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Chiswick Men’s $10k, Day 3

Monday 27th August 2012

Today ended up being a little short and sweet but it’s always better to air on the side of caution especially with one final tournament coming up of the summer.

After the engineering work on the train line was all completed yesterday it meant that I could go all the way to Barnes Bridge which just left a short walk over the River Thames to get to the club. I met Dave there at 10am and we went straight into the gym to warm up. The plan was to do a couple of hours on court this morning and then hit the gym in the afternoon but midway through the warm up Dave felt a pull in his calf. He said he’d felt something during his first match yesterday against Sam Hutt but hadn’t felt it again until now. We were going to try and hit some balls to see if he felt any pain whilst loading and moving on it but we decided to just see the onsite physiotherapist to get a diagnosis.

After a 45 minute treatment Dave came hobbling back down to the restaurant and said that his calf was in a pretty bad way and the physio had advised him to rest today and then see how it is tomorrow for the doubles. It’s always a difficult decision for the players as most of the time they’re really keen to train and Dave was definitely up for putting in a lot of hours this week before Roehampton $10k next weekend but on the other hand they have to listen to their bodies and make mature decisions if they feel slight injuries.

Dave made the right call to completely rest today and after some lunch I headed back home on the train while he rested up back at his hotel.

Fortunately or Unfortunately, Dave and Alex Jhun didn’t get into the doubles which meant there won’t be any pressure on him to play tomorrow if his calf is not feeling 100%.

Our attention now turns to getting fit for Roehampton $10k which starts on Sunday and making sure that the summer ends on a big high.

Chiswick Men’s $10k, Day 2

Sunday 26th August 2012

It was a very positive day at Chiswick today and even though Dave didn’t manage to get two wins on the board he still performed well and showed a much improved level compared to last week.

Due to some engineering work on the train line today I wasn’t able to get off close to the club so I met Dave at Barnes train station and he drove the rest of the way to Chiswick. Before Dave got there I saw George Morgan and his brother Rob who were going to get the train from Barnes to Chiswick but they hadn’t heard of the changes to the train timetable so we also gave them a lift – 4 big guys with 3 tennis bags and 2 rucksacks in a small Ford Fiesta – beautiful!!

We got to the club at 9.30am and Dave and I went straight to the gym to go through our normal 30 minute warm up before we went down on court for Dave’s pre-match hit. After about 25 minutes Dave was feeling loose and confident with the way he was hitting the ball so we finished the session and he went off to get changed for his match. Fifteen minutes before he was about to go on court we met up again to go through the tactics for the match and set some goals – today it was all about Dave dictating play and moving forwards to the net to control the points as Sam is a very solid baseliner.

Qualifying gets underway at Virgin Riverside

At 11am Dave went on court having never beaten Sam Hutt in 3/4 meetings over the past 4/5 years. Dave took control early to break Sam’s serve at 1-1 but was immediately broken back after struggling with his serve. The standard of the tennis was very high from both players and Dave managed to control a lot of the points from the back of the court which gave him a lot of opportunities to move forwards to finish the points from the net. The set went with serve until 4-4 when Dave broke and then held well to take the set 6-4 after just over an hour and fifteen minutes!

Dave started the second set well but it was always going to be difficult to maintain the high level that he set in the first set. He broke at 2-2 but was broken back straight away and then the set went with serve until 4-4. Dave then broke and served for the match at 5-4 and then again at 6-5 but Sam produced some good tennis to break him each time. In fact Sam played much better returning games than serving games and that resulted in the set being decided by a tie-break. During the second set it was often Sam’s level that was determining who was winning / losing the points and fortunately for us he hit 6 unforced errors in the tie-break to hand Dave the set and the match 6-4, 7-6(2) in just over 2 and a half hours.

Overall it was a very positive match and in the first set Dave really showed that he had put his disappointing performance last week at Nationals behind him and was eager to perform at his best today.

We had a break of a couple of hours between matches which gave us a chance to talk through the match in detail while we had some lunch but we had to wait longer than expected for our chicken and pasta as the first serving of it came out with the chicken almost completely raw! The chef did come out of the kitchen to apologise and in the end we managed to get a decent meal!!

