Thursday 10^th October 2013

It was our rest day today which meant that Holly and Alex could choose to do whatever they wanted . . . which wasn’t much!!

I decided to get up early and head over to the club to get some physio treatment on the tendonitis in my wrist but, after 30 minutes of intense pain as the guy worked on my forearm, I wished I’d stayed in bed!! I was also hoping to watch some of Holly Hutchinson’s semi-final but it rained heavily throughout the morning so the match was delayed.

Check out the video of the match point on the Facebook page – www.facebook.com/itctennis1

When I returned to the hotel Holly and Alex were just leaving breakfast . . . at 10.30am! I asked them what they wanted to do for the day – maybe check out some sights around Colombo, or take a Tuk Tuk journey to a local shopping mall, or go for a walk to see the floating temple close to the hotel, but no, they wanted to chill in the apartment!! That’s fair enough though as they’ve been training and competing hard for the last week but I had to do something so I went into the gym to do some leg weights for my London marathon training. It was a tough session but the best ones always are!

We all got some lunch and as it was a rest day the food rules were relaxed a little; Alex went for the buffet while Holly and I had a chicken burger . . . and boy was it big! Holly’s appetite is definitely back after not feeling well earlier in the trip and she did very well to get through it all. Over lunch we got the great news that Holly Hutchinson had won her semi-final 6-3, 6-0 to move into her first ITF final tomorrow. Holly’s been playing well all week and has gone about her business very professionally.

After lunch we headed over to the club so that Holly and Alex could get a massage from the physio and I could get some more treatment on my wrist. The rain had stopped over lunch but just as we were in the Tuk Tuk driving to the club the heavens opened again. The rain started to pour into the Tuk Tuk as Alex and I frantically tried to put the sides down to keep us dry – it didn’t help that the driver then stalled it and we got stuck for a good minute or two while he tried to get it going again!

We returned to the hotel at around 5pm and then relaxed before going down for dinner at 7pm. Tonight’s theme was “Asian night” and the buffet included Chinese, Japanese and Vietnamese foods as well as some Indian dishes – it was another excellent meal and we all couldn’t resist giving the desserts a try!

It’s back to normal training tomorrow which is a good job as I need to burn off some of the food from today!

Time to get our clay court shoes on and get sliding!

Wednesday 9^th October 2013

It was a tough day for the team today as 3 losses out of 3 matches saw our first week of competition come to an abrupt end!

We had another early start this morning as Holly was scheduled first on at 8.30am. That meant a 6.30am breakfast and then a 7am shuttle to the club so that we could warm up and get on court to hit from 7.30-8am. Holly hit with Holly Hutchinson again and both girls trained well to prepare for their ¼ final matches.

Between 8am and when Holly went on court for her match at 8.30am we recapped on the notes from the match yesterday and then planned the goals and tactics for today’s match against top seed Ria Vaidya from Singapore.

Holly didn’t start the match too well and really struggled with her timing after finding it difficult to return Ria’s serve in the opening game. Even though the set went with serve until *3-4, I felt as though the momentum with mainly with Ria as she was holding comfortably and making Holly work hard to hold each of her own service games. Ria broke at *3-4 and then played a solid service game to take the opening set 6-3.

There wasn’t a lot between the two players throughout the first set and I knew that if Holly relaxed a little and didn’t try to hit the ball too well then her timing issues would be solved. Holly did just that at the start of the second set; after holding serve from *15-40 down in the opening game her confidence increased, she relaxed more and her timing got a lot better. Just like in the first set the games all went with serve but this time Holly made life a lot more difficult for Ria who was starting to show a few signs of frustration. At *5-5 Holly had a 14 point service game but despite taking a 40-15 lead she couldn’t hold serve and was broken – even a dog coming on to the court at 15-15 couldn’t help her!! Ria then held serve to take the match 6-3, 7-5.

It was a close match and Holly had her chances but Ria is a tough competitor and kept her nerve when Holly started to put the pressure on. The match will give Holly a lot of experience and hopefully she learnt a lot from her first ITF ¼ final.

Following the match we had a couple of hours before Holly was due back on court for her doubles so we quickly got a Tuk Tuk back to the hotel to get some lunch. We then returned to the club at 2pm and Holly went on for her first round match with Pei Hsuan Chen from Chinese Taipei at just before 3pm.

