Wednesday 18th April 2012

It was a complete washout at the Nottingham tennis centre today; the singles wasn’t affected as they all went indoors but for the doubles players it was a day of sitting and waiting.

We knew the weather forecast was bad for today when we looked at it over dinner last night so the girls decided so start early and guarantee a practice court indoors from 8-8.30am. It was a bit of a scrum down for courts as there were around 80 singles and doubles players trying to warm up and only space for 64! We did our full warm up on the court so that no-one took our place and then Mia and Gaby competed a solid 30 minute session – we couldn’t do any doubles specifics as there wasn’t time and as soon as 8.30am came there were another 32 players trying to get on court!

From then on it was basically a case of sitting around and waiting to see if the weather would clear up so that the doubles could go on the outdoor courts. The referee had said from the start of the day that he’d make a call on the doubles at 4pm so we took the opportunity to watch some of the other main draw matches and in particular it gave Mia a chance to watch her opponent play her next round match. It was an interesting match as Eden Silva struggled against Anna Popescu despite Anna being a year younger and also being unranked – Anna was playing for her first points though and is a tough competitor so we thought it might be interesting. After leading 7-6(7), 5-4 Anna lost the next three games in a row to level the match and with that Eden’s level increased in the third to take it quite comfortably 6-2. It just goes to show that it doesn’t matter if you’re unranked or 300 in the world, every match is winnable and it just comes down to how you and your opponent play on the day.

After the match we headed off site to get some lunch and to kill a couple of hours but when we returned it was still raining so Mia decided to get stuck into her gym programme. As Mia’s not competing next week she decided to increase her normal tournament training programme so that she has a smoother transition back into her training block once we get home. Today was Plyo’s again and Mia took over the gym with her ladder training:

At just after 4pm the referee cancelled the doubles for the day so we went back to the hotel and got ready for an early dinner at Prezzo. After that it was straight back to the hotel to sit down with the Bath team to watch Chelsea play Barcelona in the Champions League semi-final 1st leg and I was very pleased to see Chelsea scrape a 1-0 win – it might be a different story next week though!

Schedule for tomorrow:

Mia Smith (GBR) & Sofia Segerfors (SWE) vs Dominique Covington (GBR) & Laura Eales (GBR) – 3rd match after 9am (not before 12pm)

The winner to play (1) Lana Rush (GBR) & Eden Silva (GBR) – 5th match after 9am

Tuesday 17th April 2012

It was a straightforward win for number 1 seed Eden Silva today against Mia but it could mark a big turning point in the development of Mia’s game.

Due to the weather forecast being so bad for today and the fact that Mia’s match was scheduled for first on at 9am we decided to leave the hotel at 7.15am and get to the tennis centre early to secure an indoor court to practise on. We were actually the first players at the tennis centre so we had a good warm up in the gym and then went straight on court for Mia’s pre-match training from 8-8.30am. Mia was hitting well and feeling good so all that was left to do was go through our normal pre-match briefing before she went on at 9am.

It was always going to be a tough match against a girl who is two years older and 600 places higher in the rankings but Mia started very well against Eden Silva forcing two break points in Eden’s opening service game. Mia was looking strong throughout that game and Eden was looking a little tentative but as soon as Eden fought off the two break points and held serve to go 1-0 up she started to relax more. By the time Eden had broken Mia in the second game she looked more in control of the match and went on to win the next 7 games in a row to take a 6-0, 3-0 lead. To Mia’s credit she was actually sticking to her goals and making Eden earn the points whilst trying to maintain more controlled aggression in her game.

Having lost the last 9 games in a row it was fair to say that the game plan wasn’t working (!!) so Mia changed what she was doing and started to step up and take the ball on more without going out of control. This was unusual for Mia as she often sticks to what she thinks will work whether it is or not so from a developmental point of view this was a huge improvement for her. The change in plan worked immediately; Mia’s winner count increased while she actually restricted Eden to only 2 winners in the next 5 games compared to her 5 winners in the first 3 games of the second set. Mia broke at 0-4* and then again at 1-5* but really struggled to hold her own serve so ended up going down 6-0, 6-2.

From my point of view it was a really good match from Mia; she didn’t go out and try and beat Eden by trying to hit huge winners from the back of the court, she managed to keep her unforced error count within an acceptable range, she leant from what was working / not working on the court and then changed her tactics and she also played a much better second set than first. Mia was obviously disappointed to lose in the first round but there’s never any shame in losing when you’ve played against a good player and you’ve improved a lot throughout the match.

Due to the rain delays it wasn’t possible to get back on court later in the day so after resting and having some lunch we went into the gym in the afternoon to go through a tough strength session followed by Mia’s band and core programme.

It was then back to the hotel around 4.30pm to relax before going out to dinner at Wagamama’s. Last year I took the Portuguese team there and they had a few issues with how spicy the Chicken Katsu Curry was even though I completely disagreed but this year it was Gaby that struggled with it much to my and Mia’s amusement!!

Schedule for tomorrow:

Mia Smith (GBR) & Sofia Segerfors (SWE) vs Dominique Covington (GBR) & Laura Eales (GBR) – 3rd match after 9am (not before 12pm) WEATHER PERMITTING!!!

Monday 16th April 2012

After a brief couple of days back at home Mia and I drove back up to Nottingham yesterday evening so that we could have a full training day today in preparation for her main draw match tomorrow.

We left the hotel this morning at 8am and after a quick stop at Sainsbury’s to stock up on some food we were in the gym warming up at 8.30am. Mia then hit with Gaby Paul to warm her up for her last round qualifying match and then it was my turn to put Mia through her paces as we spent the next hour working on the specifics that we’d identified from Mia’s matches last week. This week is a little different from last week as now we’re preparing to play against girls who are up to 18 years old and it’s not likely that Mia’s going to come up against a player who only relies on being consistent to win the match. Mia’s going to need to play very smart no matter who she plays and take every opportunity that she’s given.

After a really good morning session we had some lunch at 11am and then watched some of the ATP event in Monte Carlo. We watched Rochus vs Verdasco and it was quite amusing to hear Gaby think that Rochus was 6ft 11inches and Mia think that he was 6ft 2inches when he’s actually 5ft 3inches!! The phrase “It’s not the size of the dog in the fight but the size of the fight in the dog” was definitely correct in that match as Rochus pushed Verdasco all the way until he eventually went down 7-5 in the 3rd.

Next on the agenda for Mia was her strength and conditioning and with 1 day to go before she competes she went through 2 sets of her agility programme then she went through her daily core and band work.

Mia then had a break of another hour before she was back on court with Ilinca Bercaru from Romania. Ilinca has to be one of the tallest girls in the event at around 6ft 1inch so it was a really good test for Mia’s game and I was really pleased that she not only held her own during the session but she also played very intelligently during a couple of tie-breaks to win both. The session was only around 1 hour long but it’s not about how long you’re on the court it’s about finding the level needed to compete at this level and Mia definitely did that.

At just after 4pm we left the court and headed into the gym to cool down and stretch out to finish a fantastic days training. Dinner tonight was at Pizza Express with Gaby Paul and Mark Ruffle from the Bromley Tennis Academy and then it was back to the hotel for Mia, Gaby and me while Mark headed out to watch Arsenal – will they come back from 2-0 down???

Here’s the girl’s main draw:

Schedule for tomorrow:

Mia Smith (GBR) (983) vs (1) Eden Silva (GBR) (351) – 1st match at 9am