Wednesday 16^th January 2013

Today was a disappointing day as Holly Hutchinson lost her singles and both Holly’s went down in the doubles 1^st round which, after a very long day at the club, brought our tournament to an end.

The day started on a high note as Alex had to complete his forfeit from dinner last night – the deal was that if either of the girls lost they had to go through their 20 minute physical warm up in one of my tennis kits or if Alex or I lost we had to go through the warm up in one of the girls kits. As it got down to the final two Alex and I got very tight but I just about managed to pull through so here it is, Alex warming up in Holly’s kit!

Once the tears from laughing so hard had been wiped away both Hollys went with me to the practice court to warm up for 30 minutes to prepare themselves for their matches. The hitting was a little erratic to begin with and I got the sense that both girls were nervous about competing today, but after 10 minutes they had both settled down.

We came off court at 12pm and the three players had lunch at the restaurant while I walked down the road to the supermarket to stock up on some water for Holly. We then had about an hour and a half to relax and prepare before Holly went on for her singles match. During this time Alex went off and completed his strength and conditioning programme to keep up to date with his own training while the girls watched some matches and kept a close eye on the score on Holly’s court.

At just after 2pm Holly went on to face Mira Antonitsch from Austria and her nerves were apparent from the start as she struggled to find her range in the opening 3 games and very soon found herself 0-3 down. I always think it’s not a bad thing for your opponent to serve first as it gives you a chance to hit some balls and find a rhythm before you have the pressure of holding serve but the only downside is that if you fail to hold then you could find yourself 0-3 down very quickly. In the next game Holly was a lot more relaxed; she served well, was much more consistent from the back of the court  and was prepared to let the rally develop before going for the big winner which resulted in her holding to make it 1-3*. Holly then had chances to hold again at *1-4 but 4 unforced errors from *40-15 up cost her the game and then Mira held serve to take the first set.

It was obvious that Holly was disappointed with how the set had gone but she responded well at the start of the 2^nd set by starting to play much smarter tennis. As Holly’s consistency improved she started to get much closer to her opponent in the games and then her confidence increased very quickly. At *1-1 Holly was broken but this time she didn’t let her head drop and she fought very hard to stay close with the Austrian until at *3-5 she was broken again to go down 6-1, 6-3. The match was really a tale of two sets from Holly; the first set was erratic and too one dimensional whereas the second set was much smarter and patient where Holly was prepared to out think her opponent rather than just try and outhit her!

Once the match was finished Holly stretched, showered and changed and then met up with me in the restaurant to get some food to fuel herself ready for the doubles. Both Hollys had been volleying well in training all week and I was very positive going into the match that they could get a win. We had a long chat before the match about what they were going to do and how best to take control of the points so that they had a clear picture of how they were going to play together.

After a slight delay the girls eventually went on court at 7pm to play Kristina Mrazova from the Czech Republic and Ekaterina Stepanova from Russia. The girls started very well and broke in the first game with some very sharp movement at the net but then gave a sloppy game away to let their opponents back in. The set then went with serve until *2-2 when the girls were broken again and from this point level dropped significantly; the movement that had secured them the early break had gone and it was their opponents who took the opportunities to dominate at the net. That resulted in our girls losing the next 8 games in a row to go 6-2, 5-0 down before they then got a game on the board but it was the only game they managed as they went on to lose the match 6-2, 6-1. It was the only match of the week that I was disappointed with as I felt the girls could have done much better and could have done more to try and prevent their opponents from winning 9 out of 10 games from 2-2 in the first set.

After the match was done the team were feeling very down but I reminded them that they are all only just starting out on their international journeys whereas a lot of the opponents they are playing against have been doing it for a year or two and have a lot more experience. All three players have worked hard on and off the court and the results that they have had this week are definitely not through a lack of trying.

Michael picked us up from the club at 8.45pm and took us back to the hotel before we headed out for a very late dinner! Tomorrow we will fly back to London and then in one week I’ll be back on the road again with Alex, Holly Hutchinson and Anais Nussaume from Thailand for two U18 ITFs in Nairobi, Kenya.

Monday 14^th January 2013

There was a mixture of emotions today as, on one hand we had Holly Hutchinson making her final preparations before her 1^st round main draw starts tomorrow, while on the other hand we had Alex who lost in the doubles and saw his tournament come to an end.