Despite the girls finding it a little difficult to communicate they started the match well and took a 4-2 lead. However, their opponents fought back and played some good doubles to win 5 out of the next 6 games to take the opening set 7-5. I was very surprised to see Holly and Pei lose the opening set as they were also playing well but three sudden death deuce games at 4-4*, 5-5* and *5-6 all went against them which was a major factor in the outcome of the set.

Our girls quickly put the disappointment of losing the first set behind them and raced to a 4-0* lead in the second set. I then thought they were going to have the same problem as in the first set as they lost 3 out of 3 sudden death deuce games out of 6 games but Pei held her serve when it mattered at *5-4 to take the set 6-4.

The match tie-break third set was a real roller coaster; we went 1-3* down, then fought back to lead 7-5 and then finally their opponents took the next 5 point to take the match 7-5, 4-6, 10-7. It was a disappointing loss as I think Holly and Pei were the better doubles pair but if you don’t convert the important points then you are always going to struggle. Out of a total of 8 sudden death deuce game we only managed to win 3 of them!

Alex and his Sri Lankan partner Anish Wijesinghe followed Holly and Pei’s match on the same court. They had a tricky draw against Phillip De Bruyn (who Alex played in the singles) and Charlie Ridout but after our boys broke Charlie in the opening game it looked as though it was going to be a close match. Phillip and Charlie broke straight back and then went on to take a 5-2 lead before Alex held serve for the first time whilst saving a set point. That gave the boys a lift and they fought back to level the set at 5-5*. They then narrowly lost the next game to sudden death deuce but held serve to take it to a tie-break. Unfortunately Phillip and Charlie played a strong breaker and took it 7-3.

Alex continued to play well in the second set and if it wasn’t for the energy that he brought to the court the boys would have never fought back as they did in the first set. His doubles was very sharp but he had to do a lot of work during the match and that took its toll in the second set. In the end Phillip and Charlie took the match 7-6(3), 6-2 but I was pleased with the level that Alex produced and how he kept fighting until the very last point.

Those three results today brought our first week to an end and Holly and Alex have opted to have a rest day tomorrow before starting their preparation on the clay on Friday. We’ll then have three days of training before the main draw of the second week starts on Monday.

Tuesday 8^th October 2013

It was another good day at the Sri Lanka Lawn Tennis Association today as Holly won her 2^nd round match which moves her into the ¼ finals tomorrow.

We were up early again at just before 6am and then down to breakfast by the time it opened at 6.30am. Alex had a good breakfast and, as Holly was feeling a little better than yesterday, she managed to eat around half of her normal amount.

We then got the 7am shuttle to the tennis centre but once again the overnight rain had meant there were still lots of puddles on the courts. By the time we had gone through our physical warm ups the staff had managed to clear most of the water so both Holly’s hit together, while Alex joined the Win Tennis boys to train with them. As Holly had a singles match today she was the priority so I spent the session with her and talked about her goals for the match today. One of them was to keep her contact point in front on both groundstrokes and here’s a pretty good example:

After 30 minutes of warming up groundstrokes, volleys, drive volleys, serves and returns we both left the court happy and went off to prepare for the match. While Holly was preparing her pre-match sheet I went and saw the physio to have more (very painful!) work on my wrist and forearm – I think I sweated more in that session than I did on court yesterday!!

Before Holly went on we watched some of Holly Hutchinson’s postponed 1^st round match from yesterday and then at 11.15am she went on court to take on wildcard Sadaf Sadeghvaziri from Iran. During the warm up it looked as though Sadaf was the kind of player that would hit very flat and miss a lot of balls but as the set started it was obvious that she was a lot better than she looked. Holly started very well and probably hit the ball the best I’ve ever seen from her; she was able to generate a lot of spin off both sides and produce a consistently aggressive level. Holly broke Sadaf at 1-1* but then played a cheap game to give up her serve in the very next game. That didn’t upset Holly at all and despite going *2-3 down she upped her level again to win the next 4 games in a row to take the opening set 6-3. The games were quite close but it was Holly who played the bigger points well and used good variation throughout the set to keep the ball out of Sadaf’s hitting zone.

