Monday 11th January 2016

Having moved into the Main Draw of the singles yesterday via a Lucky Loser spot it was always going to be difficult for Toby today, especially as he was taking on a player that had won two matches last week 6-0, 6-0 & 6-0, 6-0 and eventually lost in the 1/4 Finals. However, after a very quick 1st set Toby showed the fighting spirit that has got him this far in the event but in the end in wasn’t to be and he went down in 3 sets.

As Toby’s match was scheduled for 4th round on today it meant we could have a more relaxed start and actually get to have a full breakfast before having to leave at 7.10am to get the bus to the tennis centre. Toby then went through his physical warm-up and at 8am we went on court with Jake Hersey to go through their pre-match practice session. Both Toby and Jake were hitting well and even though the 30 minute session seemed to go by very quickly they still got everything done and had time to finish with some practice points.

As soon as we had finished we decided to go back to the hotel for a couple of hours to ensure Toby didn’t get bored sitting around at the club so once he got a ‘not before time’ of 12pm from the referee we headed straight to the bus stop.

At 10.30am I was having a nice little nap in my room when suddenly I heard Toby banging on the door to tell me that the person that he had signed into the doubles with had now let him down and was playing with someone else. Not an ideal situation to be in, especially with only an hour and a half until the sign-in closes but unfortunately it happens all too often at junior tournaments.

We headed straight back to the club and despite having an hour to find a partner I worked out that there were only three specific players that Toby could ask to ensure a place in the top 14 entries (it’s a 16 draw but there are 2 wildcards). One of those players said that he wasn’t playing doubles and Toby couldn’t find the other two which meant that when the clock struck 12pm Toby wasn’t in the draw.

After the farce with the doubles we had a couple of hours to eat and re-focus before Toby went on to face Anton Ornberg from Sweden. Toby played against Anton in doubles in the Luxembourg ITF and, having played him last week in SALK, Jake gave us a bit of background on him too. However, when Toby started the match he found it very difficult to find a consistent level of any kind and 3 double faults in his first service game weren’t the ideal platform to start from!

So the first set went by 6-0 in 21 minutes and at 1-3* down with Anton serving it was looking like it could all be done and dusted in 45 minutes! However, at that stage Toby had a little break-through and managed to break Anton for the first time to get the set back on serve. With that little injection of confidence Toby started to set up more and play like he does in practice; taking the ball on early and looking to move forwards to finish the points at the net. In the first set Toby came to the net 3 times and won 2 out of 3, in the second set Toby came forwards 14 times and won a very impressive 11 out of 14 which helped him to turn the set around and take it 6-4.

The turnaround from 3-1 down was as though someone had actually replaced Toby with a different player and if he could have maintained that level them I’m sure the third set would have been very interesting. Unfortunately once Toby was broken at *1-2 Anton really upped his level and actually only missed 1 ball in the following 3 games whilst hitting 6 winners to take the match 6-0,4-6, 6-1.

The big positives from the match were the way that Toby had dug deep to turn the second set around and that has been something that has impressed me during this week. Every match has been tough and Toby could have gone out in the 1st round of Qualifying like he did last week but his determination saw him come through two close matches over the weekend. If he can develop that attitude further in training over the next 3-4 days then he could do really well in the Czech Republic next week.

Once Toby had seen the physio for a couple of niggles we got the bus back to the hotel and then changed our flights home to tomorrow. We then had a really nice meal with Josh, Jake and parents before getting everything packed up ready to return home in the morning.

Next stop on the ITC schedule is the U18 ITF Grade 4 in Prague which starts on Monday so I’ll be back blogging from Sunday night. In the meantime if you have any questions at all about playing international tournaments or coaching at international events then I’m more than happy to help.

Sunday 10th January 2016

It was a very good day at the Fair Play Tennis Centre today and despite Toby not directly qualifying he still made it into the Main Draw by the backdoor!

We were up at 6am this morning and down in the lobby for their ‘early breakfast’ by 6.30am. The ‘early breakfast’ basically consisted of bread, ham, cheese, some yoghurts and some juice but for us it was perfect as we didn’t really want a big breakfast before warming up at 7.30am.

After getting the bus to the tennis centre we warmed up (in the dark!) and then once they eventually turned the lights on we hit from 8-8.40am. It was a good session and once we had warmed up Toby’s groundstrokes and volleys we spent a lot of the time focussing on his serve as he felt it wasn’t quite where it needed to be after the match yesterday.

