Monday 12th March 2012

It was a big day today as Dave was competing in his first Futures main draw but despite a good draw in the doubles him and Oli Hudson couldn’t quite find enough to get the win.

As there is a Men’s and Women’s event on this week it is quite difficult to get practice courts during the day so we decided last night that we’d get to the centre when it opened at 8.30am this morning and then train on court from 9-10am. The session was the best one I’ve had with Dave; he’s improved a lot over the last week and was looking very sharp around the net which was one of our main goals before he played his doubles match this afternoon.

At 10am Dave had a break for an hour and a half before he was back on court again to warm up one of the main draw players for their match. This again gave us a chance to watch some of the main draw players and learn about what they do effectively in their play which will in turn help Dave to improve his own game as well as gain valuable experience at this level.

After Oli Hudson had finished his singles match he was given an hour and a half break before him and Dave were on court at 4.15pm to face Joseph Gill and Jonny O’Mara. The match started well for Dave and Oli as they were holding very comfortably but both of them were struggling with their returns. At *3-3 there had been 6 holds of serve and I got the feeling that it was our boys that were in danger of being broken first as their opponents were starting to put more pressure on them and move more at the net. Dave held in that game but at *4-4 Oli was broken and Joseph Gill serve it out easily. First serve percentages of 58% from Dave and 50% from Oli are quite low for doubles but 1st serve return percentages of 30% and 38% respectively are much too low.

Dave and Oli started the second set with much more purpose and looked a lot more like a doubles team who were prepared to move and dominate the net. After breaking O’Mara in the second game of the set they lead 3-0* and increased their lead to 4-1* before things started to go back to how they were in the first set. Dave and Oli then ended up losing the next 5 games in a row to go down 6-4, 6-4 in a match that they were capable of winning comfortably. The serving percentages improved to 69% for Dave and 65% for Oli but again the returning percentages were very low – a golden rule in doubles is always “Make your opponents play” and this is most important when returning serve.

The doubles match today and his singles matches in Tipton, Sutton and in Bath have been a great learning experience for Dave and I believe the last two weeks have helped him to become more aware of the areas of his game that need to be improved before his next block of Futures events at the end of April. He’s worked very hard and is very professional so I know he’s going to do well in his upcoming events.

My next event will be the U16 Tennis Europe Grade 3 event at the National Tennis Centre in London which starts on Sunday 25th March so I hope you’ll follow how the players do there.

If you have any questions about any of my upcoming trips or any questions at all about competing internationally at a junior or senior level please do not hesitate to contact me via Rob@itc-tennis.com.

Sunday 11th March 2012

After the disappointment of losing 7-6 in the third yesterday Dave bounced back well today with a good training session and a chance to compete in the doubles main draw tomorrow after they made the cut but he hardest part of the day was actually trying to leave the hotel!

I left early this morning to watch some of the Men’s last round qualifying matches and the Women’s $10k 1st round qualifying matches while Dave had a bit of a lie in to rest his leg. That however caused a lot of problems as by the time Dave and Tom Allen were ready to leave the hotel the Bath Half Marathon had started and the road that the hotel was on was closed until 3pm. Dave was straight on the phone to me but after hearing my “You’re going to have to walk here!” response he decided to ignore the “Road Closed” signs and make a dash for it. Luckily they didn’t meet any of the runners and arrived at the centre just after 11am!

After being told that Dave and Oli had got into the doubles Dave saw the physio and was given the all clear to train so they both trained in court for two really good 30 minute sessions. During the break between the sessions Dave went into the gym to go through his core programme and also went through his foam roller stretching to keep his Quads loose.

We didn’t want to do too much today and overload Dave’s legs after yesterday so we spent the rest of the day watching the last round qualifying matches while discussing the areas of Dave’s game that need to be improved so that he is not only qualifying in the events but also winning rounds in the main draw.

After we had watched enough it was back into the gym to do a light session on the bike and then Dave went through a really good 45 minutes foam rolling and stretching to end his day. It’s so motivating to be in a gym like the one at the tennis centre at Bath where there are athletes from many different sports who are not only competing nationally and internationally but also athletes that are competing in the Olympics in London this year. There are lots of different quotes around the centre but this one caught my eye today:

For dinner tonight Dave went out with the guys from Chiswick while I joined Lewis Burton and Neil Pauffley for another dinner in Nando’s!! If it hadn’t been for wanting to catch up with Lewis there’s no way I would have been going back, saying that it is growing on me!!

Schedule for tomorrow:

Dave Hodgetts (GBR) & Oli Hudson (GBR) vs Joseph Gill (GBR) & Jonny O’Mara (GBR) – 4th round after 10am (after rest)

Saturday 10th March 2012

Dave had a real battle today in his first round of qualifying but after almost 3 and a half hours play he ended up on the wrong end of the score line.

