Tuesday 1st November 2011

I’ve spent some long days at tournaments over the past 12 years including a 19 hour day on site at a Tennis Europe event in Gothenburg watching a player finish his match at 1.30am but I’ve never left the hotel as early as 5.55am . . . until today!

We had a rather quiet walk down to the tennis centre this morning as I think Mia was still fast asleep but by 6.20am we were warming up in the car park and by 6.45am the doors were open and we were straight on court. We knew it would be difficult to get practise courts today as all of the main draw players had signed up but we managed to jump from court to court and find spaces so we could get some training done. By 9am when then matches started we were both rather pleased that we’d managed to train for an hour and 45 minutes including an hour with the other main draw players. In the break we had from 8 – 8.30 Mia signed in as a “Lucky Loser” expecting to still be 4th on the list but the 3 players above her had not bothered to sign in so if anyone pulled out she’d be 1st in.

As soon as the first round matches went on we were able to go back to the hotel for some breakfast but as the bus wasn’t there Mia decided we should run back . . . well, that’s not 100% true – she decided we should leave our bags at the tennis centre so I said we might as well run back!! After getting used to the cold mountain air we made it back in about 10 minutes and then had a good breakfast at the hotel. It was then straight back to the club (got the bus this time!) to sign in for doubles and play the waiting game to see if any players pulled out of singles.

No one pulled out today but the Mia and Costanza took to the court at around 5pm to play their first round doubles match against the Swiss pair of Sara Orellana and Natacha Petrovic. Mia and Costanza started well playing some solid doubles and at 2-2 after 3 sudden death deuces the set could have gone either way. Unfortunately Costanza’s serve was not on today and following 3 double faults in her opening service game she hit another 2 at 2-2 and got broken easily. She was also broken at 3-5 to lose the set 6-3. Out of the 9 games in the first set 6 of them went to sudden death deuce with the Swiss pair taking 4 out of the 6 games – the sudden death deuce is a huge part of doubles now and you’ve really got to be switched on or you can find your self a long way behind after having close games.

The serving level from Costanza and Mia didn’t improve in the second set and far too many points were given away cheaply. Mia was broken at 0-1 and then Costanza was broken at 0-3 – all three games at the start of the second set went to sudden death deuce with our girls losing all 3!! After breaking at 0-4 Mia held but despite breaking again to make the score 3-4 the Swiss pair upped their level and took the next two games to win the match 6-3, 6-3.

Total games played: 18

Total games lost: 12

No. of deuce games played: 10

No. of deuce games lost: 7!

Overall I think the Swiss girls were just a little stronger all round today but you never know how a pair will react until you get on level terms with them and see how they deal with a bit of pressure.

Overall this week hasn’t been as good as the two weeks in Vietnam or the week in Bath at the LTA event but there have still been a huge amount of learning points and a trip is always beneficial if you come away from it as a more experienced and better player which I believe Mia has this week.

Tomorrow we’ll sign in for a Lucky Loser again as they split the draw today but unless anyone has a bad reaction to the meal that the Club laid on tonight then I think we’ll be travelling home in the evening.

Monday 31st October 2011

I’m always up for a bit of Halloween but unfortunately we didn’t get any tricks or treats today in the last round of qualifying in Davos.

It was nice this morning to leave the room for breakfast with the Sun starting to come up as opposed to the last few mornings when it’s been pitch black! We had a good breakfast and then managed to catch a bus half way to the Tennis Centre which meant we arrived there just after 7.45am. Mia then had a good physical warm up and we were on court hitting at 8.30am – unfortunately it wasn’t with the girl we had planned to hit with as she cancelled so Mia had to hit with a 6ft boy! She actually hit quite well but it was a little difficult to get into a great rhythm as the boy was hitting very hard – returning was a bit of an issue too which would later cause us a lot of problems.

After the match before Mia’s went to three sets she eventually got on court around 11am to play 4th seed Lina Hohnhold from Germany. From the 1st game Mia struggled with her returns and consistency and that gave her opponent more belief to stay in the rally and wait for the mistake to come. At 0-3 down Mia held serve but it took until 3-5 with her opponent serving before she really got into a groove with her returns against the tricky lefty. Mia then had an opportunity to break back to get the match back on serve but a cheap point at 3-5*, 40-30* gave the German a boost and then she went on to take the set 6-3. A bit like yesterday my thoughts at this point were that if Mia could just keep working the ball in the rally and increase her consistency then the girl just wouldn’t be able to live with her.

