Friday 7^th March 2014

Today was supposed to be our rest day and we had planned to spend most of the time at a lion farm but due to a mix-up with the tour company and the tournament, the tour only lasted about 2 hours!

Due to the tour leaving the hotel at 9.15am we had to be up reasonably early (much to Ben’s disappointment!) at 8am to get over to the restaurant for breakfast and then back in time to leave. The journey to the lion farm was only about 30 minutes and at the time we thought that was a bit quick as the itinerary had said over an hour.

When we arrived we met one of the owners on the family run farm and he started off by handing each of us one of the 8 week old cubs to hold. He then showed us around the site and fed some of the older cubs some chickens that had been donated from other local farms. The guide told us that the adult lions will either eat one chicken per day or if they have a dead cow or horse donated then that will last them around a week!

 

Next we saw the two cheetahs that they had and we were very impressed at how fast the female sprinted off with her chicken while the male tried to catch her! Lastly we were taken across one of the pens to where the male lions were kept and again were treated to watching them devour their food for the day.

Once we got back to the entrance we thought that we had more things planned for the day but our driver said that was it and that he would now take us back to the hotel . . . at 10.45am!! It later turned out that the tour that was advertised was to another farm that was much further away so now we’re waiting for most of our money back!

Ben and I decided to have lunch at 12.30pm and then as his arm was feeling much better we would have a light hit in the afternoon. Well, as it turned out our session at 3pm lasted all the way through until just after 5.30pm! Ben’s arm was feeling good and so we just kept working on his goals until he felt as though he was happy with all parts of his game. We worked a lot on keeping his arm loose on his groundstrokes as well as finding a better balance of pace and spin on his second serve before going into a lot of points with only second serves. We then finished off with some work on attacking short forehands to end a really good afternoon’s training.

After a reasonably quick turnaround at the hotel, Ben, Jazz and I headed to the restaurant for a well deserve dinner of curried chicken pasta – sounds a bit strange but it was actually pretty good.

After a hard week of training and competing we visited the local gelato shop after dinner where Ben and Jazz had a well-deserved scoop of ice cream . . . or 3!

That brings our first week here in Potchefstroom to an end and now our attention firmly shifts to the next two days of preparation before the main draw of the 2^nd week starts on Monday.

Thursday 6^th March 2014

Due to the tightness in Ben’s arm we didn’t get to train at all on court today but we watched some good tennis and had a good workout in the gym this afternoon.

After a little bit of a lie in we got the 8.30am shuttle to the restaurant for breakfast before walking to the courts so that Ben could see the physio again and we could also watch Katie Swan play her semi-final against Hana Mraz from Slovenia.

Both players fought hard and had to come back from being down in both sets but Hana eventually came through the match 6-4, 6-4. It was looking as though Katie was going to level the second set after fighting back from 5-2 down but Hana played a good service game to close out the match.

Ben and I had lunch at 12pm and then the plan was to see how Ben felt with a racket in his hand to see whether we could train at 2pm but, as we expected, his arm was still very sore so we decided to hit the gym.

While I had a long run on the running machine, Ben completed 15 sets of interval sprints, did some lower body strength work and finished with a core and stretching session. When I was finished I joined Georgie Axon and Anastasia Mikheeva in the ice bath; the girls decided to go for 10 minutes straight while I decided to do some contrast bathing which involved 6 sets of 1 minute in the ice bath followed by 3 minutes in the warm swimming pool. I’m not sure whose was more difficult; the girls with the constant cold or me contracting the muscles and then getting pins and needles every time the fresh blood flowed back in once I entered the warm water!!

After showering and changing at the gym, we returned to the hotel and then headed next door to the supermarket to get some fruit and some chocolate milk to help our recovery.  It was then back off to Beef Boys Grill at 6.15pm for a very nice lasagne dinner before relaxing at the hotel for the rest of the evening.

We’re going to see how Ben’s arm is in the morning before deciding whether he can train or whether he needs a complete rest day. If he rests we have the option of going to a local Lion Farm in the morning . . . but that is weather dependant!!

Wednesday 5^th March 2014

Despite winning one round of doubles and then losing in the ¼ Finals, it was a good day and Ben produced some of his best tennis since we arrived.

