Thursday 23^rd January 2014

It was a disappointing final day of competition today in the Safina Cup as Holly and Sean Lodzki from Israel lost a very close 1^st round doubles match.

We had another early start so that we could get to the club to practice but luckily the tournament director took my advice and scheduled the practice sessions in 20 minute slots. That meant there was plenty of space for everyone to warm up for their matches and less pressure to get a court before the matches started at 9am.

Holly hit with Anastasia from 8.20 – 8.40am and both girls hit well throughout the session. Marcel, Anastasia’s coach, had to leave at 8.30am to get a flight back to Edinburgh but it’s been good to spend the week with a coach who shares similar philosophies and beliefs to me.

After the session it was time for some school work for the players while watching some of the tennis from the Australian Open. I also had lots to do as my mobile phone decided to die last night and also my email account decided that it didn’t want to receive any emails people had sent me!!

During the day we tried to get on a practice court a few times but the club members had booked all of the hard courts so it was just a case of watching some of the singles matches and making sure we were well prepared for the doubles.

Holly and Sean went on court at 2.45pm to face Karolayne Alexandre Da Rosa from Brazil and Emilija Kravtaite from Lithuania. Despite the match starting quite slowly, and the energy level on the court being quite low from all 4 players, Holly and Sean broke in the first game and went on to take a 2-0 lead. Holly’s serve was then broken at *2-1and it looked as though the match was about to get a lot tougher. However, our girls responded well and won the next 4 games in a row to take the first set 6-2.

During the 2^nd set Holly and Sean upped their levels and started to talk a lot more which helped them to play the best 2 games of the match to go from *2-1 up to *4-1 up. Unfortunately, when it looked as though they were in full control of the match, they took their feet of the gas and started to play a lot more within themselves. There was less movement at the net and as the cross court rallies became more frequent it was obviously that their opponent’s confidence was growing. Holly and Sean were broken 3 times in a row and ended up losing 5 games in a row to go down 6-4.

Even though our girls had lost the second set I always felt as though if they could try and find a more aggressive level again then they would take the match tie-break. By this stage though Karolayne and Emilija were much more animated and were making most the balls that they had missed in the first set and a half of the match. With the score at *5-5 in the tie-break everything was looking close but then Holly and Sean fell *5-9 behind. They continued to fight and managed to claw the score back to *8-9 but a good point from their opponents saw them lose the match 2-6, 6-4, 10-8.

It was a really disappointing end to the week as Holly and Sean were in full control of the match at 6-2, 4-1 up but as always there were lots of things to learn from the match and I know the loss will make Holly even more determined to improve her game.

After dinner we said goodbye to Alex who flew back home tonight and Holly and I will return to England tomorrow evening. We won’t be taking it easy tomorrow though as we’ll be up at 6am again to get to the club and train from 7.30-9.30am before the matches start.

Overall the week has been tough in terms of results but very positive in terms of the players learning, developing and understanding what they now need to go home and work on before their next tournaments.

Until next time . . .

Wednesday 22^nd January 2014

After Alex’s tough match yesterday, Holly had an even tougher one today as she faced number 1 seed Vendula Zovincova from Czech Republic.

Due to the referee deciding yesterday he would release the practice sheet before he released the order of play, it meant that all the courts were booked out within 10 minutes. The crazy thing was that there were actually only 40 spaces available for 64 players to book for practice – same old story at these lower grade ITFs!! Tomorrow they’ve taken my advice and just allowed 20 minutes for practice – not ideal but at least everyone gets a court.

Even though everyone had booked the courts we knew that some players wouldn’t turn up so we arrived at the club at 7.40am and warmed up until just after 8am. Alex managed to jump on court with one of the Czech boys but Holly and I waited until 8.30am when a court became free. Just as we started to hit Anastasia arrived so she took my place which meant that I could be at Holly’s end of the court for the whole practice session. Holly had been hitting great all week and again she had a really good 30 minute warm up to prepare herself for her match.

The next 3-4 hours followed the same pattern as yesterday morning; I got on with some work on the computer while Holly and Alex either watched some of the matches or watched Murray vs Federer. As soon as the match before Holly’s went on court we sat down to discuss tactics and then kept a close eye on the score so Holly knew when to start her physical warm up.

Holly went on at 1.45pm and even from the warm up we knew it was going to be a really tough match. I had watched Vendula train with Anastasia on Monday but in the match she was even more focused and determined and it was no surprise that she is ranked 159 ITF and in the 800s WTA. Holly knew she would need to step up to the baseline in every rally and keep her opponent under pressure, but that was very tough against a good player. Vendula broke Holly 3 times in the first set to take it 6-0 and even though many of the games were close it was always the Czech who played the big points better.

