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Podgorica U18 ITF Grade 5, Day 6

Saturday 1st June 2013

There was disappointment in the singles today but a superb performance in the doubles final from both Holly and Georgie put smiles on everyone’s faces and ended the trip on a very positive result.

We woke up to very heavy rain this morning and after breakfast Georgie decided she’d rather wait at the hotel for a while than go to the club which was definitely the right call. In the end we got a taxi and 9.30am just as the rain was starting to ease but when we arrived at the club every court was completely submerged in water!

The referee made an early decision that if the rain stopped we would play the singles semi-finals but if it didn’t then the doubles final would be on the indoor court at 4pm. With no practice courts available indoors until 1pm we killed time by preparing for the matches, watching the French Open, eating (I’m sure Alex is trying to set a new record for most Paninis eaten in one day!) and playing cards for some interesting forfeits!!

At 12.30pm Holly and Georgie warmed up before getting on the fast indoor hard court to hit at 1pm. At 1.15pm the referee came in to say that the newer courts 5 & 6 were dry and ready for play so the Georgie got changed and then took to the court at just before 1.30pm to face number 1 seed Tereza Mihalikova from Slovakia.

As you develop as an international junior the level at which you play matches becomes more consistent and the amount of ‘bad days’ you have become less. Then when you move into professional tennis hopefully these ‘bad days’ become very few and far between. Unfortunately today Georgie had a ‘BAD DAY!’

From the start of the match Georgie struggled with finding not only a level to compete with her opponent but also a consistency. She would play one good point but could not back it up with another and so could not string enough points together to win games. At *0-5 Georgie held serve to get a game on the board but Tereza went on to take the opening set 6-1 with stats of 8 winners / 7 unforced errors compared to Georgie’s of 6 winners and 17 unforced errors.

 

Georgie serving during the first set

 

The second set was much the same as the first with Georgie just not being able to set the points up without breaking down early. There was a rain delay with Georgie serving at *0-4 which gave me and Georgie a chance to go straight onto the indoor court to try and find some rhythm and loosen up her shots. Unfortunately it didn’t have the affect we were hoping for and when they returned to the court 30 minutes later Georgie lost the next 7 points in a row to go down 6-1, 6-0.

The performance was very unlike Georgie but we had to put it behind us quickly and move on to get prepared for the doubles final.

Holly and Georgie went on to the indoor court at 6.30pm for the doubles final against top seeds Tereza Mihalikova from Slovakia and Kseniia Bekker from Russia. We talked before the match about reproducing the level that they had found in the semi-finals and being brave enough to do it when it really counted in the final . . . and they did just that!

The start of the doubles final

The level that both girls found from the start of the match was very high and after breaking in the first game after a sudden death deuce point they went on to take a *3-0 lead. Georgie was then broken and their opponents held to close the gap but it didn’t stop Holly or Georgie from continuing to play to a very high level. Holly held serve and then two games followed that both went to sudden death deuce; one on Tereza’s serve and then one on Georgie’s serve with us coming out on top in both games to take the set 6-2.

Holly calling the serve out while Georgie focuses on the return

Our girls started the second set very confidently and again broke in the first game but couldn’t hold onto it and Holly was broken straight back – 1-1 and looking tight! From there Holly and Georgie raised their levels to take 4 out of the next 5 games and be in complete control of the match. At *5-2 Georgie was broken to love but the girls stayed calm and at 5-3*, 40-15 they had three match points. Both of their opponents played all of them very well to hold serve and so now it was up to Holly to serve out the match. Despite Holly having match points in the doubles final in Nairobi in February and losing the experience hopefully helped her today as she served well when it mattered on sudden death deuce! Holly made a great first serve which Georgie crossed on and buried the volley – game, set and match!

The girls were really pleased with the win and I was very proud of how well they performed under pressure against two tough competitors.