We were up early this morning to try to get a good practice session in before the forecasted rain came down and our timing could not have been much better! We warmed up just after 8.30am and then from 9-10.30am Ben had a really good training session with Dylan Foo-Kune. Ben found a much more relaxed swing from the back of the court and by doing so he increased his racket speed which resulted in him being able to control the more aggressive shots much better. Ben’s serve was also much more consistent which is just what we wanted before his 1^st round doubles match.

Just as the boys were finishing the session the rain started . . . and it just kept getting heavier and heavier!

At 11am we decided to have an early lunch and then head back to the hotel rather than just sit at the club watching the rain come down! It also gave Ben a chance to complete some school work rather than having to do it in the evening when he’s got less time and is probably more tired!

At 3pm we headed back to the club to watch some of the singles matches including Katie, Maia and Anastasia’s ¼ finals. Maia and Anastasia had tight 3 set loses but Katie played very well and blew the number 3 seed away with a 6-1, 6-1 win.

Once Ben’s doubles partner had finished his singles match he had a short break to get some food before both boys got on court to warm up for their doubles match. Once again Ben was hitting well and we felt very positive going into the match against the 4^th seeds.

At 6pm Ben and David Volfson from Canada went on court to face Courtney Lock from Zimbabwe and David Pichler from Austria. The first and the second set went by very quickly even though they were short sets up to 4. Ben served really well in the first set and after breaking serve at 2-1*, Ben served the set out to take it 4-1. However, in the second set the energy that Ben and David had in the first set dropped a little while their opponents were really fired up which lead to Courtney and David taking the set 4-1.

It wasn’t looking good at 0-2 down in the match tie-break but an unbelievable pass down the line from David following Courtney’s 1^st serve really turned things around. From that point Ben and David won the next 5 points in a row to take a 6-2 lead and eventually they closed the set out 10-6. It was a good match to watch and I was really pleased that Ben put in a good performance against a good doubles team.

30 minutes later the boys were back on court for their ¼ final match against Ben Fatael from Israel and Jd Malan from South Africa. The first set was a little flat from both teams but it was Ben and Jd that managed to hold serve first after 5 breaks in a row to take the set 4-2. Ben and David then raised their levels both on return of serve and also when moving and finishing at the net which resulted in them taking the second set 4-1 . . . on to another match tie-break!

During the 2^nd set Ben hit a big first serve at 1-1 and suddenly is right arm tightened up. He initially thought that he had been stung by an insect and as the set went on it got tighter and tighter. During the match tie-break Ben struggled with both his serve and his smash but despite taking a 7-5 lead the boys then lost 5 points in a row to go down 4-2, 1-4, 10-7. It was a tough loss and I thought Ben and David played the better tennis but, like always in tennis, it’s not over until the last point and Ben and Jd kept fighting until the end.

Straight after Ben finished the match he headed over to see the physio who said that he was very tight through his shoulders and forearm which was probably due to trying to hit more spin on the ball to control it at this altitude. After about 20 minutes of treatment we walked over to the restaurant to get some dinner at just after 9pm.

It was a long day today but both Ben and I were pleased with the level of tennis he produced in training and in his two matches. Hopefully his arm will be ok in the morning so that we can build on the good work he has been doing and get him fully prepared for his next match on Monday.

Tuesday 4^th March 2014

It was a long day of watching the rain come down and fitting in some training between the rain showers before once again the doubles got cancelled.

Whilst Ben had a lie in this morning I was up at 6am to get the first shuttle bus over to the university so that I could run before breakfast. Despite the running machine switching off after only 30 minutes I eventually managed to complete a full hour and cover just over 7.5 miles with the help of watching the Karate Kid on my phone!

Once I had stretched, showered and changed I walked over to meet Ben at the restaurant for a well-deserved breakfast at 8.45am. As the rain was still pouring down we took our time over breakfast and then headed back to the club to find that it wasn’t raining there and the courts were starting to dry out!

By 11am the matches were on and, after watching some of Ben’s first round opponent play his next match, we got on court at 11.30am to warm up for our 12pm practice session. We only had the court booked for half an hour but in the end we trained for just over an hour and a half and managed to work on all of the specific areas that we had talked about from Ben’s match yesterday. We worked specifically on developing more controlled aggression on Ben’s groundstrokes before moving on to focus on him moving forwards and then ended the session by working on his 2^nd serve. It was a really good training session and hopefully gave Ben a lot more confidence playing aggressively at this altitude.

When we left the court the rain started again and so we decided to head to Beef boys to get some lunch. The lunch, like the dinner, changes every day and today it was fish and chips but because neither Ben nor I are a fan of fish we arranged at breakfast this morning to get chicken instead!