Holly fought hard throughout and in the second set she started to take a few more risks which gave her more opportunities to win games. Unfortunately she couldn’t capitalise on those chances until she was 0-4* down when she broke her opponent for the first time. A combination of a higher level of hitting and moving forwards to take Vendula’s time away worked really well. At *1-4 Vendula raised her level again to break Holly and then hold serve to take the match 6-0, 6-1. It was similar to Alex’s match yesterday in terms of they both played opponents who played a better version of their own games. Both were tough results to take but hopefully Holly and Alex have a clear understanding of what they now need to work on in their games to move up to the next level.

After Holly had some time to herself, we talked through the match and then I was really pleased that Holly asked if we could get back on court to do some more training to find the level needed. Holly trained with Anastasia (who was still waiting to go on for her match!) for 20 minutes and then with me for a further 20-25 minutes before it got too dark in the bubble – and there was no way the club would turn the lights on for us as we weren’t allowed on the court in the first place!!

Once Holly had cooled down and stretched out we went back to the hotel and then it was a quick turnaround so we could get out to dinner early.

At 7pm we walked into the Old Town to finally see the real Prague and we were all really impressed by the medieval buildings and narrow lanes that lead down to the river. We then walked across Charles Bridge and took some photos before heading back to the hotel at around 8pm.

 

 

Alex fly’s home tomorrow so he won’t be competing in the doubles but here’s Holly’s draw:

Schedule for tomorrow:

Karolayne Alexandre Da Rosa (BRA) & Emilija Kravtaite (LTU) vs Holly Horsfall (GBR) & Sean Lodzki (ISR) – 4^th match after 9am, not before 2.30pm

Tuesday 21^st January 2014

It was a very difficult opening match for Alex today as he came up against a player who had an almost identical game to his own, but just executed it better.

Holly Horsfall always takes a great deal of pride in the fact that trip after trip she never gets any forfeits for either misbehaving on court or being late when we arrange a time to meet. In fact she’s only ever been late once and that was on the very first day of her first trip in Austria last January . . . until today!

Alex and I were at breakfast this morning at 6.45am but after 5 or so minutes there was no sign of Holly. I thought it was very unlike her to be late so maybe she thought we were meeting at 7am for breakfast. However when she turned up at 6.56am barely able to open her eyes and hair like a bird’s nest we knew she’s overslept!!

We left the hotel at 7.20am and, after a quick stop at the local shop to get some water, we made our way via the Metro to the club. Alex and I then warmed up together until we got on our scheduled practice court at 8.30am while Holly hit with Frederica Sema. Alex had a really good 30 minute practice session and was feeling very positive by the time we finished our time on court.

Over the next 4 hours I got stuck into some planning for some upcoming trips while Alex and Holly relaxed, got some lunch and watched most of the Djokovic vs Wawrinka match.

At 12.45pm Alex warmed up and we discussed tactics for the match before he went on court at just after 1.15pm to face Czech wildcard Daniel Velek. During the warm up it was obvious that both players were hitting well and had similar gamestyles, so it was looking like it could be a close match. However, after a tight opening game that was 12 points long, Daniel seemed to settle into his rhythm first and after holding his opening service game, broke Alex to take a *2-0 lead. Alex continued to stick to his game plan as he was hitting the ball well but he just needed a little bit more on each shot to keep his opponent from getting a big strike in during the rally. At *0-5 Alex managed to raise his game and held serve but Daniel served well in the next game to take the set 6-1.

At the start of the second set I was hoping that Alex would take a few more risks in the rally to try and get on top but after losing his opening service game it was always going to be tough. The second set overall was better than the first and Alex managed to hit 5 times more winners, but in doing so his unforced error count also increased. In the end Alex went down 6-1, 6-1 to a player who was just physically stronger and hit at a higher level more consistently than Alex could. There were still a lot of positives to take from the match and I think it was great for Alex to come up against a player who plays in a very similar way to how he does – the goal now is for Alex to raise his level in every match / training session he has from now on.

After the match I had some lunch and talked through the match with Alex. His analysis was excellent and we shared exactly the same thoughts on how he played and how he needs to now develop his game.

As soon as I had finished eating Holly was chomping at the bit to get on court so, even though I could still feel my chicken pasta, we took to the court! We played in one of the bubbles for around 25 minutes and to be honest Holly was giving me an absolute lesson! Her level was superb throughout and in the points there wasn’t much I could do! We then moved over to the other bubble which has 3 courts in it and is being used for the tournament but this time it was my turn to dominate the points! Overall we had a really good session and Holly was feeling great about competing tomorrow.

