Wednesday 27^th March 2013

It was a disappointing day today as George wasn’t able to change his flights to Barbados so he and Alex had to pull out of their ¼ Final match against the top seeds.

We were up at breakfast at 7.30am this morning and then had to wait around while George and his coach tried to change their flights but by 9am they told us they weren’t able to and would have to pull out of the doubles. It’s very frustrating when players commit to playing in the doubles but don’t tell their partners that they have flights booked before the final’s day but it continues to happen week in week out. In our case George and Eddie tried everything they could but because of the Easter holidays all of the flights to Barbados were very busy.

Once they had told us they were pulling out I decided that we’d have a rest day today and then fly to Barbados tonight to get there early to prepare Alex for qualifying. Alex and Mia agreed with the plan so we spent the next hour packing up and checking out before we headed to Movie Towne to go to the cinema.

Alex made the call to see G.I. Joe in 3D and even though Mia and I were quite reluctant we went with it!! After the film Alex immediately turned to both of us and said “That was pretty good” to which we responded “no it wasn’t!!” It was good fun though and Mia enjoyed wearing her colourful children’s green 3D glasses – she was very disappointed though when she found out that she couldn’t keep them!!

As it was our rest day I relaxed the rules on what food the players could eat so, after lunch we went to Coldstones Creamery for an ice cream and for the first time in Mia’s life she struggled to finish anything with chocolate in it!! As Carlos the local coach would say “that’s going to ride you tonight!”

We then headed back to the hotel to grab our bags and drive to the airport. The traffic was pretty bad all the way but it did give us a chance to take some pictures of the views.

After lots of negotiation at the airport (and sweet talking the check-in staff!) we managed to get on the flight without paying for excess baggage even though we were each 20kgs overweight!

The look on Mia’s face was priceless when she saw we were travelling on a little propeller plane but the early nerves soon faded as we watched some Michael McIntyre during the flight! We had a brief stop in Saint Lucia before landing in Barbados at 10.30pm and then finally got to our new hotel at just after 11am.

Our focus now turns to Alex’s preparation for qualifying which starts on Saturday.

Tuesday 26^th March 2013

Alex had a tough match in the singles today against a strong opponent but got a good win in the doubles while Mia and Sara lost a close 1^st round doubles match.

As Alex had a later start time today we met for breakfast at 8.30am and then got a taxi to the courts at 9.45am. Our original plan was then to warm up at 10am and hit from 10.30-11am but Alex’s court was moving quite slowly so we delayed everything by 30 minutes. Alex and Mia trained well together during the session and by 11.30am they were both warmed up and ready for their matches.

We then headed down to Pizza Hut for our normal lunch and returned to the club to prepare for Alex’s singles match.

Alex went on just after 2pm to face 16^th seed Arthur Stefani from Brazil and even though Arthur’s ranking is only just above Alex’s he was older and physically stronger. Arthur raced to a 5-0* lead with a combination of heavier hitting and less errors and even though Alex managed to hold serve in the next game the Brazilian took the first set 6-1.

Alex upped his level in the 2^nd and hit almost twice the number of winners as he did in the 1^st set but Arthur always looked in control and after breaking Alex for the second time at *2-4, he went on to take the set and the match 6-1, 6-2. Alex was disappointed with the result as he felt he could have performed better but he understood that because of his current physical size and strength there are going to be some matches that are just going to be too tough for him. He still learnt a lot throughout the match and developed his game so hopefully when he reflects on it tomorrow he will realise it wasn’t as bad as he first thought!

After the match Alex had some treatment on his left elbow as it had been hurting throughout the match and then at after quite a long delay he took to the court again for his 1st round doubles match with George Cartledge from America. Alex started the match really fired up and was very positive at the net both when he was returning and when George was serving. The boys broke in the 1^st and 3^rd games to lead *3-0 and despite Alex losing his serve in the next game they broke again to stay in control. They then won the next two games convincingly to take the 1^st set 6-1.

At the start of the Alex’s 2^nd set Mia went on for her doubles match with Sara Kelly from America so I was then dashing between court 1 and court 6 to keep up to date with what was happening! Mia and Sara struggled to get going at the start of the match and soon fell 4-1 behind before raising both their games to level the set at 4-4. Unfortunately Mia was broken to Love while serving at *4-5 to lose the 1^st set 6-4.

Meanwhile Alex and George continued to play some impressive doubles and after a tight start to the set they went on to take the set and the match 6-1, 6-2. After their match had finished George’s coach told me that they might struggle to play tomorrow unless they can change their flights so now we’re hoping they can otherwise they will both have to pull out.