After an early breakfast we made our way to the tennis centre to warm up in the gym but were told that the gym didn’t open until 9am so we’d have to warm up on the court. It seemed a bit strange that a gym doesn’t open until 9am on a Saturday but we went straight on court and went through a thorough warm up. Dave then hit with Tom Allen from 9-9.30am where he found a great level with both his groundstrokes and his serving and looked very much ready to play by the time we finished.

We then had to wait for the first round of matches to finish which gave us both a chance to prepare for the match both in terms of preparing food / rackets / match kit etc. as well as giving us a chance to talk through our tactics for the match and set the goals that we were looking to achieve. When the score got to a set and 3-0 on Dave’s court we headed into the gym so that Dave had enough time to go through his physical warm up and then we did some intense movement work to get Dave sharp and focused ready to play.

At just after 11.30am Dave went on court to face Imran Aswat and having played him at the back end of last year he knew that it was going to be a tough match. Dave was broken at *1-1 in the first set and then really struggled to break back despite being up in a lot of returning games. It was Dave’s inconsistency that was hurting him a lot more than the winners / forcing shots that Imran was hitting and that really cost him the first set (6-2). Imran had only hit 4 winners / forcing shots in the whole of the first set compared to Dave’s 10 but the unforced error count was 11 vs 23 – that really sums up the set – Dave’s aggressive balance was -13 compared to Imran’s -7.

At 4-1 down in the second set Dave fought very hard and broke for the first time which signalled a massive turning point for him. He then went on to win the next 5 games in a row with some exceptionally patient but very aggressive tennis to level the match at 1 set all. The third set started with Imran breaking Dave in the first game and at *1-3 the pattern was almost identical to the first set where Dave was over pressing a little and Imran had only hit a couple of winning shots. However unlike the first set Dave held and broke back to level the set at 3-3 and then after a couple of holds each Imran was serving to stay in the match at 5-4*. Dave had 2 match points at 40-15* but couldn’t convert them and then at Deuce in that game his left Quad cramped badly. He couldn’t receive treatment as it was cramp rather than an injury and so, as he was struggling to walk, he had to try and keep the rallies short and really go for his shots. Imran held serve at 5-4* and after another hold of serve each it was on to a tie-break to decide the match. Unfortunately by this stage Dave couldn’t sustain any kind of rally so he just had to go for his serve / first shot and then try and finish the point early off Imran’s own serve. Imran was very aware of Dave’s problems and played a solid tie-break where he was quite happy to allow Dave to go for his shots while trying to move him as much as possible. In the end after almost 3 and a half hours of play Imran won the match 6-2, 4-6, 7-6(3).

Dave’s Quad was in quite a bad way at the end of the match so he went straight to the physio for treatment before getting in the gym for a thorough cool down and stretched out.

We talked through the match later in the day while we got some food and then decided that we’d see how Dave’s Quad is tomorrow and if it’s ok then we’d train and sign in for the doubles which would start on Monday.

Hopefully Dave and Oli Hudson will get into the doubles tomorrow as that will give Dave his first Futures main draw match but we’ll have to wait until tomorrow at 12pm when the sign in closes to find out!

Friday 9th March 2012

After travelling home last weekend from the Tipton $15k Futures event I spent this week working with Dave Hodgetts at the Sutton British Tour event before our next Futures event which starts tomorrow in Bath, England.

I met Dave at the Bath University Sports Village at 2.30pm this afternoon after he’d driven down from Worcester with fellow Riverside Academy player Tom Allen. Both the guys warmed up in the gym for 20 minutes and then we were out on court for a really good hours practice from 3-4pm. As both players had been competing at the Sutton British Tour event up until yesterday they didn’t need to do too much on court so the session was mainly based around getting used to the surface at Bath as well as certain specifics that Dave and I have been working on during the week.

After the on court session we were back in the gym where Dave went through a thorough Foam Roll session to loosen up his muscles before he stretched for 20 minutes to end his day. Both guys then signed in and we left the tennis centre just before 5pm to head into Bath city centre to find our hotel.

Before leaving the hotel for dinner I looked up some voucher codes to save some money on our meals but instead of using them at Prezzo or Pizza Express Dave and Tom decided they wanted to go to Nando’s!! If you follow my Blogs you’ll know I’m not a huge fan of Nando’s (especially after Cameron made us drive 17 miles to go to Nando’s in Halton last August!) but tonight it wasn’t too bad and the “large” portion of rice actually filled me up a little – Dave did need to have 2 meals though!!

After dinner Tom called the referee’s office and booked practice courts for the morning before we headed back to the hotel to prepare for their first round matches tomorrow.

Schedule for tomorrow:

Dave Hodgetts (GBR) (UNR) vs Imran Aswat (GBR) (UNR) – 2nd match after 10am