The rest of the afternoon was spent wondering if the courts would dry out before the next rain shower came along, but at 3.45pm it poured down again so play was cancelled for the day.

Click here to see the video of what we get up to during the rain breaks!

That gave us a chance to get into the gym at the university and have a good workout for an hour before the last shuttle back to the hotel at 5pm. Ben went through some band work before joining me (and the Loughborough university cricket squad who are touring in South Africa) on the lifting platform to complete some lower body work. We both then had a good stretch out before going back to the hotel.

It was a fairly quick turnaround before we were back out for dinner which tonight was chicken pie, spaghetti and another mountain of salad! We then returned to the hotel and Ben got stuck into some of his college work while I sat down to update the website and reply to some emails.

Schedule for tomorrow:

Ben Stride (GBR) & David Volfson (CAN) vs (4) Courtney Lock (ZIM) & David Pichler (AUT) – 4^th match, not before 1.30pm

Monday 3^rd March 2014

It was a rollercoaster of a first round match today for Ben against the number 3 seed and, after over 2 and a half hours in hot and windy conditions, the result unfortunately didn’t go his way.

As Ben was scheduled for 4^th match on we had breakfast just after 8.30am and then walked the short distance from the restaurant to the club at around 9am. We then supported the four British girls that were all scheduled first on until 10.30am when it was time for Ben to get warmed up for his practice session. Ben and I hit from 11 – 11.40am and went through the normal pre-match routine of warming up groundstrokes, volleys, smashes, serves and returns whilst reinforcing the tactics that would be needed for Ben’s match. Ben was striking the ball well during the session and has been looking good since the first day we arrived here so we had high expectations for his first round match.

Before we left site to get some lunch we secured a ‘not before time’ from the referee to make sure that Ben wasn’t called for his match while we were away and then,  after a good buffet lunch of either chicken or steak wraps, it was time to go back to the courts to get ready for the match.

At 1pm Ben took to the court to face number 3 seed David Poljak from Czech Republic. Even though we had trained with David yesterday and knew exactly what to expect, the first few games didn’t go as planned!

Ben was 40-15 up in the first two games of the first set but couldn’t take his chances and eventually went *0-3 down. Ben then settled down, increased his first serve percentage and fought hard to hold, break and hold again to level the set at 3-3*. Ben then broke David at 4-4* and, whilst serving for the set at *5-4, he was*30-0 up but a few double faults cost him the chance to close out the set. The boys eventually went into a tie-break and again it was Ben that looked in control at 5-3* but David came back to win the next 4 points in a row to take it 7-5.

Ben was obviously disappointed with the result of the first set, especially as he felt he should have closed it out whilst serving at 5-4, but at the start of the second set he reset and straightaway raced to a 4-0 lead. A lapse of concentration leading to 3 unforced errors cost Ben his serve in the next game but after saving break points at *4-2 he eventually held on to lead 5-2*. David continued to make life difficult for Ben and after holding and breaking at 5-3 it was left to Ben to break his opponent again to take the set … which he did to Love!

Both boys took a break at the end of the second set either to get some cold drinks or to use the toilet and when they returned they had to deal with the introduction of new balls. There is a massive difference out here between using new balls and ones that are 10-15 minutes old but Ben played a good service game to take a 1-0* lead. David then held to level the set and then two changes had a massive impact on the outcome of the rest of the match. Firstly the wind picked up out of nowhere and secondly David completely changed his game plan and started to stay in the rally from the back of the court rather than look to finish points at the net. Both changes caused Ben to suddenly become a lot more erratic and after 17 unforced errors in 4 games he found himself 1-4* down. Ben tried to increase his level but by this stage David had rediscovered his confidence and started to take the ball on again which resulted in him finally taking the match 7-6(5), 4-6, 6-2.

Ben was obviously disappointed with the loss and felt as though he should have won the match after being up in the first set but credit has to go to David who fought very hard throughout and his first serve percentage and winner count were the real difference in the match.

Once Ben had cooled down, stretched out and eaten some food we started to prepare for his doubles match but at 4.45pm the rain that had been threatening for a couple of hours suddenly started. That saw the end of play for the day and once again it was a scrum down to get the shuttle busses back to the hotel – luckily Ben and Jazz managed to squeeze into one while I ended up getting a lift back to the hotel in the back of a pick-up truck!