Mia and Sara started their 2^nd set much better than they had in the 1^st and when they broke at 2-2* I thought they’d go on to control the whole set. However, a poor service game from Sara in the very next game let their opponents back in. Mia served well to hold a tight service game at *3-4 but Sara couldn’t do the same at *4-5 and they went on to lose the match 6-4, 6-4. Loses are always hard to accept but it’s even more difficult when you feel as though you could have done better and that was definitely the case with Mia and Sara today.

By the time Mia had finished it was just before 8.30pm so after she showered and changed at the club we headed straight to dinner. Once we were done it was then straight back to the hotel to try and get the players in to bed at a reasonable time!

It’s been a tough couple of days for Mia but I know she’s going to bounce back next week and hopefully, if George can rearrange his flights, him and Alex can win the next round and get some points on the board.

Schedule for tomorrow:

(1) Christian Cargill (BAH) & Arturs Lazins (LAT) vs George Cartledge (USA) & Alex Hagon (GBR) – 3^rd match after 9am (not before 11am)

 

Monday 25^th March 2013

It was a very positive day for the team today even though we ended the day with one win and one loss.

Due to the late match times for Mia and Alex today we had a bit of a lie in and met at breakfast at 9am before getting a taxi to the club at just after 10am. Alex then spent the next hour and a half trying to find a doubles partner but once he had got one arranged they signed in and him and Mia then warmed up for their on-court session from 12-12.30pm. As with all pre-match warm ups the players dictated exactly what they wanted to do so that they felt completely prepared for their upcoming match. Mia and Alex worked well together and after 30 minutes of groundstrokes, volleys, smashes, drive-volleys and serves and returns they felt ready to go.

We then got some lunch and watched some of Katie and Georgie’s singles victories before Mia took to the court at 2.30pm to play Elizabeth Sutherland from America.

Elizabeth is quite a big hitter and at the start of the 1^st set Mia made the mistake of trying to match her pace which resulted in too many unforced errors. Mia fell *1-3 behind and struggled to hold serve but she fought back to level the set at *3-3. Unfortunately she again struggled with her serve and despite breaking back to level the set at *4-4 she went on to lose the 1^st set 6-4.

In the past Mia has found it difficult to come back after losing the 1^st set but today she showed real maturity and professionalism to realise her tactics weren’t working and to change them to a more solid gamestyle. Mia worked the ball really well throughout the 2^nd set and after she held in the 1^st game her confidence increased and she raced to a 4-1* lead. She continued to serve a lot better than in the 1^st set and played a very patient game to hold serve at 5-2 to level the match.

Mia again looked in control at the start of the 3^rd set as she continued to play a patient but aggressive game and after Elizabeth double faulted with an underarm serve at 2-1* it looked as though there was only going to be one winner. Unfortunately Elizabeth held from *0-40 down in that game and then broke Mia for the first time in 8 service games at *3-3 to take control of the set. Mia continued to work hard and fight for every point but Elizabeth held serve at 4-5* to go on to take the match 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 in just over 2 hours 15 minutes.

Despite the loss the match was very positive from Mia’s point of view and I think it was the best I’ve ever seen her play in an ITF; not only did she manage to change her tactics after the 1^st set but she chased every ball and fought hard throughout the match.

Almost as soon as Mia had finished Alex was on court 3 at 5pm to take on Patrick Nkrumah from Trinidad and Tobago. Alex started the match very aggressively and imposed his game on his opponent from the first game. Alex took a *3-0 and even though he was disappointed to lose his serve in the next game he went on to take the 1^st set 6-2.

At the start of the 2^nd set some local support gave Patrick a bit of a boost but Alex continued to play aggressively and got two breaks of serve to lead *4-1. However, just like in the 1^st set Alex gave away a cheap service game and had to dig deep to pull through the 2^nd set after his opponent once again raised his level. Alex played a very solid but aggressive game at 5-3* to break Patrick’s serve to take the match 6-2, 6-3.

Just like with Mia’s performance I was very happy with the way that Alex played especially as he maintained an aggressive gamestyle and developed his front court game throughout the match.

By the time Alex finished it was almost 6.30pm so he cooled down at the courts and then showered and changed before we headed straight out to dinner. We were then met at the restaurant after the meal by one of the local tennis coaches who gave us tour of Port of Spain (the good parts and the bad!!) before he drove us back to the hotel to end a long but successful day.

Schedule for tomorrow:

(16) Arthur Stefani (BRA) (1494) vs Alex Hagon (1805) – 4^th match after 9am (not before 12pm)

Stephanie Nemtsova (USA) & Jeung Won Yang (KOR) vs Sara Kelly (USA) & Mia Smith (GBR) – 6^th match after 9am (not before 2pm)

Scott Lanser (TRI) & Matus Lazar (SVK) vs George Cartledge (USA) & Alex Hagon (GBR) – 6^th match after 9am (not before 2pm)

Sunday 24^th March 2013

Today was our final day of preparation before the main draw starts tomorrow and both Mia and Alex put in a quality day of training.