Holly continued to play at a high level at the start of the 2^nd set and raced to a 3-0* lead. However, 4 unforced errors in the next game gave Sadaf a little bit of confidence which she used to break Holly in the following game to get the set back on serve. Holly kept her head though and fought hard to win the next 3 games to take the set and the match 6-3, 6-2.

During the match I didn’t think Holly looked too well and when she came off she said she actually felt worse today than she did yesterday! It was therefore an even more impressive performance considering she felt so bad and it also shows how tough Holly can be.

After Holly and I had a quick debrief she went off to shower and change while I went on court with Alex for his second session of the day. He had a really good session for over an hour with two boys from the Philippines and we both felt as though his level of hitting was much better than in his match yesterday.

Once Alex had finished we all squeezed into a Tuk Tuk (along with our bags!) to go back to the hotel. It was a bit tight but good fun!

After lunch Holly still didn’t feel great so she went to bed for the afternoon while Alex and I had a good gym session. I then went back over to the club to get some more treatment on my wrist and book practice courts for tomorrow before I returned to the hotel to meet Alex and Holly for dinner.

Dinner was going smoothly until I lost at cards and had to play a 30 second shadow point around the restaurant! I was actually playing a great point but after misjudging my landing from a jump smash off the steps I found myself sliding across the floor – I think I managed to save it though and finished the point with a great volley!!!

Schedule for tomorrow:

(1) Ria Vaidya (SIN) (280) vs Holly Horsfall (GBR) (1441) – 1^st match at 8.30am

Pei Hsuan Chen (TPE) & Holly Horsfall (GBR) vs Roma Chandiran (IND) & Watsachol Sawasdee (THA) – 4^th match after 8.30am

Alex Hagon (GBR) & Anish Wijesinghe (SRI) vs (2) Phillip De Bruyn (RSA) & Charlie Ridout (GBR) – 5^th match after 8.30am

Monday 7^th October 2013

It was a day of mixed emotions today as Alex had a tough match against the 5^th seed while Holly took out the 7^th seed despite being unwell last night and all of today!

The day didn’t start too well with Holly informing me at 6.30am that she’d been sick in the night and was still feeling very unwell. She tried to eat some breakfast but couldn’t face it so after making up a little take away meal we headed off to the club at 7am.

Our hotel shuttle driver really did not know where he was going this morning and in the end we all directed him the right way to the club! When we arrived Alex and I went straight to his match court to warm up but due to the heavy rain overnight the court still had a lot of puddles on it. After a good physical warm up we managed to hit around the puddles for around 25-30 minutes to get Alex prepared for his match. The balls got quite heavy throughout the practice but Alex hit well and was feeling good before we left the court at 8am.

Due to the court still being a little wet Alex didn’t end up going on until just after 9am to face 5^th seed Phillip De Bruyn from South Africa. Alex had trained with Phillip and Charlie Ridout on Saturday so we knew a little about his opponent but despite having a breakpoint in the opening game, Alex soon fell 3-0 behind. Phillip was playing a solid set but Alex was a little inconsistent with his level and struggled to get on top during the points. Alex held serve at *0-3 but Phillip continued to play at a high level to take the next 3 games and the first set 6-1.

The second set followed a similar pattern to the first set with Alex trying to find his range to get on top, while Phillip hit well from the back of the court. Alex again had numerous game points but couldn’t convert until he held serve at *0-4. At this stage Alex started to play better and create more chances to move forwards to finish the point at the net. Even though Alex’s level had increased, Phillip held serve to lead 5-1 but the set was far from over. Alex held in the next game then raised his level significantly to break for the first time then hold serve again to  trail 4-5*. Alex was then 30-0 up on Phillip’s serve but some strong winners turned the game around and Phillip took the game and then match 6-1, 6-4.

 

It took Alex a little while to get going in the match today but it was always going to be tough against a much stronger opponent. When Alex did find his level he played well and was very close to levelling the score at the end of the second set. A tough first round match but there were lots of positives to take from it.

Due to Holly not feeling well she didn’t hit this morning before her match and while Alex was playing she was off on her own trying to relax. As I left Alex’s court I walked past Holly’s court to find her in the middle of the warm up! She later told me that she just wanted to save her energy for the match and because of how she felt “nothing I could have said before the match would have made a difference” – fair enough!!