At 9am Toby went on to face Marko Vejnovic from Sweden who during the warm-up looked very impressive! Both boys started the match well but it was Toby that capitalised on a couple of loose games from Marko and took an early *3-1 lead. Unfortunately Toby lost his serve in the next game and that gave Marko a big boost of confidence that led to the Swede winning the next 4 games in a row to take the set 6-3. The only thing that Toby had really done wrong was miss a little too much in his service games but it was Marko’s high level that ultimately won the set.

The second set went with serve until 2-2* but it was obvious that Toby had really raised his own level from the start of the set and, by the time that he broke to lead *3-2 his stats were an impressive 10 winners and only 5 unforced errors in the 5 games. Toby’s maintained his good form throughout the rest of the set and even though a few unforced errors crept in at the end he still managed to hold on to his serve to take the set 6-4.

The third set mirrored the second with Toby breaking Marko’s serve at 2-2* but the main difference between the second and third sets was the level that both boys were producing was superb. In fact by the time the set got to *4-3 with Toby serving the stats read: Toby: 7 winners and 6 unforced errors, Marko: 11 winners and 10 unforced errors meaning that both players had an aggressive balance of +1. At 5-3* with Marko serving Toby earned 2 match points but failed to convert on either of them and then in the next game Toby was broken after a very inconsistent game. Things were not looking good at *5-6 but Toby held his nerve and his serve to take the match into a final set tie-break and then went on to take it 7-2 to win the match in just short of 2 hours and 45 minutes.

It was a big win for Toby but he very much took it in his stride and as soon as he left the court his attention had already shifted to his last round match.

We had 2 hours rest between matches which gave Toby a chance to get some food, have a stretch and relax before it was time to warm up again for the next match.

At 1.45pm Toby went onto court 2 to play top seed Viktor Thoresson from Sweden in a match that turned out to be quite a strange one! The physical effects of the match this morning on Toby were obvious to see as he struggled with his serve and ended up not holding serve for the whole of the first set. Up until 3-3* that wasn’t really a problem as Viktor couldn’t hold his either but once he did in the next game he went on to take the opening set 6-3.

Viktor then flew through most of the second set with some very good tennis and Toby’s fatigue meant that he couldn’t apply his game like he did this morning. However, at *1-5 down Toby held his serve for the first time in the match and then, out of nowhere, mounted a big comeback to break and hold again to leave him only one break away from levelling the set. Unfortunately Viktor played a very strong service game at 4-5* and went on to take the match 6-3, 6-4.

It was a shame that Toby had played such a long match this morning otherwise I think he would have had a great shot at beating Viktor but full credit has to go to the Swede who played well when it really mattered.

As soon as Toby had come off court the referee told us that there were two Lucky Loser spots in the Main Draw and we would now need to draw them from the 4 players that lost in the last round of Qualifying . . . and who’s name was picked first . . . Toby’s!! There actually turned out to be three Lucky Loser spots so almost everyone got in!

We were both very pleased that he had made it through to the Main Draw even if it was as a Lucky Loser and to be honest I think he deserved it after the way that he fought so hard this morning to come through a really tough match.

Once things had calmed down after the draw Toby showered and changed and then we returned to the hotel to relax before dinner.

Dinner tonight was once again at ‘Epicuré’ but this time we were joined by fellow Brits Jake Hersey & his mum and Josh Rose & his dad. The food was again really good and it was nice to have a group of us there, especially for Toby as he’s probably bored of just having dinner with me!!

During the meal the draw came out:

And after dinner I managed to get the picture of the Christmas present tree that I mentioned yesterday:

Schedule for tomorrow:

Anton Ornberg (SWE) (701) vs (LL) Toby Huffer (GBR) (1064) – 4th match after 8.30am

 

Saturday 9th January 2016

It was a very good day for Toby today as he fought through a tough battle to get his first ITF win of the year here in Malmo.

As the matches didn’t start until 2pm today we had a bit of a lie-in and then met for breakfast at just before 9am. I then spent most of the morning looking up how to get to the tennis centre via public transport as the £12 each way taxi costs was far too much for a 10 minute journey! Once I worked out the best route I told Toby we would meet at 11.15am in the lobby and then head to the supermarket to get some lunch before getting the bus to the tennis centre.

The journey was very straight-forward and probably only took a few minutes longer than if we had taken a taxi – it was also a lot cheaper at SEK105 for both of us for a 24 hour ticket (3 journeys) compared to SEK150 for a single journey in a taxi!