Most of the day followed the same pattern as yesterday; we had an early breakfast at 6.30am and then left the hotel with Georgie and Katie on the 7.15am shuttle bus. We then all warmed up together from 7.30 – 8am while Mia’s music pumped out of the new speakers that she had brought with her! As Katie had a match she just hit for the first 30 minutes of the session but Mia, Alex and Georgie stayed on for the whole hour and worked on the tactics that they would be using in the afternoon practice sets.

Shortly after we finished the session we returned to the hotel to have a second breakfast and relax for a while before we met again in the lobby at 11.30am to go through some psychology work. To maintain the player’s interest levels and concentration I limited the session to 25-30 minutes and then we hit the gym from 12-1pm to complete some conditioning work. Because there was only one day to go until the players were competing they just had a light session which was mainly movement based but they both worked hard throughout.

We returned to the club to find out that Katie had cruised through her last round qualifying match and then we all headed down to Pizza Hut to get some lunch.

After a short break it was time for the players to warm up for their second session of the day where Mia took on Georgie and Alex took on Daniel Superlano from Venezuela in a practice set. Both sets were of good quality; Mia took an early leaded but then had to fight back from 5-3 down before she eventually lost a close tie-break and Alex led 3-2 before his opponent upped his level and went on to take the set 6-4.

Both Mia and Alex were happy with their sets and felt as though they’d prepared well for the main draw tomorrow so it was just left for them to sign in before we got a taxi back to the hotel.

When we got back we headed straight to the gym to cool down and stretch out before we showered and changed ready for Katie’s birthday meal at TGI Fridays!

Despite a bit of a wait for all the steaks that were ordered we had a good meal which was topped off with a rather nice piece of Katie’s Smarties birthday cake!!

Schedule for tomorrow:

Alex Hagon (GBR) (1805) vs Patrick Nkrumah (TRI) (UNR) – 5^th match after 9am (not before 1pm)

Elizabeth Sutherland (USA) (641) vs Mia Smith (GBR) (755) – 5^th match after 9am (not before 1pm)

Saturday 23^rd March 2013

It was another good training day in the hot and humid conditions here in Trinidad as main draw is fast approaching.

It was an early start today as we met for breakfast at 6.30am but as we’re still adjusting to the time difference some of us were wide awake at 5am!! We met Georgie Axon and her dad Jeremy at breakfast as they’d arrived late last night and then at 7.15am we met up with Katie and got the first shuttle bus of the day to the courts.

The courts were surprisingly busy at 7.30am this morning but after a good 25 minutes of physical warm ups and band work we trained on centre court from 8-9am. Katie stayed on court for around 30 minutes as she just wanted to have a pre-match warm up but Mia, Alex and Georgie stayed on for the hour and went through some specific drills to increase their consistency. Georgie had  adapted to the courts and the conditions really well while the training that Mia and Alex had completed in the last couple of days was starting to show.

After the session we returned to the hotel so that we could have a break from the heat and relax for a couple of hours. Then at 12pm we went into the gym to complete the player’s scheduled strength and conditioning work before returning to the club at 1.15pm to get some lunch.

During the time that we’d been back at the hotel Katie had won her first match and then at 2pm she went on court for her 2^nd round which she again won convincingly. Mia, Alex, Georgie and I warmed up for our 2^nd session of the day at 3.40pm and then had a good hour of point play from 4-5pm. The levels of all three players was good throughout the session and they’re are getting very close to their match level which is good to see with 1 more training day to go.

It was then back to the hotel and straight into the gym to cool down and stretch out before meeting everyone for dinner at 6.30pm.

As the restaurant at the hotel is quite expensive we decided to venture out this evening to TGI Fridays, much to the delight of the players. We all had a good meal and even when you take into account the cost of the taxi to and from the restaurant it still worked out a lot cheaper than paying for dinner at the hotel.

We arrived back to the hotel at around 8.45pm and, as it was quite late and we’ve got another early start tomorrow, I decided that we’d do the planned psychology work during the day tomorrow.

Friday 23^rd March 2013

It was another good preparation day today as we started to increase the volume of training and at the same time the players became more accustomed to the intense heat on court.

After a 7.30am breakfast we met up with Katie Swan, her mum Nicki and brother Luke (who had all arrived last night from Wichita in Kansas) in reception at 8.45am and then took a taxi to the courts. Katie is playing in qualifying this week as she is currently unranked and so today was her only day of preparation before the qualifying matches start tomorrow.