Her unusual preparation for the match actually worked so who says you have to hit or talk to your coach before you go on?! Holly fought hard throughout the match and even though I knew she was struggling she never once showed any kind of weakness. She chased every ball and took control of the opening set from the start winning it 6-0.

During the second set Sharlee played a couple of good games but Holly served very well and never looked in danger of being broken. Holly broke the 7^th seed at 3-2* and then again at 5-2* to take the match 6-0, 6-2.

Even after she had won I don’t think Holly had enough energy to celebrate and so after a little smile from her and a high five from me we went straight back to the hotel for her to eat and then go back to bed!

Holly actually slept from around 2pm until 6.30pm this afternoon! During this time Alex and I went through a tough gym programme at the hotel and then took a Tuk Tuk to the tennis club to get a bit of physio treatment. We had also planned on watching some of Holly Hutchinson’s match but because of bad light her match got delayed until tomorrow.

When we got back to the hotel we woke Holly up and then headed to the swimming pool restaurant to get some dinner. Holly still wasn’t feeling hungry but when I gave her the option of having some ice cream her appetite suddenly increased! I didn’t mind as long as she got some food in her system but I think Alex was a bit jealous!!

After dinner we headed back to the apartment for an early night to get ready for another early start tomorrow.

Schedule for tomorrow:

(WC) Sadaf Sadeghvaziri (IRI) (UNR) vs Holly Horsfall (GBR) (1441) – 2^nd match after 8.30am

Doubles to follow depending on scheduling

Sunday 6^th October 2013

It was a very good final day of training today before the main draw kicks off tomorrow.

Due to the courts at the tennis club being very busy this morning we decided to have a bit of a lie-in and get down to breakfast at 8.30am. I was pleased to see Holly Horsfall have a more “standard” breakfast today but the Samosa jokes will be continuing for the whole trip I think!!

At 10.15am (after driving around every Hilton hotel in Colombo) Holly Hutchinson finally arrived at our hotel and we all went into the gym to go through our physical warm-ups. We then got on court for a really good hour and 15 minutes of drilling and point play. It was quite a bit hotter this morning but after some tough 3 minute training in 3s the players quickly got used to it. We then played some singles points for the last 20 minutes and I was very pleased with how all three players were playing.

After training we went back to our apartment to shower and change before meeting Holly’s driver who took us back to her house for lunch. Once again we all had a great meal; this time it was spaghetti with chicken & tomato sauce and the food just kept coming – each time we finished some chicken or pasta there was more laid out straight away. With that for lunch and the buffet at dinner I could seriously put on some weight on this trip!

At 2pm we headed over to the club and managed to book a full court from 3-4pm. The temperature had cooled a little since this morning but the humidity was still quite high. It didn’t really affect anyone this afternoon though and after more point play we finally finished the session just before 4.30pm when all three players felt as though they were ready for their matches tomorrow. The players then signed in and we got a lift back to the hotel with Holly and her driver before she headed back to her house.

Once we arrived back, Holly Horsfall and Alex went down to the gym to cool down, stretch out and do a bit of a pool recovery session while I got some treatment on my very sore back and shoulders.

We headed outside the hotel this evening for dinner to a local Pizza Hut but pizzas were definitely not on the menu! Instead we all opted for the chicken bolognaise which, for under £3, was great value. Of course there was the standard game of cards for dares and for the first time in a long while both Alex and I lost. I had to show my (over) excitement when receiving my pasta while Alex had to give Chelsea some loud encouragement in front of the TV! After crawling back from the restaurant to the room last night Holly was a very pleased spectator this evening.

By the time we finished dinner the draw and order of play was out:

 

Schedule for tomorrow:

Alex Hagon (GBR) (1319) vs (5) Phillip De Bruyn (RSA) (863) – 1^st match at 8.30am

Holly Horsfall (GBR) (1441) vs (7) Sharlee Deshmukh (IND) (868) – 2^nd match after 8.30am

Saturday 5^th October 2013

It was a really good first day’s training today as we all got a feel for the club and the conditions while putting in two on court sessions either side of lunchtime and a gym session to finish off the day.