We left the tennis centre at 5pm and after showering and changing at the hotel we left for dinner at 6.30pm. Dinner was once again at Coloseum; Holly stuck with her standard meatball pasta while Alex went for the Ecuadorian prawns and I had a really nice chicken breast with rosemary potatoes – everyone was a winner!

After the meal I decided we should have a little walk to explore the local area and we came across The Church of St Ludmila in Peace Square:

*Interesting fact* – the church houses the tomb of St. Wenceslaus (as in the carol “Good King Wenceslas”)

By the time we got back to the hotel the draw was out:

Schedule for tomorrow:

(1) Vendula Zovincova (CZE) (159) vs Holly Horsfall (GBR) (799) – 4^th match after 9am, not before 12.30pm

Monday 20^th January 2014

It was another good day of preparation today and Alex had the benefit of watching the whole of his opponents match before they play each other tomorrow.

The only practice courts available at the club were between 8-9am this morning so instead of getting up unnecessarily early we decided to join Anastasia Mikheeva and her coach, Marcel, at the Sparta Club for training this morning.

After negotiating the Metro and avoiding getting ripped off by an overpriced taxi, we arrived at the Sparta Club at about 9.15am. The club is a National Training centre and the court that we warmed up on had huge posters of the victorious Davis Cup and Fed Cup teams from 2011 and 2012 – not a bad motivator for Holly and Alex. Once we had warmed up we went into another tennis hall where we met Anastasia and Marcel. We then had a really good hour of drilling and point play where both Holly and Alex found really good levels throughout the session.

At 11am we were finished and so got a taxi back to the tournament site where we had some lunch and caught up on the action from the Australian Open. Due to there not being any practice courts available until 7pm we spent the rest of the afternoon watching different matches until Alex’s opponents went on court.

The match was won by wildcard Daniel Velek from the Czech Republic and throughout the match Alex and I talked and made notes on how we would play against him in the next round. After the match Holly and Alex went into the gym to go through their injury prevention programmes and then stretched out to end their training day.

Dinner tonight was once again at Coloseum and it was another excellent meal; Holly and Alex stuck with the pasta while I gave the chicken pizza a try!

When we had finished dinner we went to the supermarket to stock up on some supplies for tomorrow and then headed back to the hotel to relax before having an early night.

Schedule for tomorrow:

(2) Alex Hagon (GBR) (821) vs (WC) Daniel Velek (CZE) (UNR) – 4^th match after 9am

Sunday 19^th January 2014

Welcome to the first Blog of 2014!

Last year was fantastic and hopefully this year will be even better as I try to help more players develop their games, gain more experience and increase their rankings.

For the first trip of the year I am joined by Alex Hagon and Holly Horsfall but the 7am meet at Gatwick airport this morning wasn’t necessarily something either of them had been looking forward to! Anastasia Mikheeva will also be joining the team on Wednesday but for now it is just the three of us!

Everything went smoothly as we left Gatwick and an hour and forty minutes later we arrived in Prague. For most of the flight I had my head down reading Court Confidential by Neil Harman which is a brilliant insight to the things you don’t necessarily read about on the Pro Tour – thanks Holly Hutchinson for a great Christmas present! However, as we started our descent I closed my eyes for a quick 10 minute nap and when I woke I had both Alex and Holly giggling at the pictures they had taken of me while I was asleep – cheers guys!

We were met at the airport and taken on a little tour of Prague before arriving at our hotel for the week. 15 minutes later we had all changed and were out the door walking to the Metro station to get a train to the club.

The I.Ceský Lawn Tennis Club is one of the most prestigious clubs in Prague and is situated on a little island in the middle of the city:

Unfortunately in 2002 a huge flood hit the city and the tennis club took the brunt of it:

After we arrived and had a look around the club, Holly and Alex warmed up and then had a really good training session for one hour on the permanent indoor courts. Holly has a few days to get used to the courts and the environment but as Alex is playing in Qualifying it was important that he found a good level as soon as possible. Within 10 minutes Alex was striking the ball very well and he maintained a high level all the way up until we played points at the end of the session … when he played even better!

At 5pm Holly had a 30 minute break before she was back on court for her last session of the day with Frederica Sema from Italy. While Holly trained, Alex signed in, cooled down and stretched out before joining us on court until the end of the session.

When Holly had cooled down and changed we headed back to the hotel to shower before it was time for dinner – I was very impressed with Holly getting ready in 20 minutes, normally the girls take forever!!

We had dinner tonight at Coloseum which is an Italian pizza and pasta restaurant just down the road from our hotel. The food was superb and so I think we could be going back there a few times this week!!

Just after we had finished dinner the draw was released; Alex is seeded 2 in qualifying and due to a bye in the first round he will now play his first match on Tuesday.