After a good 25 minute warm up we managed to get two courts for almost the whole hour and a half session which meant that I could spend a lot of time with Alex and the girls could train together. The session consisted of a lot of drilling to again get used to the courts and the conditions and even though it was mid-morning the temperature was getting hot which meant the players needed a lot of time to rest and refuel. We finished the session with some serving points and by 11.30am everyone definitely felt as though they’d worked hard and put in a good training session.

Luckily they had fixed the showers at the club as yesterday there was barely a dribble coming out so after showering and changing we all headed to Pizza Hut to get lunch. It was then time to visit the supermarket again to stock up on water and Mia and Alex made a very professional decision to buy a cool box between them to keep their drinks cold throughout the day – they dismissed the idea yesterday but after experiencing the heat again today they knew it would be a wise move!!

This afternoon we warmed up just after 1pm and then went on court for just over an hour to play a practice set; Mia took on Katie while Alex and I battled it out. Both sets were well fought and it was obvious nobody wanted to lose but in the end Katie and I both came out on top 6-2.

We then had a little bit of time to kill while we waited for Nicki and Luke to return with Katie’s passport for sign in which gave Alex an opportunity to clock up 3 million points on Subway Surfers which now puts him in the lead!

Once Nicki had arrived, Mia, Alex and I went back to the hotel and straight into the gym to go through their specific strength and conditioning sessions for the day. Alex had some tough intervals (which I joined him on!) and injury prevention work while Mia’s programme included some light strength work. Both sessions took around 45minutes and then we all foam rolled and stretched out to end a really good training day.

After a break to relax we headed out to dinner by the swimming pool at just after 6.30pm and then it was back upstairs to the lobby at 8pm for our daily psychology session which today was “Rules of Engagement”. It basically was an opportunity for the players to list the things they are going to accept that happens on the court and also the things that they expect of themselves while on the court. Mia and Alex did the task very well and ended up finishing with a very professional “Top 10”.

Katie plays in qualifying tomorrow so we’ve got an early start to get on court at 8am but hopefully it’ll be a bit cooler then!!

Thursday 21^st March 2013

After 20+ hours of travelling yesterday we finally arrived at the hotel in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago at just before 11pm last night. The team for the next three weeks of Grade 4 U18 ITFs is Mia Smith and Alex Hagon with Georgie Axon joining us for the 3^rd week in Guadeloupe.

At 8am this morning I was wide awake and even though we’d planned on having breakfast at 9.30am, both Mia and Alex were up early and wanted to eat! As you’d expect in a Hilton Hotel the breakfast was excellent and gave us a good opportunity to refuel after not eating that much on either of the flights yesterday. After breakfast we spend a while getting used to where everything was at the hotel and managed to find the gym despite getting lost! At most ITFs you don’t have access to a gym but we’re going to make sure we make full use of the one here (much to the player’s delight!!).

At 11am we took a taxi the short 10 minute journey to the courts and after walking to the local supermarket to stock up on water we eventually started warming up on court around 12.30pm. The facilities at the tennis centre are quite basic but well maintained and the courts are very good. After a good 30 minute warm up the plan was to spend an hour training to get used to the courts and the hot conditions but after about 20 minutes Alex wasn’t feeling well and ended up being sick on court which meant I had to step in!! Mia and I carried on with the rest of the session but I think the travel yesterday combined with the intense heat and humidity made us all feel a little rough.

At around 2pm we walked the short distance to the end of the road to Pizza Hut to get some lunch (only pasta allowed though!) and we were very surprised to hear that in the restaurant they have to give an estimated time for food and drinks – 3 minutes for drinks (they took 2 minutes!) and 12 minutes for food (which was spot on!). We were then back at the club by 3.30pm and not long after Mia and Alex started their warm ups for our 2^nd session of the day.

Alex managed to get through the whole session and Mia was feeling better too but the heat was still getting to both of them which resulted in a much lower level than normal. We thought that would be the case today and had discussed it earlier so neither of them were too worried especially as we’ve still got 3 more days until they both compete in the main draw.

After the session we went back to the hotel and straight into the gym to cool down and stretch out before having some time to ourselves before dinner.

We had dinner tonight at the hotel and then afterwards we had our first preparation / psychology session which we will try to do each evening so that the players have a chance to reflect on the day’s activities and discuss their thoughts. Tonight was performance / outcome goal setting for the trip and also a game plan for playing yourself which turned out to be a lot harder than the players thought!!

Katie Swan joins us tomorrow having recently moved to America and Georgie Axon will be arriving tomorrow evening so, combined with Robbie and Charlie Ridout who arrived today, we should have a good British contingent out here!