We knew today was going to be a long day as we were told over the weekend that the boy’s doubles would be after the 16 girl’s last round qualifying matches and the 32 boy’s 1^st round singles matches. So with this in mind and also being aware that the players had been up early on the last 3 mornings we decided as a team last night that we should all have a later start to catch up on some sleep. That was the plan but following a heavy snowfall last night we were all rudely awoken at 7.30am by the guy across the street from the hotel scraping the snow from his driveway! My response to this was to get up and watch the Australian Open, Alex’s was to pull his pillow over his head and get another hour’s sleep and Holly Horsfall did what we all wanted to do and that was go out onto the balcony and ask him to keep the noise down – I’m not sure he understood her accent though!!

After breakfast we were picked up my Michael’s wife and taken to the tennis academy before Michael took us the final part of the journey to the tournament site. We arrived just before 11am which gave Alex an hour to find a doubles partner. I always let the players organise their own partners as I think it’s a great chance for them to talk to other players and get used to being outside of their comfort zone but today Alex was really struggling to find someone so at 11.50am I went on the hunt and managed to find an American who was in the singles main draw.

As soon as that was arranged I went with all of the players to the squash courts and after they completed their own physical warm up I took them through a speed and movement session for 45 minutes.

Everyone worked really well together and by 1pm we were all finished and in need of some lunch so we went up to the restaurant for the standard Penne Bolognaise J

Due to a lot of the girl’s main draw players arriving today the amount of time we were able to spend on the practice court was very limited but we were able to get Alex a 40 minute session to warm up and work on some specifics before his doubles match and Holly Hutchinson secured a very good hour with 3 other main draw players. Holly Horsfall was also able to train with another main draw player and between the 3 players they managed to keep me on my toes for the whole afternoon!!

Alex went on for his doubles 1^st round match with Spencer Furman from the USA at 5.15pm to face Patrik Obal and Peter Vajda from Slovakia. The first two games went with serve but at *1-1 Alex struggled to make enough 1^st serves in and was broken. Alex and Spencer remained positive and responded by breaking straight back and holding to take a 3-2 lead but it was again in Alex’s service game that the team were struggling which resulted in another break of serve. The Slovakians then took their chances on Spencer’s serve at *3-5 to break to love to take the set 6-3.

During the second set Spencer and Alex continued to return quite well and attack at the right times but a lack of movement at the net combined with some missed volley opportunities resulted in the boys being broken twice as they eventually went down 6-3, 6-1. Alex had performed quite well throughout and had definitely stepped up his level from his singles match but maybe he felt a little under pressure by playing with a strong partner which meant that he was a little more reluctant than normal to move at the net. It was still another positive match and one that Alex will take a lot from.

After the match Alex and I had a quick debrief and then he went off to cool down and stretch out while I took on the crowd in the referee’s office to fight for a practice court for Holly for tomorrow before her 1^st round singles match.

We ended up leaving the site at 7.15pm this evening and managed to get a lift back by one of Michael’s former players as he was coaching all evening which meant that it was a case of dropping the bags in the hotel room and then heading straight out to dinner. I was quite up for a change of scenery and suggested going back to the Italian restaurant that we ate in on the first night but as Holly’s playing tomorrow she got to choose so it was back to the Bavarian place for the third night in a row! Still … the food is good, the atmosphere is great and they put up with our forfeits which are getting crazier by the day – make sure you check out Alex’s warm up tomorrow!!

Schedule for tomorrow:

Mira Antonitsch (AUT) (855) vs Holly Hutchinson (GBR) (1598) – 5^th match after 8am, not before 1pm

Doubles to be played not before 4pm

Sunday 13^th January 2013

It was another tough day at the office for the team today as Holly Horsfall came up against a very good German girl in her first round qualifying match.

As Holly was scheduled for first match at 8.30am it meant that we had to have breakfast at 6.30am and then leave for the club 15 minutes later with Michael and one of the girl’s from the Piding Tennis Academy. When we arrived at the club all of the players went straight into their physical warm ups and then at 7.30am we went on court where the two Holly’s hit together and Alex warmed up with Michael’s player. By 8am Holly had completed her pre-match hit and was happy with the level she had found so we went off to the player’s lounge to put the finishing touches to her preparation.

We didn’t know anything about Holly’s opponent but from the start of the warm up we knew that it was going to be a tough match. Paula Goetz is from Germany and is currently unranked but she started the match as if she was a top 200 player; she broke Holly in the first game and raced to a 3-0 lead hitting 8 winners in the process without making a single unforced error! Holly managed to then get a break back and was getting closer to her opponent during the games but the German always played the bigger points better than Holly which resulted in her winning the next three games to take the set 6-1.