To view the video of the match point please see the Facebook page: www.facebook.com/itctennis1

After the match we had the prize giving and here‘s Holly and Georgie with their trophies.

We headed back for dinner at 9pm and there was no way Holly or Georgie were going to turn down the chance to have Pizza!

We’ve got a rest day tomorrow and then it’s back to England on Monday. It’ been a long two weeks due to the very poor weather but there have been some very good performances and it was fantastic to finish the trip with a title.

Next stop Bermuda at the end of the month!

Podgorica U18 ITF Grade 5, Day 5

Friday 31st May 2013

It was another very successful day today as Georgie advanced to the singles semi-final while Holly and Georgie teamed up to destroy the 2nd seeds in the doubles semi-final.

It was another early start for the team this morning but after telling the players they could be at breakfast between 6.45-7am I was very surprised when I arrived at 6.45am to find them all there!

We got a taxi over to the club at 7.45am but when we arrived all of the courts were out of action due to a storm last night. At around 8.15am the referee said that 2 courts were fit for practice so there would be space for the 16 main draw players to hit in 2 sessions of 20 minutes at 8.20am. That was perfect for us and Georgie and Holly spent 20 minutes warming up before hitting from 8.40am until the matches started at 9am.

During the next 2 hours I met with both Georgie and Holly to review their matches from yesterday and then get them prepared for today. Georgie’s game plan was a little different today; she’d been working throughout the trip on being aggressive from the back of the court and taking more balls on but against the big hitting Romanian those tactics would have played right into her opponents hands. Instead today was about playing smart, taking some pace off and finding more angles to make her opponent cover more ground.

Georgie went on at 10.45am to play Christiana Tudor and was fully prepared to deal with the Romanian’s antics and arguments with her mother! Georgie broke 3 times in the first 6 games but was broken back straight away each time. She finally held to level the set at 4-4* and by this stage she was starting to find the middle ground between being too passive and too aggressive. Georgie went on to break again and then held her serve well to take the opening set.

I was hoping for the second set to be more one sided after Georgie broke in the opening game but she really struggled to hurt Christiana from the end of the court where the wind was blowing in her face. In fact, up until 3-3 every game that was played into the wind was lost until Christiana held serve to lead 4-3. At this stage Georgie changed ends to have the wind behind her and held serve comfortably. The next game was very long but Georgie finally came out on top and would serve for the match facing the wind. When she came down my end I encouraged her to play more like she was on a hard court to get a better depth and penetrate more which she did immediately. That led to her holding serve for the first time from that end and taking the match 6-4, 6-4. It wasn’t a great performance from Georgie today but the conditions were tough and her opponent was difficult to deal with throughout.

Georgie only had just over an hour break between matches and most of it was spent talking about the singles match and getting some lunch. Her and Holly then went on court at 2pm to face 2nd seeds Milica Novakovic & Ege Tomey.

Georgie and Holly during their impressive doubles performance

I’ve always been a firm believer that doubles, and especially girls / women’s doubles, can be quite simple if you have a pair on court who know what they are doing and are willing take risks at the net. I’ve worked with players who have played doubles from U14 European level to winning $100k challenger events and all the way up to Grand Slam level and it’s the ones that do the basics well that are always the most successful.

Today’s doubles semi-final was up there with one of the most satisfying doubles wins I’ve ever had players involved in. Both players played extremely well and Holly in particular played outstanding both from the back of the court and at the net. Georgie and Holly completely took their opponents apart and even a couple of breaks of serve against them in the second set couldn’t distract them as they stormed through 6-0, 6-2.

Too good!

It was great to see Holly with a big smile on her face at the end of the match after her difficult singles match yesterday but Georgie still thought that she should have played better!! We all stayed on the court straight after the doubles to do some specific work with Georgie following her singles match and when Georgie was happy with her level we called it a day.

While Georgie and Holly had been on court, Katty and Alex were having a good training session themselves and finished off with a couple of good practice sets. Once they were done the whole team had a thorough stretch out and we managed to get away from the club early today at 4.30pm.

