Friday 13th April 2012

It was an unlucky Friday 13th today as Mia and Ellie came so close to a spot in the girl’s doubles final but just couldn’t convert their match points.

We were at the tennis centre by 8.30am this morning to warm up in the gym before Mia hit with Eden Richardson to prepare her for her singles semi-final against Cindy Castille. At 9.30am Ellie arrived so we moved over to Centre Court so that she could go through her normal pre-match warm up and also so that we could get a full court to do some specific doubles work. Yesterday the girls had played well as a team but they needed to move a lot more at the net to dominate the points from the start of the match so that was our main goal this morning. Both Mia and Ellie worked very hard for over an hour and their confidence in their movement and their tactics grew hugely as the session went on.

At 11am we went up to the café to have some lunch and relax before their doubles semi-final which was scheduled for 12pm. Unfortunately there had been a rain delay in the morning and then there was another one just after 12pm so the match didn’t end up going on court until after 2pm.

The girls were playing against the tricky pairing of Holly Thompson and Georgie Walker who Mia played against in the Wrexham U14 TE back in December last year. Mia and Ellie started very well; they were both dominating the net and holding serve comfortably which lead to them going 4-1 up in the first set. Holly Thompson, who had been serving well, then held serve for the second time before Mia and Ellie took the set 6-2. At this stage it looked as though it could easily be a 6-2, 6-1 kind of match but a lapse of focus at the start of the second set made life very difficult for Mia and Ellie. They quickly went 3-1 down before getting their heads straight and fighting back to lead 4-3 but some missed break point opportunities on Georgie’s serve and a wrong decision of who they chose to take the “sudden-death deuce” point ended up going on to cost them the set 6-4.

There was then a long delay while Holly and Georgie went for a toilet break but Mia and Ellie did the right thing of getting back out on court to hit some balls which kept themselves warm and kept their focus. When the match tie-break started Mia and Ellie took a 2-0 lead but Holly and Georgie responded well to take the next 3 points in a row. From then on it was very close; Mia double faulted at *4-4 but they came straight back to earn 2 match points at 9-7 before the tie-break was levelled again at 9-9. Mia and Ellie had another match point at 10-9 on Ellie’s serve but they didn’t convert and ended up losing 4 out of the next 5 points to lose the breaker 13-11.

It’s was a difficult loss and both of the girls were extremely disappointed not to have converted one of their 3 match points. Holly and Georgie went on to win the final later in the day but it was back down the M1 for Mia and I to rest over the weekend before returning on Sunday evening to prepare for the U18 ITF next week.

Thursday 12th April 2012

It was a very positive day for Mia today as her hard work during training yesterday really paid off in a great doubles win over the 3rd seeds to reach the semi-finals.

We had a bit of a lie in this morning so we were up and out by 8.15am and in the gym at the tennis centre warming up by 8.30am. We then had the best session of the week so far on court from 9-10am – Mia had really taken on board the things we had worked on yesterday and was thinking so much more about each individual ball which consequently made her work harder to be in the best position for each shot. I was really impressed with her change of attitude and as soon as we finished the session she decided to go straight into the gym to go through her tough Plyometrics programme.

Mia then had an hour off to relax and get some food before she was back on court with Dayana Yastremska who beat her in the 1st round. Dayana had played a really close match with the number 1 seed yesterday afternoon; narrowly losing 6-4 in the third, but was back on court again today hungry to develop and improve. Mia also had a point to prove after her swift defeat on Tuesday so I was really looking forward to this training session! Both girls were extremely focused throughout but it was Dayana who was dictating what she wanted to work on which was fine with us as Mia goals were more based around her level of hitting rather than specific drills. After 45 minutes of drilling Mia asked Dayana if she wanted to play a set up to 4 games and, after learning a lot from their match, Mia set about her business to gain some revenge! Mia’s quality of hitting was very good and I think she surprised Dayana by how controlled and patient she was during the rallies which lead to her taking the set 4-0 – bit of a difference to their match!!