Holly’s attitude remained positive and she played a great opening game of the second set but just couldn’t convert on one of her four break points she had against Paula’s serve. As the second set went on the rallies began to develop more and Holly did start to find a way to break down her opponent but a few too many unforced errors resulted in her going 0-4 down. Holly was still playing positively and looked very good coming forwards to the net but any shot that was slightly within her opponents comfort zone resulted in Holly being put under a lot of pressure.  At 0-4* Holly stepped up her game again and played a very positive break point to get a game on the board but unfortunately still couldn’t hold serve and eventually went down 6-1, 6-1. It was a very tough match and Paula Goetz is definitely the best players we have seen here so far; she hit 18 winners in the second set to Holly’s 9 and hardly ever gave up any points cheaply. Despite being disappointed with the loss Holly knows that the experience of playing this match will definitely help her to develop her game and she is now looking forward to hopefully getting into the doubles on Tuesday.

After having some lunch and relaxing for an hour, Alex and I went over to the squash courts to go through his Strength and Conditioning programme which involved making the best use of everything we had as there was not a gym available! We were using the back wall of the squash court for eccentric pull-ups, rackets for deadlifts / overhead squats, my medicine ball for bench press and (very painfully!) a tennis ball as a foam roller!! From there it was then on court with Holly Hutchinson and two other girls for an hour to get her ready for her main draw match on Tuesday, an hour on court with Alex to keep developing the things we’d talked about yesterday and one final 30 minute session for Holly Horsfall to reiterate the positive parts of her game from her singles match earlier in the day. After all of that we all met back up to cool down and stretch out before returning to the hotel with Michael. The players then had some time to complete some of their school work before we went out to dinner at 6pm.

It’s often difficult when you’re on the road and results don’t go the way that you would like so it’s very important for the players and coach to separate the hard training and matches with fun and entertainment once the day is over. That’s why I always like to have some banter with the team in the evenings and tonight was no exception. I must admit that I’m not a fan of losing at anything especially when it means that I’ve got to sit at the dinner table with a snowball on my head but seeing Holly Horsfall crawling around the restaurant on her hands and knees, Holly Hutchinson doing Burpees and Alex skipping around the restaurant with a tulip in his mouth delivering the bill to the waiter did all help to raise everyone’s spirits!

Schedule for tomorrow:

Doubles sign-in for Alex and then a possible 1^st round match

Saturday 12^th January 2013

As the qualifying event for the boy’s and the girl’s started a day apart only Alex competed today while both Holly’s continued their preparations for qualifying and main draw.

It was an early start for me and Alex this morning while the girls had an extra 10 minutes in bed with the excuse of “our alarms didn’t go off!” At 7.15am Michael picked us up and after an interesting drive in the snow we arrived at the club after 7.30am!

We went straight to the badminton courts to warm up before Holly Horsfall hit with Alex from 8-8.30am to prepare him for his match. While Holly and Alex were training Holly Hutchinson stayed on the badminton court and went through a 25 minute speed and movement session as she looks to balance her recovery from this week’s training at home with the right amount of hitting to prepare herself for main draw on Tuesday.

We then had a couple of hours to relax and then prepare for Alex’s match before he went on court at 10.30am against Serban Mucenic from Romania. The first four games of the match went with serve as both players were just finding their range; the Romanian hit well from the back of the court and had quite a strong first serve but Alex was comfortably matching him from the baseline and didn’t miss a first serve for the first two service games. Alex looked in control at 2-2* 40-15* but a poor shot selection on his first break point really distracted him and that lead to Serban holding, breaking and then holding again to take the first set 6-2.

Alex started the second set in a much more aggressive manner and even though this resulted in him going 0-4* down the quality of his tennis was much better, the only problem was that he was missing a little too early in the rally. However that changed when he managed to get his first break of the match and from *1-4 he looked much more positive and confident on the court which resulted in making the balls that earlier he was just missing. Alex held serve and continued to attack his opponent but the Romanian responded by upping his level too. The set was really in the balance at 3-5* but unfortunately Serban served big and hit three winners from the back of the court in that game to take the game and the match 6-2, 6-3. There were a lot of positives to take from the match especially how Alex increased his hitting level and aggressiveness at the start of the second set, if he can continued to develop that side of his game and keep pushing himself to dominate more points he will come through these type of matches with a win.

After Alex’s match we went straight to the badminton courts to cool down and stretch out before Alex showered, changed and then met me at the club restaurant for lunch. After lunch Alex completed his match analysis sheet and then we talked through the match in detail focusing firstly on the effectiveness of his hitting and then we talked about where he wants to be in a few years’ time and what he needs to do to get there. Alex was very mature and professional in his post-match analysis and he knows that it’s the experience of playing at this level that’s important rather than just the winning as long as he develops his whole game in the process.