As Katty is flying home tomorrow the dinner this evening included the trip quiz but I was totally shocked by how little the players know about the basics in tennis e.g. height of the net, length of the court etc. Georgie eventually came out on top with a score of 17 out of 60 so her dinner and dessert was paid for by me while Holly Horsfall had the closest guess of how many games in total everyone had played this week – she guessed 393 and the total was 397!

All of the players spread out in the restaurant trying to solve the bonus question!

Her prize for the bonus question was a bar of chocolate which made the rest of the team very jealous!!

A final team photo with the waiter – Alex doesn’t look convinced!!

Schedule for tomorrow:

(1) Tereza Mihalikova (SVK) (263) vs (4) Georgie Axon (GBR) (379) – 1st match at 10am

Girl’s Doubles Final:

(1) Kseniia Bekker (RUS) & Tereza Mihalikova (SVK) vs (3) Georgie Axon (GBR) & Holly Hutchinson (GBR) – after rest

Podgorica U18 ITF Grade 5, Day 4

Thursday 30th May 2013

2 wins out of 4 today means that we have one player in the ¼ finals of the singles and one team in the semi-finals of the doubles.

After just 5 and a half hours sleep I was up at 6am this morning to get ready for a long day at the club. We knew that some rain had been forecast but we didn’t expect it to start as soon as we made our way over to the club at 7.45am.

While Holly Hutchinson, Georgie, Alex and I were warming up the rain was quite light but from 8.30-9am it brightened up which meant we could get a good practice session in before the matches started at 9am.

There were a couple of rain delays during the first round of matches but fellow Brit Lewis Roskilly did us a big favour by flying through his match 6-1, 6-0 as Georgie was next on that court.

After trying to start their match once but failing due to the rain, Georgie and Mia Jurasic from Croatia finally started at 11.15am and by the way Georgie began she wasn’t in the mood to hang around for the next spell of rain! She took a 3-1 lead with some solid tennis and then raised her level to extend the lead to 5-1. While Georgie was serving for the set at *5-2 the rain came down again but Mia didn’t want to leave the court as she was up *15-40 in that game. Georgie held her ground and the referee finally arrived to say it was too wet and suspended play.

A very wet court 5 and court 6

We then had a break for exactly 2 hours which gave us plenty of time to get some lunch and talk through the set before they returned to the court at 2pm.

Holly keeping us entertained during the rain delay after losing at cards!

Georgie was broken after having a set point on her serve and then Mia put more pressure on by holding her own serve in the next game. Georgie stayed strong though and served it out the second time of asking to take the set 6-4.

The second set scoreline was much more one sided but it wasn’t until 4-1 up when Georgie really relaxed and really started taking the ball on which lead to her taking the match 6-4, 6-1.

Once the other courts had dried out Holly was moved to court 1 at 4.30pm to face Andrada Surdeanu from Romania. Holly lost to Andrada last week in a poor match and was definitely prepared for her this week. The first 4 games all went against serve but Holly’s level of hitting from the back of the court was very good. She knew that she needed to be aggressive and take on short balls / drive volleys to take her opponents time away and she was doing it very effectively. Unfortunately Holly lost a little confidence at 2-2* which lead Andrada to hold twice and break twice to take the first set 6-2.

At a junior level most players think that if they lose a first set they need to completely change their tactics for the second set but a lot of the time they just need to be more effective with them and execute their shots better. Holly had played a good first set but her unforced error count hurt her too much (24 from Holly vs 5 from Andrada). Holly started the second set well but wasn’t moving forwards as much as in the first set which made life more comfortable for her opponent. Holly was broken again at *2-3 and despite having lots of points to break back in the 18 point next game she eventually went 2-5 down. Holly struggled again in her last service game, managing only 3 out of 8 first serves which lead to her being broken to lose the match 6-2, 6-2. It was definitely a better performance than last week in all areas and if Holly could have kept her belief up and kept playing the way that she did at the start of the match it could have been a different outcome.