Just after 3pm Mia and Ellie-Rose Griffiths took to the court to face number 3 seeds Serena Nash and Eden Richardson in what we thought was always going to be a really good doubles match. Our girls started well breaking Eden in the first game but then had to come off at 15-15 in the next game due to the rain. When they returned Mia and Ellie started a little slow and got broken straight back but at 4-4 they played a solid returning game to break Serena Nash to lead *5-4. Ellie then stepped up and held serve to take the first set thanks to some solid baseline hitting and good movement at the net from Mia.

Once the first set was out of the way Mia and Ellie’s self-belief increased and they raced to a 4-1 lead in the second set. Both girl’s then lost some focus which allowed Eden and Serena to get back into the set but a good hold from Ellie at *4-3 and Mia at *5-4 sealed the match 6-4, 6-4. Considering it was the first time the girls had played together it was a very good performance and now hopefully they can go a long way together in this event.

I debriefed the girls after the match while they were both cooling down on the bike and then after a thorough stretch out we headed back to the hotel for another meal in ASK and an early night.

Schedule for tomorrow:

Mia Smith (GBR) & Ellie-Rose Griffiths (GBR) vs Holly Thompson (GBR) & Georgie Walker (GBR) – 3rd match after 9am (not before 12pm)

Wednesday 11th April 2012

It was just a training day today as we prepared for the doubles tomorrow but it was a great opportunity to learn from the other matches and a chance for Mia to watch her opponent compete against the top seed.

Many players treat a day without a match during a tournament as a “rest day” but in my opinion once you’re out of the singles the whole week just becomes a “training week” and so you should be looking to do as much work on and off the court as you would if you were back at your training base. Mia is now used to my expectations but it was 100% her decision to get up at 6.30am this morning and get on court to warm up by 7.30am.

For the first 30 minutes of the session she warmed Sam up for his 2nd round match and then we went into the bubble and trained for another hour working on specifics from her 1st round match yesterday. In particular we worked on how individually she treats each shot to make sure she’s identifying which ball she can step up on, which ball to defend on and which ball just to stay in the rally and build the point. Mia’s work rate was superb throughout and it’s great to see such a positive response after a tough loss yesterday.

After the session we grabbed some food and then went straight back out to watch some of the matches. For the rest of the day Mia’s main focus was to learn from the older girls in the U18 ITF event but she also stuck to her training programme and completed her interval session and her core and band work that she’s got prescribed for this week.

It was then time for some lunch and a chance to watch the Ukrainian girl that beat Mia yesterday. Dayana gave the top seed a real scare before eventually losing a very tight match 6-4 in the third after a couple of rain delays. Mia watched almost the whole match and I think it gave her a much clearer understanding of what she needs to do to win matches at U14 level. Next week in the U18 ITF it will be a different story as by that age the girls will overpower a younger opponent who only relies on consistency but for this event consistency is the key to getting results – if you can find the balance between being consistent and stepping up and taking the ball on at the right time then you can be very successful from a young age.

We waited at the centre until Sam had finished his doubles match (unfortunately he went down 12-10 in the third set tie-break) and then just before we left we checked the Consolation draw for tomorrow. To my and Mia’s disappointment she was the only player who had signed in for the event so the event didn’t run. It seems as though players were only interested in playing if there were points on offer and didn’t view it as a chance for some good quality matches with other main draw players – maybe it’s a British mentality as I’ve rarely seen Consolation events cancelled in other countries due to a lack of entries.

After another good dinner at ASK it was back to the hotel to watch the latest episode of The Apprentice. During the programme we had an interesting conversation about how many tennis players / coaches this week might “get fired” based on their work rate and commitment but as I explained to Mia and Sam if we actually started to treat the development of tennis players as a business and made coaches and players more accountable maybe we would start to see more British players being successful at a senior level.

As Alan Sugar says “you can’t hide in this process” – how many coaches / players do you know that are stepping up and taking responsibility in the “task” of being “world class”??

Schedule for tomorrow:

Mia Smith (GBR) & Ellie-Rose Griffiths (GBR) vs (3) Serena Nash (GBR) & Eden Richardson (GBR) – 4th match after 9.30am

Tuesday 10th April 2012

It wasn’t the start to the tournament that we’d had hoped for today but there was lots to take away from the match and lots of lessons to be learned as we prepare for the U18 ITF next week.