As soon as we were finished I was back over to court 8 to work with the girls and, as they’d managed to book a full court to practise on, we were able to get a lot of points played to prepare Holly Horsfall for her first round match tomorrow. Both girls were hitting well, working hard and looked very comfortable on the slow carpet courts. As soon as we were finished we all went over to the squash courts to cool down and stretch out to end a good days training.

There was then just enough time to navigate our way in the snow to the local supermarket (while trying to avoid the snowballs that Holly Horsfall and Alex were trying to bombard me with!) before we returned to the club and Holly signed in for qualifying. Michael then picked us up and drove us back to the hotel where everyone had a bit of time to themselves before we headed out to dinner.

Tonight we ate at a local traditional Bavarian restaurant and the food was superb; I had the schnitzel that Michael had earlier recommended, Holly Horsfall prepared herself for tomorrow with an amazing looking Pasta while the other Holly and Alex both had a big Pork dish. On the way back I was once again subject to a snowball attack from Holly Horsfall and Alex but I did manage to get a few good hits in myself!!

Schedule for tomorrow:

Paula Goetz (GER) (UNR) vs Holly Horsfall (GBR) (UNR) – 1^st match at 8.30am

Winner to play Eva Nyikos (AUT) (UNR) – 5^th match after 8.30am

Friday 11th January 2013

It was an early start today for the whole team as we began the first ITC trip of 2013 to the Grade 4 U18 ITF just outside of Salzburg in Austria.
I arrived at the British Airways check-in desk at the Gatwick North Terminal at7.30am this morning and was delighted to see Holly Hutchinson, Holly Horsfall and Alex Hagon already there and raring to get going! It had been an eventful 24 hours for Holly Horsfall as she’d had to return home just after leaving Yorkshire yesterday due to forgetting her passport and then thought that we were flying from Heathrow instead of Gatwick!! Holly Hutchinson also thought that we were going from Heathrow too so luckily I’ve got Alex here to keep me sane – saying that though I’ve got a funning feeling there could be a few classic quotes coming from all three of them this week!

After checking in and clearing security the players had an hour to themselves before we headed to the gate and boarded at about 9.30am. It was all going very smoothly until we left the gate and then the Captain came over the tannoy to tell us all that the plane had broken so we had to go back to the gate!! It took an hour to fix (which gave me a chance to catch up on some sleep) and at around 10.40am we took off for the 1 hour and 40 minute flight to Salzburg.

When we arrived it was snowing heavily but the Alps behind the airport made a spectacular sight. As we were waiting in the queue for passport control I thought I’d throw a question at the players to see how awake they were so I went for the name of the person whose statue was in the waiting area. Alex went for Abraham Lincoln, Holly Horsfall went for Nelson Mandela and Hutchie’s answer was so bizarre that I can’t even remember it but it was in fact Mozart – not surprising really as the airport is named after him!! Like I said classic quotes a-plenty this week!

We were met at arrivals by Michael Andreasson who is the Head Coach of the Piding Tennis Academy which is situated just outside of Salzburg. Michael has been a huge help in arranging this trip and has already saved the whole team a lot of money by arranging a cheaper hotel as well as agreeing to drive us around for the week. From the airport we went to Michael’s tennis club where he’d already arranged an amazing lunch for us but I think my reputation took a bit of a hit as I declined a beer and a coffee – apparently it’s unheard of out here for a coach not to have a beer or a coffee with lunch!

Michael then took us to the hotel so we could check in and then we drove the 20 minute journey to the tournament site so that the whole team could practise and Alex could sign in for qualifying. We had 3 sessions in total on the match courts; I hit with Alex from 4.30-5pm then both Hollys and an Austrian girl hit for the next 30 minutes and finally Alex and I had a final session from 6-6.30pm to make sure he was happy with his playing level before his first match tomorrow. At 6.30pm we all met up in the badminton courts to have a cool down and stretch out – out here our warm ups and cool downs are going to be even more important as not only is it freezing cold outside but it’s also very cold on the indoor courts too.

Once everyone was finished Alex and I went to check the draw and order of play before booking a practice court for tomorrow morning. Michael then met us at just after 7.15pm to take us back to the hotel.

After a quick stop at the local Aldi supermarket to stock up on food and water we went to Valentina’s Italian restaurant for a well-deserved meal:

One thing I forgot to mention is that Michael’s tennis academy and our hotel are just over the Austrian border in Germany so today’s timetable was:

Fly England to Austria – drive to Germany for lunch – drive back to Austria to train – drive back to Germany for dinner and bed!

Schedule for tomorrow:

Alex Hagon (GBR) (UNR) vs Serban Mucenic (ROU) (UNR) – 2nd match after 8.30am

Winner to play Laurin Mackner (AUT) (UNR) – 5th match after 8.30am