court playing his singles match (which started at 2pm!) the doubles would be cancelled for the day.

As frustrated as we were that it was cancelled yet again we decided to go over to the club to give Ondrej some support in his match and then watch some of the other matches before it got dark. We then stayed on site and had dinner at Santoré before heading back to the hotel to relax for the evening.

Whilst we were watching the matches today I realised that I hadn’t taken any pictures and then looked up and thought this one would be good to add to the collection!

Schedule for tomorrow

Toby Huffer (GBR) & Ondrej Styler (CZE) vs Christian Cummings (IND) & Rishi Reddy (IND) – 5th match after 8.30am (not before 1.30pm)

Tuesday 13th October 2015

It was another frustrating day in Colombo today as a big storm hit the city and suspended play for the day just as we were preparing to go over to SSC for Toby’s first round doubles match.

It was an early morning gym session for me this morning before meeting Toby for breakfast at 9.30am. We then headed over to SLTA to practice on their clay courts from 11.30am until just after 1.30pm and even though we had to pay to use the courts it was much better than using the bottom courts. During the session our focus was entirely on preparing Toby for his doubles 1st round match so we worked a lot of his 1st volley, closing down the net and then towards the end of the session we worked on his serve and return. The weather while we were training was fantastic and once again we both walked off the court soaking wet!!

We stayed on site at SLTA for lunch at Santoré and the plan was to head from there straight to SSC to prepare for the match. However, after speaking to the referee we found out that the first round match on Toby’s court was going very slowly and he said it would be best to call him later to get an update. With that we decided to go back to the hotel to relax there rather than spend too long outside in the heat.

Over the next few hours we kept getting updates from the referee but just as we decided to get everything ready to go over to the tournament site a huge black cloud came over us and it starting pouring down with rain. Another call to Muffi confirmed that play had been suspended for the day which left both Toby and I very frustrated.

We decided to go over to the other Hilton hotel this evening to check out their dinner buffet but after seeing what was being prepared we agreed that it was not worth spending 3100 Rupees so headed across the road to TGI Fridays again!

Once we got back to the apartment the order of play for tomorrow was released and unsurprisingly the tournament has now moved to the hard courts at SLTA. Hopefully we’ll have more chance of getting on tomorrow but currently it is still raining and lightening is flashing all around us!!

Schedule for tomorrow:

Toby Huffer (GBR) & Ondrej Styler (CZE) vs Christian Cummings (IND) & Rishi Reddy (IND) – 7th match after 9am (not before 3.30pm)

Monday 12th October 2015

After 10 straight days of training and competing we decided that we would have a rest day today so that Toby was fresh for the doubles tomorrow.

I got up early and hit the gym while Toby had a good lie-in and then we had breakfast around 9am. The the rest of the morning was spent sorting out some laundry and generally chilling out in the apartment.

Then at about 1.30pm we headed over to SSC to check the sign-in for doubles and was surprised to see that matches still hadn’t started over there due to rain this morning. At sign-in we were assured by Muffi, the referee this week, that Toby and Ondrej’s priority of 2A would be enough to get into the doubles draw but when I asked him if he was 100% sure he looked a bit sheepish!!

From there we headed over to SLTA to get some lunch and then jumped in a Tuk Tuk to go to Majestic City to watch ‘Everest’ at the Cinema. When we arrived we saw these guys putting up a new Samsung advertising board with very little safety equipment!!

When we got to the cinema my ticket was £2.80, Toby’s was £1.60 and Toby’s popcorn was a massive 45 pence – not bad compared to Bluewater prices!!

The film was superb; it really gripped you from start to finish and being based on a true story it made it even more intense – definitely one I would recommend for anyone.

From Majestic City we headed to TGI Fridays for dinner and then back to the hotel to sit and wait to see if Toby and Ondrej had got into the doubles. At 8.30pm we had had enough of waiting so phoned Muffi who confirmed they were in the draw. It was good news after a tough day yesterday so now, after a good rest day, we’re both very up for getting stuck into the doubles tomorrow!

Schedule for tomorrow:

Toby Huffer (GBR) & Ondrej Styler (CZE) vs Christian Cummings (IND) & Rishi Reddy (IND) – 7th match after 9am (not before 4.30pm)

Sunday 11th October 2015

After a successful tournament last week Toby suffered a first round loss in Qualifying today against an opponent who was much more used to intense heat and humidity that we had this afternoon.

We were up early this morning and at breakfast by 7.15am before getting a Tuk Tuk over to SLTA at just after 8.30am. Even though the tournament this week is at SSC we decided to warm up at SLTA because there are more courts there and also if it had rained over-night we could have hit on the hard courts. Luckily there wasn’t any rain and at 9.15am we managed to get on one of the bottom practice courts to go through Toby’s pre-match hit. Even at that time in the morning the temperature was pushing 30°C so it was important to make sure that we did exactly what we needed to do to prepare for the match without wasting any energy.

After the practice session we headed over to SSC and found the courts still a little wet from the rain yesterday evening but play finally got underway on Toby’s court at around 10.30am. Toby’s match followed fellow Brit Jonea Bach’s match and as she was 4-1 up in the first set when play resumed we knew it wasn’t going to be long before he was on.

At 11.30am Toby went on court to take on Gaurang Gaurang from India and even though we didn’t know anything about his opponent we knew that there aren’t any easy matches out here so it was important that Toby got a good start.

The first game didn’t go to plan as Toby was broken but then he raised his level and won the next 3 games in a row with some good tennis from the back of the court. At this stage Toby was in full control of the match but a series of cheap points in the next two games not only allowed his opponent to get back into the match but also gave him a bit of confidence. Toby held serve to take a 4-3* lead and then played a very solid game to break Gaurang and at this stage it was looking like Toby would go on to hold serve and take the set. Unfortunately he was broken at *5-3 but remained positive and broke straight back to win the set 6-4 in a couple of minutes short of an hour.

The length of the first set combined with the increase in confidence in his opponents game led to Toby struggling at the start of the second set. He was broken in the first game and even though he played a very good game at *0-2 to hold serve, he found it difficult to maintain his level and the set quickly went against him 6-1.

Toby took a toilet break at the end of the set to try to give himself a little more time to recover but by this stage the intense heat and humidity had taken a lot out of him and when the third set started he soon found himself 0-3 down. To his credit he continued to fight as hard as he could and tried hard to pump himself up throughout the set but his opponent played a very well to take the match 4-6, 6-1, 6-1 in 2 hours and 40 minutes.

As disappointing as it was to lose the match today we have to remember that last week Toby made his first ever ITF singles 1/4 final and doubles semi-final and in doing so probably took a lot out of him. We have either trained or competed for the last 10 days in a row and on some of those days Toby had both a singles and a doubles match whereas his opponent today was coming in completely fresh having not competed last week.

Once the match had finished it was important to get Toby into some air-conditioning to try and cool him down so, as there wasn’t an air-conditioned room anywhere at SSC, we headed back over to SLTA. We then had some lunch there before heading back to the hotel.

Before dinner this evening we headed over to Majestic City to get a few DVDs but weren’t happy that the main two that we went for (Everest and Straight Outta Compton) haven’t been imported yet!

From there we got a Tuk Tuk to The Dutch Hospital where we had dinner at TGI Fridays. It was then back to the hotel to relax for the evening while watching “Get Hard” with Will Farrell which, after a tough day, managed to get a couple of laughs out of both of us!

Tomorrow we’ll go over to SSC to sign-in for the doubles with Ondrej and hope for a bit of luck in getting in as today’s loss will put the boys a little lower down the priority order.