By 6pm we were all very hungry so decide to get to the restaurant early for dinner but unfortunately it wasn’t the best meal tonight both in terms of size and quality! We can’t complain too much as it is free hospitality but hopefully it will improve as the week goes on!

Schedule for tomorrow:

Ben Stride (GBR) & David Volfson (CAN) vs (4) Courtney Lock (ZIM) & David Pichler (AUT) – 4^th match after 8.30am

Sunday 2^nd March 2014

Today was a very good final day of preparation which actually saw Ben train with his first round opponent tomorrow – at least we know a lot about him now!

After an early start yesterday, today was more relaxed and we headed over to breakfast on the last shuttle bus at about 8.30am. The breakfast was pretty similar to yesterday; the Rice Krispies were still a bit strange and the scrambled egg was very yellow but all in all it wasn’t bad!

While Ben warmed up at around 10am I decided to have a good stretch out to try and loosen up some tight quads and hamstrings from the run yesterday. We then headed onto court to train with David Poljak from Czech Republic and the introduction of some new balls had both players struggling from the start. Around 15 minutes into the session the boys found their range and the quality of the drilling remained high throughout the session. For the last 25 minutes the boys played a couple of match tie-breaks; Ben won the first one with some excellent serving and returning but David managed to take the second one despite it still being close.

As the tie-breaks were very serve dominated we decided to finish the session with some points off the ground which gave Ben more of a chance to get into a rhythm from the back of the court.

At 11.45am we headed over to the gym to cool down and have a stretch out and then soon after we walked to ‘Beef boys’ for lunch. Ben didn’t fancy the pork chops again after yesterday and I wasn’t too keen on the creamy pasta so we opted for one of the best meals we’ve had since we arrived which was just two grilled chicken breasts and a couple of baked potatoes  – happy days!

This afternoon Ben decided that he wanted to work on some specific areas of his game and as that’s not always possible when you are hitting with another player, I stepped up to train with him. We ended up being on court for just over an hour and by the time we finished the session with some points Ben was hitting very well – I’m still annoyed though that I didn’t close out our up to 11 when I was leading 5-1!!

Jasmine Asghar arrived this morning from London and after a short hit with another girl she came on court to hit with Ben for 20-25 minutes. It gave Ben a chance to hit a few more balls and also gave Jazz a bit more time on court to get used to the conditions before her first round tomorrow.

Once Ben had signed in and we’d both registered for our meals for the week we got a lift back to the hotel with Huibre and Louise Botes which did us a massive favour as otherwise we would have been waiting for ages for the shuttles to go backwards and forwards.

Dinner tonight was the first time that the restaurant had laid on a buffet and Ben, Jazz and I thought that the food was good. Others however, did not which meant that they made the shuttle driver stop at McDonald’s on the way back to the hotel – I won’t name names but I have no idea how players can eat that kind of food the day before their first round match!

 

Schedule for tomorrow:

Ben Stride (GBR) (247) vs (3) David Poljak (CZE) (93) – 4^th match after 8.30am

Doubles 1^st round not before 3pm (the draw will be released after the sign-in at 12pm tomorrow)

Saturday 1^st March 2014

It was another good training day today despite the heavens opening at lunchtime and qualifying having to be suspended for the rest of the day.

As qualifying started today we had to be up early to make sure we were guaranteed a full court to practice on this morning. That meant a 7.15am meet in reception and then breakfast at 7.30am at ‘Fine Things’ restaurant. Some of the other players had told us that on previous mornings the breakfast had taken ages but I think now that the tournament has started the people at both the restaurants know what’s expected! Ours was pretty quick and after some scrambled egg on toast and some strange Rice Krispies we were feeling reasonable satisfied!

By 8.30am we were at the tennis centre warming up and preparing for our 9-10am practice session with Dylan Foo-Kune from Mauritius. Ben once again hit the ball well throughout the session and it gave him another chance to get used to the altitude both in terms of the bounce of the ball and also in terms of dealing with a higher intensity training session. Ben and Dylan warmed up for 30 minutes before going into some point play to get some match practice. They each played a couple of service games and after some strong serving and solid returning Ben took a 4-0 lead before the players for the 10am session arrived and took the court.

After cooling down and stretching out we had planned to get over to lunch for 11.30am but all of a sudden the rain came pouring down! While we waited for it to pass I decided to check out the North-West University gym which is just by the running track behind the courts. The gym was very impressive and, once we can register to use the facility on Monday, we’ll be making the most of it both for Ben’s maintenance programme and also for his recovery between matches – I’m not sure Ben’s going to be keen on ice bath though!

