Sunday 8th November 2015

It was a disappointing day at the National Tennis Centre here in Luxembourg today as Toby went out in the 2nd round of Qualifying to 7th seed Martins Rocens from Latvia.

We had an early breakfast at 6.30am and then drove over to the tennis centre at 7.30am to make sure that we guaranteed ourselves a practice court before the matches started at 9am. When we arrived we thought there was something a little strange going on as 4 players were warming up outside the centre! As it turned out nobody had arrived to open the doors so those that were hitting at 8am had to warm up outside which wasn’t ideal in the cold weather!

We got inside at 8am and went straight onto court 4 to warm up and then had a good 30 minute practice session from 8.30-9am. As we had watched Martins play his 1st round match yesterday we knew a little bit about him so I made sure that Toby worked on some specific points as well as generally warming up all of his shots.

For the next few hours we watched some of the other matches, got some food and made sure that Toby had everything prepared for his match.

Then, at just before 1pm, Toby went on court and from the first few rallies of the warm up it was obvious that it was going to be a real battle today. Martins was striking the ball bigger than he did yesterday and even when Toby did managed to put him under pressure he still was able to find a good quality response. The first few games were very tight and in total lasted 26 points but it was Martins that won all 3. Toby raised the level of his serving at *0-3 to get his first game on the board but Martins quickly responded by holding to Love in the next game. Toby then held his next two service games and even though he was doing very well behind his own serve he found it difficult to make inroads during Martins’ service games which led to him losing the 1st set 6-3.

 

The 2nd set was just as difficult as the first set and despite going 30-0 up a couple of times on Martins’ serve Toby just wasn’t able to convert that into breaking serve. Toby tried to put his opponent under more pressure by moving forwards and taking his time away but each time Martins seemed to find an answer. Toby kept fighting though and managed to finally break Martins at 0-5* but unfortunately he was broken in the next game to lose the match 6-3, 6-1.

As always it’s disappointing to lose in Qualifying but a lot of credit has to go to Martins who produced 30 winners and only 17 unforced errors in the two sets.

After the match Toby went off to see the physio to get his back loosened off and then we headed back to the hotel to relax before dinner.

At 12pm tomorrow it is the sign-in deadline for doubles so our attention now shifts to asking everyone in Main Draw if they are looking for a partner. If we manage to get a partner and get into the doubles then Toby will have a match tomorrow afternoon but if I don’t Blog tomorrow then it’s because we didn’t get in!

Fingers and everything else crossed that we manage to get someone then!

Saturday 7th November 2015

It was a good start to the campaign here in Luxembourg today as Toby had a solid win in the first round of Qualifying.

Due to Toby’s match being scheduled for 6th round on we knew that realistically he wouldn’t go on court until at least 4pm. That meant that we could train at the tennis centre in Petange next to the hotel before having to drive over to the National Tennis Centre later in the day.

With all that in mind we had breakfast at 8am and then went next door to the tennis centre at 9.30am to warm up for our 10-11am practice court. The speed of the courts were a little quicker that at the NTC but it was still a very good surface to train on and it gave us the opportunity to work on a full court for an hour which we wouldn’t have got at the NTC. During the session we warmed up, played some open points off the ground and moved onto playing some points with both of us moving forwards to work on Toby’s volleys. We then finished the session with some serve and return points to ensure that Toby had covered everything before his match this afternoon.

We then walked across the road to the hotel and went back to our rooms to shower and change before relaxing for a couple of hours. Then at 1.30pm we headed over to the NTC via the supermarket to pick up some food for lunch.

When we arrived at the NTC Toby’s potential 2nd round opponents were just starting their match on the stadium court so, armed with our lunch, we sat down and watched them play while tucking into our baguettes!

Just as that match was coming to a conclusion the match before Toby’s had just started on court 3 so we began our preparations.

Then at just after 4.45pm Toby went on court to play Alexandre Smith from France. The first 5 games of the match were a bit of a battle as both players were trying to out hit each other from the back of the court but Toby ended up getting a break and took a *3-2 lead. Then from there Toby started to play a lot smarter by taking some pace off the ball and making Alexandre think more rather than just react to Toby’s shots. That led to Toby winning the next 3 games in a row to take the first set 6-3.

Players at this level often love a ball that is hit hard to them as they can feed off the pace but most of the time it’s a lot harder for them to produce the power themselves. Once Toby worked that out it actually saved him a lot of energy and unforced errors but he still had the bigger shots there if he needed them.

During the second set Toby raced to a *3-0 lead and even though he was broken in a tight 20-point game he remained focussed and won the next 3 games in a row to take the match 6-2, 6-1 in just under 1 hour 20 minutes.

It was a good match from Toby and gives him a solid platform to build on over the next couple of rounds.

After the match Toby showered and changed and then we headed back to Petange to the Verzino restaurant where we ate last night – this time we passed on the £5 bottle of water though!!

By 8.30pm we were back in our rooms preparing for an early start and hopefully two matches tomorrow.

Schedule for tomorrow:

(WC) Toby Huffer (GBR) (1572) vs (7) Martins Rocens (LAT) (1322) – 3rd match after 9am

Winner to play Alexandre Doan Van (FRA) (1766) OR Karlo Cubelic (GER) (1978) – TBC after rest

Friday 6th November 2015

It was an early start for Toby Huffer and me this morning as we left London at 6am for the 6 hour journey to Luxembourg.

The last week has been a bit of a rollercoaster as originally we were planning to go to Russia for the Main Draw of the U18 ITF Grade 5 but due to numerous issues with obtaining a visa (despite spending most of the week on the phone to the Embassies in London and in Moscow) we were eventually granted a wildcard into the Qualifying draw of Luxembourg by the ITF and the tournament.

After a quick 30 minute train ride on the Eurotunnel we drove through France then Belgium before entering Luxembourg. The drive from Calais was only 4 hours and despite a lot of typically British drizzle it was actually a nice alternative to the normal flights that we get to tournaments.

When we arrived it took us a while to find where the tournament site actually was as the National Tennis Centre is tucked away down a small road but once we found it we were pleasantly surprised by the centre. It is laid out well with 4 courts on one side and a stadium court on the other with a café in the middle. The tournament staff seemed to be on the ball too which was always nice to see!

We drove over to the supermarket at around 2pm to get some lunch and then headed back to the tennis centre to get warmed up for our 4.30-5.30pm practice session. Toby trained with Tommaso Rossin from Italy and they had a very good session on the stadium court.

The first 15-20 minutes were spent just getting used to the indoor court, the balls and the fairly hot conditions and then after that we did a couple of drills before finishing with some serve and return points. The practice schedule at indoor tournaments is always packed so it was definitely worth getting there early today to book the court for an hour before the crowds arrived!

At 5.30pm we left the court to sign-in and then drove to the official hotel for the week which is about 15 minutes away in Petange. We then got changed and headed out for dinner at a small Italian restaurant called ‘Verzino’.

The food was excellent at the restaurant and good value for money but I almost fell off my chair when I saw that we were charged €6.80 (about £5) for a 750ml bottle of water – definitely would have been cheaper to buy a glass of wine or a beer! Last time I paid that much for water I was in Nobu in Mayfair!

While we were at dinner the draw came out:

It was then back to the hotel for an early night having woken up this morning at 4.45am!

Schedule for tomorrow:

Alexandre Smith (FRA) vs (WC) Toby Huffer (GBR) (1572) – 6th match after 9am