After Holly’s match we had just one hour before Holly Horsfall and Elyse and Holly Hutchinson and Georgie went on for their doubles matches. They were put on courts behind each other so we sat between the two courts and tried to keep up with what was happening in both matches.

Georgie & Holly were taking on Agata Borgman & Sonia Grzywocz from Poland while Holly & Elyse had a tough draw against 4th seeds Tamara Kupkova from Slovakia & Cristiana Tudor from Romania.

Georgie and Holly played the best match that I’d seen from them on the trip and looked like a very sound doubles pair as they came through to win 6-1, 6-2 but unfortunately Holly and Elyse struggled against a strong pair and were never able to really get a firm hold on the match as they went down 6-2, 6-3.

We got back to the hotel around 9pm and then had a late dinner before everyone went off to bed to get as much sleep as possible before another early start tomorrow.

Schedule for tomorrow:

(4) Georgie Axon (GBR) vs (5) Cristiana Tudor (ROU) – 2nd match after 9am

(3) Georgie Axon (GBR) & Holly Hutchinson (GBR) vs (2) Milica Novakovic (SRB) & Ege Tomey (TUR) – After Rest

Podgorica U18 ITF Grade 5, Day 3

Wednesday 29th May 2013

In a change to the normal way I write the daily Blog I thought I’d give you a timeline for our day today:

6am – Wake up and get everything prepared for day

6.45am – Meet Alex and Katty for breakfast . . . well, Alex was there, Katty was still asleep!!

7.10am – Get a taxi to the tennis club

7.25am – After signing in for onsite alternate Katty and Alex trained on court until 8am

8.15am – I met with Katty to go through her match from yesterday

8.30am – Both Hollys and Georgie arrive onsite and all of the players sign in for doubles. The girls then warm up and then hit briefly on the indoor hard court

9.15am – Get a taxi to another club to practice on the clay as all courts were used at the main club for matches

9.45 – 10.15am – Georgie, Holly, Holly and Katty go through their pre-match hit on court before their singles matches

Georgie, Holly Hutchinson, Holly Horsfall and Katty training at the other club before their matches

10.15 – Go back to the tournament site

10.45am – Holly Hutchinson goes on for her 1st round match against Ivana Tasevska (MKD) (1342). After taking a 5-3 lead she eventually takes the tie-break 7-6(3) and then cruises through the 2nd set 6-0 with some very consistent and confident clay court tennis.

Holly exploding into a forehand during her 1st round singles match

 

12.30pm – Holly Horsfall goes on the same court after Holly’s win to play Ena Camdzic (BIH) (1098). Holly’s opponent plays a very strong first set hitting 10 winners on her way to taking it 6-1. Holly fought hard in the 2nd set and recovered from 3-5* down to level the set but eventually went down 6-1, 7-5.

Holly being strong behind the ball on her backhand

2.15pm – Georgie followed Holly’s match on the same court again (by this stage my bum was starting to go numb!) to take on (LL) Doris Aleksovska (MKD) (2065). As Holly Horsfall had beaten Doris yesterday we knew her well and Georgie took full control from the start. Georgie worked on her game throughout the match and after leading 4-0 in each set she finally won 6-2, 6-1.

Georgie keeping her eyes on the mark as she calls the ball out

3.45pm – After over 5 hours sitting in the same spot I managed to have a break and get some lunch!

The concrete was nice and soft to sit on though!!

5.15pm – Alex & Geoffrey Blancheaux (FRA) go on court to play 4th seeds Michal Rolski & Panel Zawisza from Poland. The tall Polish pair were just physically too strong for our boys and won the match 6-1, 6-1.