We were up and out of the hotel by 7.45am this morning so that we could warm up and then get on the outdoor courts before the matches started at 9am. Mia hit with Georgia Lawson while on the other half court fellow Kent players Sam Taylor and Tom Wright warmed up for their matches. After a very solid 30 minutes practise it was time to relax and watch some of the other matches including both Tom and Sam taking good 1st round wins.

Due to some very long matches on Mia’s court she decided that she wanted to hit again so at 1.30pm we went indoors and had a light practise for 25 minutes. The session served two purposes; 1) it broke up the day and prevented Mia from getting too tired and 2) it got her focused on her goals for the match.

At just before 3pm Mia took to the court against Dayana Yastremska from Ukraine and from the warm up it was obvious it was going to be a tough match against a feisty young Eastern European. We’d watched Dayana train yesterday so we knew what to expect and we’d set out a game plan to keep her out of her comfort zone and also to take her time away. Unfortunately the inconsistency that Mia struggled with back in Kenya popped its head up again today which made it very difficult for Mia to develop many rallies. That resulted in poor start to the match with Mia going 0-3 down before she broke serve to get on the board. However, Mia didn’t capitalise on that game and lost the next 3 in a row to go down 6-1. Yastremska is a solid player but had nothing to hurt Mia with and actually only hit 3 winners / forcing shots in the whole set.

The pattern of the second set was almost exactly the same as the first with the Ukrainian taking the first 3 games before Mia held serve to trail 1-3. Yastremska then took a 5-1 lead but despite Mia breaking her serve in the next game she managed to break straight back to take the 6-1, 6-2. It was a very disappointing performance from Mia but hopefully she’s learnt that it’s smart play rather than raw power or flare that wins matches at this level.

After the match we watched top seed Beth Askew fight hard from 5-2 down in the first set against a player ranked almost 700 places lower than her by just making balls and being very patient in the rally until she could step up and attack. Mia learnt a lot from watching that set and hopefully she can put that into practise in her consolation matches later in the week.

After a good cool down and a long stretch out for Mia and Sam we went back to the hotel and had an early dinner at ASK before it was my turn to have to fight through a test as I was back out on the road at 9pm to keep up with my running schedule.

We have a training day tomorrow as Mia has a bye in the doubles so it’s a great chance to develop and improve before her consolation and doubles matches on Thursday.

 

Monday 9th April 2012

It was a very wet day in Nottingham today but we managed to get 2 great sessions on court as well as a gym session for both Mia and I!

I’d driven up to Nottingham last night with Mia Smith for this weeks U14 Tennis Europe Grade 3 event so that we could have a full days training today before main draw starts tomorrow. The plan was to train outdoors but due to a very wet day we ended up doing an early session indoors and then we also trained after the matches had finished at the end of the day.

We warmed up in the gym at 9am and then Mia hit with Sam Taylor from Bromley to warm him up for his last round of qualifying match from 9.30am until 10am. We then headed to the gym via the pro shop so that Mia could buy some tennis shoes as she’d left hers at home!! Mia has a physical programme that is based on how many days she has before her next singles match and as today was “1 day to competition” she had an agility workout to follow as well as her daily core and band work. While she did that I also had my own workout to stick to as I’ve started a 25 week programme to get myself ready for the Great North Run in September. Today I had a 1 hour run to complete and for the first time I did it on a running machine – it could have been the most boring run of my life but at least I got through it!

After lunch at the tennis centre we watched some of the matches before getting back on court at 2pm with Georgia Lawson. It was a really good session and following a very good week at the Tunbridge Wells tournament last week Mia is looking in good form and ready to get stuck in this week. After the session it was straight back into the gym to cool down and stretch out while catching up with the Bath IHPC players.

Before dinner we dropped Sam off at the train station as he’d lost his match but during dinner he then gave me a call to say he’d got in as a Lucky Loser so he was getting off the train at the next stop to come back!! We picked him up just after 8pm and then went back to the hotel to watch Chelsea and wait for the draw to come out.

Schedule for tomorrow:

Mia Smith (GBR) (275) vs Dayana Yastremska (UKR) (UNR) – 3rd match after 9am (not before 11am)