We arrived at the tennis centre at 12.15am and went straight on court to go through our physical warm-ups. We then had a very good hit for 30 minutes to get Toby prepared for his match and even though we had to share the court with another player and her coach we still managed to do everything that we wanted to do in the session.

Before Toby went on court at 2pm we had a short pre-match talk which was based around Toby achieving his own goals rather than anything specific regarding his opponent as we hadn’t seen him play before.

When the match started Toby was broken in the opening game and after Stanimir Petrovic held serve to take a 0-2 lead things were not looking too promising! Toby responded well though and once he had found a more consistent hitting level he won the next 5 games in a row to take a 5-2 lead. Stanimir had some of the local crowd cheering him on and that helped him to mount a comeback which saw Toby get broken twice and soon go 5-6* down with Stanimir serving for the first set. Toby broke back immediately with one of his best games of the opening set but despite leading 5-3 in the tie-break he eventually lost it 9-7.

I expected Toby to come out fighting in the second set but didn’t realise it would take him to be 0-2* down again before he started the comeback! However, when he started fighting back he really meant it and won 6 out of the next 7 games to take the set 6-3. All it took was a few strong service games from Toby to really build his confidence up and after that there was no looking back.

I think the second set really knocked the wind out of Stanimir and even before they started the third set they had already been on court for over 2 hours! By the start of the third Toby was in no mood to give his opponent an inch and even though he double faulted on the first point of the set he managed to hold serve – only once they had changed the balls to new ones though – I’m sure he blames the double fault on the old balls!!

Toby flew through the third set 6-0 in 25 minutes and despite being annoyed at himself for not producing a higher level in the first set, he was pleased to get the win against a tricky opponent and move into the next round of Qualifying.

Once Toby had showered and changed we got the bus back to the hotel where we had a quick turnaround for dinner as we were both very hungry! We ate at ‘Epicuré’ again but tonight we changed up the meals from the ones we had last night and Toby went for the salmon pasta while I had a very nice veal and rice. Both portions were definitely enough and we left feeling quite full!

Before we headed back to the hotel we had a walk around Malmo and I have to say it looks like a brilliant little city with a lot of character. The Christmas lights are still up everywhere over here and there’s even a big tree in the square opposite our hotel that has presents hanging from the branches – I’ll take a picture and show you tomorrow!

Schedule for tomorrow:

Marko Vejnovic (SWE) (UNR) vs (5) Toby Huffer (GBR) (1064) – 1st match at 9am

Friday 8th January 2016

After a good week of training in the UK, Toby Huffer and I were back on the road early this morning to catch our flight to Copenhagen before heading over to Malmo in Sweden.

We arrived at Gatwick at 6.45am but due to both the plane and the runway being frozen in Copenhagen this morning the plane was delayed by almost an hour. By the time we had boarded and were ready to take off both Toby and I were fast asleep so the 2 hour flight ended up going very quickly!

Once we arrived in Copenhagen we got the train across the Oresund Bridge which links Denmark and Sweden. The bridge is very impressive and not only is it almost 8km long but it also is a ‘double-decker’ bridge with a combined road and rail bridge on two different levels.

We arrived at our hotel in Malmo at 2.15pm and by 3pm we were off to the Fair Play Tennis Club which is about a 10 minute taxi ride away.

When we arrived we met the tournament director and the referee for the week but were told that there wouldn’t be any free practice courts available until 5pm. Each tournament has a requirement to provide practice courts on the day before the tournament starts but they can determine when they are available so, unless we wanted to pay for a court, we would have to wait until 5pm.

By the time it got to 4pm we were getting a little bored so we decided to warm up on one of the free courts and, as no-one came onto the court by the time we had finished, we managed to sneak in a very good 30 minute practice from 4.30-5pm. We then moved over to our scheduled court where we warmed up our serves and played points until we lost the court at 5.30pm. During our hour on court Toby worked very hard and showed a much higher level of hitting than he had this time last week so by the time we had finished we were both very pleased.

After showering and changing at the club we got a taxi back to the hotel and then once we had changed out of our tennis kit we walked down the road to a really nice Italian restaurant called ‘Epicuré’. The portion sizes were a little small but the unlimited bread certainly filled any gaps in our stomachs!

We then walked to the supermarket to stock up on water, fruit and a few snacks before heading back to the hotel which was when we found out the draw had been released.

The matches don’t start tomorrow until 2pm and, as there aren’t any practice courts available until 1pm, it looks like we might get a bit of a lie-in.

Schedule for tomorrow:

Stanimir Petrovic (SWE) (UNR) vs (5) Toby Huffer (GBR) (1064) – 1st match at 2pm