6.20pm – As soon as Alex had finished 3rd seeds Holly Hutchinson & Georgie went on the next court to play Doris Aleksovska (MKD) & Nermeen Shawky (EGY). Despite a slow start Holly and Georgie took the opening set 6-2 but then a lapse of concentration in the second set resulted in them losing the set 7-5. They managed to recover though and took the match tie-break 10-6 – a big lesson learned!!

8.15pm – Straight after Holly and Georgie had won I had a debate with the referee about how long we’d been onsite (13 hours by this stage) but he was adamant that is will rain tomorrow so we must finish all of the matches tonight. Holly Hutchinson, Georgie and Alex get a taxi back to the hotel.

8.50pm – Katty & Julijana Petrovic from Serbia take to the court to play 2nd seeds Milica Novakovic (SRB) & Ege Tomey (TUR).

9pm – Holly Horsfall & Elyse Lavender (USA) go on court 1 to play Nina Kalezic & Ivana Klac from Montenegro.

10.15pm – Holly and Elyse come through a tricky match 6-2, 6-3 and played some very good doubles throughout. Meanwhile Katty and Julijana are still on after some big disputes over the score in the first set. They went 6-2, 5-2 down but then fought back (Katty playing almost single-handed as her partner lost interest!) to go 6-5 up. Then in the tie-break they went 6-1 down before eventually going out 6-2, 7-6(6) – tough match especially as Katty had to do most of the work!

11pm – Eventually leave site after arriving 15 hours 30 minutes ago (8 hours of which was spent watching matches on court number 6!)

11.15pm – Order dinner at the hotel restaurant with Holly Horsfall, Katty, Elyse and Dawn.

12am – Finally get back to my room and start to edit photos and write this Blog!

1am  – Sleep (hopefully!)

Up in 5 hours to do it all over again but I love every minute of it!

Schedule for tomorrow:

(4) Georgie Axon (GBR) (379) vs Mia Jurasic (CRO) – 2nd match after 9am

(8) Holly Hutchinson (GBR) (827) vs Andrada Surdeanu (ROU) (1360) – 3rd match after 9am

Agata Borgman (POL) & Sonia Grzywocz (POL) vs (3) Georgie Axon (GBR) & Holly Hutchinson (GBR) – To be arranged

(4) Tamara Kupkova (SVK) & Cristiana Tudor (ROU) vs Holly Horsfall (GBR) & Elyse Lavender (USA) – To be arranged

Podgorica U18 ITF Grade 5, Day 2

Tuesday 28th May 2013

It was a mixed day of emotions today as we ended up winning 3 out of 5 matches but only 1 of the 3 players managed to qualify for the main draw.

It was an early start for Holly Horsfall, Katty, Alex and I as we needed to have breakfast at 6.45am so that we could get to the club for 7.30am to warm up before our 8am practice. I trained with Alex and the two girls hit together for the 30 minute pre-match warm-up. After the session they all completed their pre-match sheets and then it was game time!

Alex was first up to face the very tall and strong 8th seed Ognjen Sunjevaric from Serbia at 9am. Just as they were about to start Georgie and Holly Hutchinson arrived to add their support to the team but Alex struggled at the start and was broken in the 1st game. The Serbian’s height and strength meant that Alex found it difficult to break him down and he soon found himself 1-4* down. Alex was playing well up until this stage but wasn’t quite getting enough on the ball to force his opponent to miss, but in the next game he upped his level and broke the Serbian for the first time. Unfortunately Ognjen then raised his game to take the next two games and the first set 6-2 with stats of 10 winners and only 6 unforced errors.

In the second set Alex struggled at the start; instead of sticking to his original game plan and trying to do it better he became a little too passive which resulted in the Serbian taking a 4-0 lead. Alex’s attitude then changed and with it so did his performance. The next few games were the best he played in the match but by this stage his opponent was full of confidence and went on to win 6-2, 6-2.