At around 3.30pm Dave went back on court for his second round match against Adam Skalsky who had received a bye in the first round. At the start of the first set both players were holding serve comfortably and I got the feeling that it was either going to come down to one break of serve or it would end up in a tie-break. Once again Dave was hitting well from the back of the court but a slight lapse in concentration at *3-3 *40-15 serving ended up costing him the set as Adam broke and then held to take it 6-3.

Dave had a toilet break at the end of the set to regroup and then played a good opening two games but when he was broken at *1-1 in the second set I did wonder weather the tough match this morning had taken it’s toll on him. At 1-3 Dave responded well by raising his intensity and working hard to get the set level at 3-3 after breaking Adam’s serve. Unfortunately he then struggled with his next two service games and was broken in both games to go down 6-3, 6-3. Again there were lots of positives to take from the match; in the past Dave might have rolled over after the disappointing end to the first set but he showed great fight and determination to come back from 1-3 down in the second set especially when he did not serve well throughout the match.

After the match we went straight into the gym to cool down and stretch out before we sat down and talked through the positives and learning points in detail. Overall Dave was quite pleased with the way the day had gone and now our attention turns to getting into the doubles tomorrow.

After getting some food on the way to Barnes train station I got the train back home while Dave went back to his hotel. My day wasn’t quite over there and after a quick stop at my house to get some kit I was straight up t the gym to do some interval training to keep up to date with my training programme – not nice at 9pm but it’s got to be done!

Chiswick Men’s $10k, Day 1

Saturday 25th August 2012

Today was the final day of practice before the next block of Aegon Pro-Series events commence in England which include two $10k events in London; Chiswick and Roehampton and then another $10k at The Nottingham Tennis Centre.

Over the next two weeks I’ll be working with Dave Hodgetts as he looks to qualify for his first Futures event and then hopefully go on to secure his first ATP point. I was with Dave last week when he competed in the British National Junior Championships in Nottingham and then from there we trained at Chiswick to prepare for qualifying tomorrow. Dave’s normal training base when he’s in the UK is at Chiswick so in effect this is his “home” tournament!

After putting in a good training day yesterday Dave had a lie-in this morning to make sure he’s fresh for his matches tomorrow but I was up and out of my house at 6am to keep up to date with my training schedule ahead of the BUPA Great North Run half marathon on the 16th September. This year will be my 11th consecutive Great North Run and I’ll be running for the amazing Make-A-Wish Foundation who grant magical wishes to children with life-threatening illnesses. If you would like to support me and the charity please go to www.justgiving.com/RobsGNR2012.

I then left my house just before 12pm to drive to the train station and make my way into London before heading back out to Chiswick. The journey takes around 2 hours from door to door which isn’t too bad and it means we can save a lot of money on food and hotels during the week.

I met up with Dave at 2.30pm and we had a chat about goals for this week before we warmed up in the gym and then went on court from 3.30-4.30pm with Borna Coric from Croatia. Borna is one of the best 15 year olds in the world and has been basing himself at the Virgin Active centre in Chiswick with David Felgate for the last few weeks. He’s using the Futures event at Chiswick as a warm up before he heads across the Atlantic for the US Open Junior Championships which start on the 3rd September.

Dave and Borna had a very good session as they both fine tuned the work they’ve been doing on their games to get themselves ready for qualifying tomorrow. They warmed up and then went through a couple of drills before finishing the practice with a tie-break which Borna managed to edge 7-5.

Dave & Borna training indoors due to heavy rain

After practice Dave and I headed up to the gym to cool down and have a thorough stretch out before he headed back to his hotel and I got back on the train home.

Here’s the Singles Qualifying Draw:

Schedule for tomorrow:

(WC) Dave Hodgetts (GBR) (UNR) vs (WC) Sam Hutt (GBR) (UNR) – 1st match at 11am

Winner to play Adam Skalsky (GBR) (UNR) – 3rd match after 11am (Not before 2pm)

 

ABOUT I.t.c.

Since 2010 my aim has been to make it more affordable to travel to international tournaments with a coach. Over the past 20 years I have coached players at over 250 international tournaments ranging from U12 Tennis Europe events to a semi-finalist at a Grand Slam.

 

For more information please click here.

contact

Rob Smith

Tel: +44 (0) 7866 362251

Email: rob@itc-tennis.com

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