Despite still being a little jet-lagged everyone slept quite well last night and were up for breakfast by 8am. The options for breakfast were excellent; you could have cereal, eggs, toast, yoghurts to name a few and so I was a little surprised when I sat down next to Holly and she had fried onions, vegetable samosas and potato wedges on her plate!! I was thinking it must be a Northern thing and I had my assumption confirmed after she told me that she recently had seafood risotto for breakfast!!

At around 9am we got a taxi over to the club and we joined by Holly Hutchinson soon after. Holly isn’t able to get on the internet where she’s staying and it must have been at least 30 seconds before she was up to the tournament office to get the Wi-Fi code!!

We all warmed up together from 9.30-10am and then managed to get a full court to train on from 10-10.30am. As is always the case at junior events, everyone puts their names down for a practice court but then don’t turn up and when there’s only one practice court it’s always worth hanging around to see if people don’t use their court. I trained with Alex on one half court while both Holly’s hit together on the other and the main focus of the session was to get a feel for the courts and the humid conditions. Alex and I were quite used to the humidity after travelling out to the Caribbean on three different occasions this year but the girls were finding it a little more difficult. After warming up for 30 minutes Alex took a break for half an hour while the Holly’s stayed on and shared a half court with the WIN Tennis boys to play some points. Alex then came back on at 11am and joined Charlie Ridout and Phillip De Bruyn to play some points for another 30 minutes.

All three players found some good form during the morning session and at just after 11.30am we left site to go back to the house Holly is staying at for a shower and a fantastic lunch. We then all headed back to our hotel to relax for an hour before we went onto the hotel court for our second session of the day.

The hotel court is actually much better than the courts at the tennis centre and even though we have to pay to use it, it was definitely worth it. After warming up for 15-20 minutes we went into a lot of points and everyone once again found a good level considering it was only their first day of training. We stayed on court for about an hour and a half and then went straight into the gym where Alex completed a power session, both Holly’s did some strength work and I continued with my own strength programme as I prepare for the London Marathon next year.

Holly Horsfall returning Holly Hutchinson’s serve during the points at the hotel this afternoon

We were all finished by 5.45pm and after Holly Hutchinson had a panic while she raced around the hotel looking for her phone (it ended up being in her shoe in her tennis bag!) we went down to dinner at 6.30pm. The food at the hotel is very reasonably priced but the portions are quite small and once you add on the 26.8% tax a meal is around 2000 Rupees (about £10). With that in mind we decided to all go for the buffet which is 2,600 Rupees (about £13) and you can eat as much as you like! The quality of the food was excellent and the banter over dinner was just as good as both Holly’s lost at “Chase the Ace” which resulted in some hilarious forfeits – like I said yesterday, Holly Hutchinson is a great entertainer!!

Last day of training tomorrow before main draw starts on Monday.

Friday 4^th October 2013

It’s been a tiring first day in Colombo as we had a 10 & a half hour flight from London last night and only arrived at our hotel at 3pm this afternoon.

Yesterday Alex Hagon and I had a full training day and were joined by Holly Horsfall for our afternoon session before we all headed across London to get to Heathrow. When we arrived at the airport we met up with Holly Hutchinson and even though Holly joined us for the flight she’s got friends in Sri Lanka so will not be an official member of the team this time! However, because Holly gives us such good entertainment, we’re sure to be spending a lot of time with her over the next 2 weeks!!

The flight was quite good despite being quite a long one; Alex managed to get 3 seats to himself so he slept for a good 7+ hours, I managed to get around 4/5 hours and both Holly’s slept a bit so we weren’t too wiped out when we arrived.

As we got off the plane Holly Hutchinson was immediately met by someone who took her through immigration and collected her bags for her (friends in high places eh?!!) while the rest of us fended for ourselves! After we collected our bags we met our driver who took us on a crazy 1 hour journey to our hotel for the next 2 weeks.

The afternoon was spent unpacking and getting a feel for the hotel before we visited the local supermarket to stock up on water and food. I then had a sleep in the afternoon which ended up going on a little more than the 30 minutes I had planned and despite Alex and Holly calling me and banging on my wall, they still couldn’t wake me!

We met up with the Win Tennis team from Bisham Abbey at 7pm for a good dinner and then relaxed in our apartment before having an early night to prepare for our 1^st training day tomorrow.