There wasn’t much of a break between matches as Katty took to the court at 11am to play Andjela Laban from Montenegro. I was impressed with how Katty had played in her opening match yesterday and she continued that form into today’s match with some very aggressive tennis. After breaking and holding in the first two games Katty went on to take the first set 6-0 and was in full control of every rally.

The second set was equally as good and even when her opponent’s dad turned up and started making line calls for his daughter, Katty stayed focussed and went on to take the match 6-0, 6-0.

Holly Horsfall followed Katty’s match on court 3 at 12pm and she was up against tricky Croatian Gorana Kadjevic. Holly’s level has been getting better and better as the trip has gone on and if she had played this match a week ago the scoreline might have been different. Holly took a commanding 3-1* lead with some precise hitting from the back but then she threw in two poor service games at *3-2 and *4-3 to let her opponent back in. At 5-5* with her opponent serving at 40-0 up, Holly played some very solid tennis and took one point at a time which lead to her coming back and breaking. Holly then continued the momentum that she had gained from that game to hold and take the first set 7-5.

The second set was more one-sided; Holly raised her game from the start and cut out a lot of the unforced errors that hurt her in the first set which led to her taking a *4-1 lead. Holly was then broken in the next game but that didn’t distract her as she broke and held to take the match 7-5, 6-2.

From Holly’s match I went straight on court with Katty to hit some serves and then spent some time with Holly Hutchinson and Georgie who were practicing on court 6.

Holly and Georgie training on the brand new courts

I then had a short break to get some lunch before Katty went back on court at around 3.30pm to take on qualifying number 2 seed Lejla Colic from Bosnia and Herzegovina. Katty started well and the first 3 games went with serve before the rain came down. After a brief delay the girls were back on the court and Katty took control by breaking her opponent in the next game. The next 3 games all went against serve as Katty was struggling with her first serve consistency but at *5-3 she made 5 out of 5 first serves to hold and take the set.

Just as Katty was finishing the first set, Holly Horsfall went on for her last round of qualifying match against Doris Aleksovska from Macedonia. I moved positions to watch both matches and this was the view I had:

Split screen – Holly on the left and Katty on the right!

It wasn’t easy to keep one eye on each match but I had the support of the other players in the team to help me. Holly struggled at the start of her opening set and went 0-2 down before she worked out what she needed to do! She won the next 5 games in a row with some strong tennis against a tricky lefty and then closed out the set 6-3.

Unfortunately Katty on the next court was having more difficulties in her match; she broke Lejla in the opening game of the set but again struggled with her serve and was broken straight back. The set then went with serve until *3-4 when Katty was broken but she responded well to break straight back. However, when Katty lost the next game on her own serve to level the match at one set all there was a big change in mindset from both players. Katty’s head dropped as she felt she couldn’t win a game on her own serve even though up until this point the girls had broken each other the same amount of times. The change in attitude of both players resulted in Katty losing the next 6 games in a row to eventually go down 3-6, 6-4, 6-0.

Holly Horsfall was looking strong throughout her second set as she found great width on both sides, especially on her forehand cross court which she’d been working hard on all trip. Holly took a 4-2 lead and then after a few close games she went on to take the match 6-3, 6-4 to secure her qualifying place in a main draw of an ITF for the first time.

There was mixed emotions in the team after the matches; joy for Holly but disappointment for Alex and Katty but by the time we got to dinner and played some cards everyone was in a better mood!

Girl’s Singles Main Draw

Schedule for tomorrow:

(8) Holly Hutchinson (GBR) (827) vs Ivana Tasevska (MKD) (1342) – 3rd match after 8am

(Q) Holly Horsfall (GBR) (1904) vs Ena Camdzic (BIH) (1098) – 4th match after 8am

(4) Georgina Axon (GBR) (379) vs (LL) Doris Aleksovska (MKD) (2065) – 5th match after 8am

Podgorica U18 ITF Grade 5, Day 1

Monday 27th May 2013

It was a good 1st day at the Podgorica Open today as both Alex and Katty started their tournaments off with a win in the first round of qualifying and then we ended the day with a little climb up a mountain!