Lunch wasn’t the best today; Ben had pork chops which were more bone than Pork and I had a very creamy chicken tagliatelle! Once we were done it was back to the court to prepare for our afternoon session with Jay Clarke but just after the boys had finished warming up the wind suddenly picked up and once again the courts got flooded by the rain.

We stayed at the club for a while to see if the rain would ease up but at around 3pm the tournament director cancelled play for the rest of the day and arranged for the mini-buses to take the players back to the hotel. While Ben got the bus back to catch up on a little sleep I decided to go for a little run to keep up with my marathon training. Do you remember those sports fields I told you about yesterday? Well one lap of the fields is 1.15 miles so after 5 of those and the distance from the club to the hotel I ended up doing just over 7.5 miles in 55 minutes – not the quickest average minute / mile but after training in England in the cold I was quite pleased to get through it at this altitude!

The rest of the afternoon was spent relaxing at the hotel and getting more supplies at the supermarket before going off to dinner at ‘Beef boys’ at 7pm. Dinner was much better than lunch and by the time we’d both finished both we felt rather full!

When we got back to the hotel Ben got stuck into some A-Level PE coursework while I replied to some emails and updated the website.

Final day of preparation tomorrow and hopefully the weather will be kinder to us – the week ahead isn’t looking good though!

Friday 28th February 2014

We had a very long 28 hours of travelling and training but now we have finally settled in to our hotel for the next two weeks in Potchefstroom, South Africa.

After travelling across London during Rush Hour (much to the annoyance of the other underground users who had to squeeze in next to my two big bags!), I eventually got to Heathrow Terminal 3 at 6.45pm and met up with Ben Stride. Ben is based at the WIN Tennis Academy at Bisham Abbey and even though I’ve been to many international tournaments that Ben has competed in, this will be the first time that I will be working with him.

Once we had checked-in, we got some food and not before long it was time to board our flight to Johannesburg. The flight didn’t start well as we were stuck at the gate waiting for someone to move a broken down trolley cart but as soon as we got in the air everything went smoothly. I managed to stay awake to watch ‘Captain Phillips’ and ‘Prisoners’ which were both very good films before settling down to get a few hours sleep.

We arrived in Johannesburg just after 10am but after clearing passport control and collecting our bags we had to wait just over an hour before we could get on our shuttle bus as we had to wait for some of the other players to arrive.

I was actually looking forward to the 2 hour journey from J’burg to Potchefstroom as I wanted to check out some of the local scenery … unfortunately I slept the whole way!

When we arrived at the hotel we checked-in, got showered and changed and then walked to the supermarket next door to stock up on water and supplies. Then at 3.30pm we got a lift with another player to the North-West University where the tournament is being held.

The facility is very nice and I was really pleased to see a couple of big sports fields next to the tennis courts which will hopefully come in handy as I continue my marathon training (I’m sure the altitude will help too!).

At 4pm Ben and I warmed up and then had a really good training session for almost an hour and a half. Playing tennis at altitude is very different to playing at sea-level; for a start the balls are pressureless (Ben was very impressed with the cardboard box they came in!) and they move through the air much faster than normal. Players can also find breathing a little more difficult and can get more tired during training but Ben actually found it quite easy to adjust. He was striking the ball well and after the first 5 minutes of hitting a lot long he found his range both while hitting a heavy ball and also while hitting much flatter. We spent around 45 minutes drilling from the back of the court before moving onto volleys and smashes and finally finished the session with a lot of serving and returning.

We left the court at 5.45pm and straight away saw the familiar faces of Lucie Ahl and the GB girls’ team who had just finished training for the day. It was good to catch up with Lucie, Katie Swan, Georgie Axon, Maia Lumsden and Anastasia Mikheeva in the mini-bus on the way back to the hotel and after a quick shower and change we went out to dinner with the girls.

Being a Grade 2 ITF event, the tournament offer full hospitality for main draw players and even though the tournament hasn’t started yet, we still have all of our meals included in the hotel room rate. Dinner tonight was at ‘Beef Boys’ restaurant and the food was good – hopefully breakfast tomorrow will be better than the girls said today’s was!

It’s been a long 28 hours but it’s good to be settled in and feel comfortable with all of our surroundings … bring on training for the next two days!