Everyone met for breakfast this morning at 7.30am and then we got two taxis over to the tournament site at 8.45am. The drive to the club is quite picturesque as you follow a valley in the mountains and when we arrived at the club the first thing we noticed was the amazing scenery. The players were quite impressed by the club, especially as it had a TV and Wi-Fi!!

The view from behind the courts

Georgie and Holly Hutchinson decided that they wanted a day off from tennis today so they did some strength and conditioning work while Holly Horsfall, Katty, Alex and I warmed up. As Holly had a bye in the first round of qualifying she wasn’t able to practice this morning but Katty and Alex managed to share a court with two of the Turkish players for their pre-match warm-up.

Katty and Alex warming up with the Turkish team

We finished the session at 10am when the first round matches went on and then Katty and Alex completed their pre-match sheets in preparation for their singles matches. Once Holly and Georgie had finished their training we all met on the balcony for the players to write a review of last week and set their goals for the tournament this week. Everyone did it well (even if it did take them a while to get going!) and it’ll be interesting to see if they can reach their goals for this week.

At just after 12pm Katty went on to face Katsiaryna Skachkova from Belarus. The first couple of games were a bit edgy from both players but once Katty held serve to level the set at 1-1* she relaxed and started to produce  a good level of tennis. Katty has a very good physical intensity and works hard for each point which made life very difficult for her young opponent. Katty took a 5-1 lead but then her opponent raised her level and took the next two games before Katty closed out the set 6-3.

In the second set Katty was much more relaxed but her attitude was just as ruthless! She raced to a 5-0 lead with some very aggressive tennis from the back and the front of the court before finishing off her opponent 6-3, 6-1.

After the match we got some lunch and then at 2pm it was time for Holly Horsfall to get some time on the clay. She trained with me for the first 30 minutes of the session and then Elyse Lavender joined us for the last 30 minutes.

Following that session Alex took to the court at 3.15pm to take on Jovan Macic from Montenegro. The level from the start of the match was very high with both players competing hard from the back of the court but it was Alex that broke early and took control at *2-1. Alex was dictating play from the back of the court and he stuck to his goal of trying to keep each rally to 60/40 in his favour. Doing that, combined with some excellent moves forwards to the net to finish points, saw Alex go on to take the first set 6-1.

Alex continued to play the best tennis that I’d seen from him on a match court at the start of the second set and immediately took a 4-0 lead. With his dad barking instructions at him from the side of the court Jovan fought back from 5-1 down to 5-3 but Alex stayed strong and served it out to take the match 6-1, 6-3.

After two good performances the whole team were happy but Georgie, Holly Horsfall and Elyse didn’t want to end the day without trying to climb up the big hill opposite the club! It was probably my fault as I’d been saying all day how good the view must be from up there so I decided to go with them to give it a go. It was a pretty steep climb and after getting about ¼ of the way up I decided that was far enough for today . . . here’s the view we had:

The view of the club as we started our climb . . .

. . . and then from where we eventually got to!

After getting back to the hotel at around 6pm the players had an hour to shower, change and relax before we met for dinner at 7pm. We had a very intense game of cards over dinner which saw me just beat Alex in the final two so at some point this week he’s got to re-enact this classic “Night-time, daytime” to the whole restaurant!!

Schedule for tomorrow:

Alex Hagon (GBR) (1680) vs (8) Ognjen Sunjevaric (SRB) (1680) – 1st match at 9am

Katty Weymouth (GBR) (UNR) vs Andjela Laban (MNE) (UNR) – 2nd match after 9am (not before 10am)

(3) Holly Horsfall (GBR) (1904) vs Gorana Kadijevic (CR0) (UNR) – 3rd match after 9am

Final qualifying rounds will follow after rest

 

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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