Unfortunately that didn’t quite happen as Mia was broken in the 1st game of the second set. She fought hard to break straight back only to give up her serve rather cheaply again to trail 1-2. From there it was a similar pattern to the first set with the German playing a solid game and just waiting for Mia to miss. Mia played some good tennis at times and won 4/5 points from the net during the set but she just struggled to string 3/4 good points together in a single game. Mia broke Hohnhold at 1-4 but again was broken back at 2-4 and then her opponent played a good service game to take the match 6-3, 6-2. It was a disappointing match but sometimes you just have days where it wouldn’t make a difference how long you stayed out there for you just wouldn’t be able to find the level needed to win the match.

To Mia’s credit she got back on court later in the day and worked very hard finding a much higher level than I’ve seen from her in quite some time. We spent 30 minutes on the squash court working on her using her body better to control the ball and then an hour and 15 minutes on the court hitting with the main draw players. I’ve said it many times before but at this age the development is much more important than the winning; I’ve been to events where players have won the tournament but not improved their game and also to events where players have lost in qualies but learnt more than they ever would have done from training or individual lessons. Mia learnt a lot today and will be a better player because of it.

Mia training hard despite a tough loss – CLICK FOR VIDEO

We stayed at the club for dinner to see if any Lucky Losers would get into the main draw but unfortunately everyone turned up for sign in. Mia’s currently 4th Lucky Loser so only has a very slim chance of getting in but she’ll team up with Italian Costanza Pera (who she played with in Edinburgh) for the doubles and hopefully they get in.

Early start tomorrow as now it’s back to a full day’s training and due to the main draw players practising from 7.30am we’ll have to be at the centre warmed up and ready to hit as soon as the doors open at 6.45am.

Sunday 30th October 2011

Good day on two counts today; 1) Mia got a win and 2) we got a chance to explore part of the Swiss Alps.

As Mia was first on at 8.30am we were up at 6am (after setting 2 alarms and getting a wake up call to make sure the clock change didn’t catch us out!) and after a good breakfast at the hotel we were walking through the town by 6.55am. Mia completed her physical warm up on the squash court for 20 minutes and then we hit from 7.40am until 8am – each player only had 20 minutes this morning as there were 64 players who needed to hit before they played and they wouldn’t open the centre earlier than 7am!

Mia found a good level in her training and after going through her pre-match sheet and setting goals for the match she was all set to go at 8.30am. Mia was up against quite a tricky Swiss girl who, despite being a year younger, worked very hard and made life difficult for Mia in the first set. From the start of the set there were 6 breaks in a row as both girls struggled with their serves but returned well until Mia held at 3-3. From 4-3 up Mia had 30-0 in each of the next three games but Michelle dug very deep and turned each game around to take the set 6-4.

To Mia’s credit she didn’t panic or change her tactics and I think we both had the sense that she was never going to lose the match. She started the second set well taking a 4-0 lead and despite Michelle getting a couple of games on the board Mia took the set 6-2. Having now got on top and feeling a lot more comfortable on court Mia wasn’t about to let up and she raced through the 3rd set without allowing her opponent to hit a single winner taking it 6-0. As always there were a lot of positives to take from the match especially how Mia responded after losing the 1st set and also the fact that she had 3 sets on court meant that she’s now a lot more comfortable with the bouncy surface and the quick balls.

After cooling down and showering we got some lunch and went through the specifics from the match before watching all of Mia’s next round opponent’s match. The match wasn’t that interesting but the reactions of the Austrian girl’s coach and the German girl’s father were amazing – definitely NOT a positive way to support a player on court!!

We left the centre around 2pm as there weren’t any practise courts and decided to explore the town for the afternoon. It’s not often we get a chance to get out and about at tournaments and Mia had really wanted to go up one of the mountains so we headed for the mountain train. It was just a short 5 minute trip up the mountain and after exploring the top for half an hour we decided to take the walking route back to the town. The sign said 35 minutes but Mia decided she wanted a picture with every carved statue on the way down and I decided to go cross country a little so it ended up taking closer to an hour – all good fun though!!

We got back to the hotel around 4pm which gave Mia a chance to get stuck into some school work for a couple of hours before we headed out for dinner. Most of the town was closed tonight as it’s Sunday so we ended up at the same place as last night – they were a bit more generous with their water tonight – we got a jug for £3.50 – Cheers!!

On a separate note I just want to say a BIG WELL DONE to all the Brits who have done so well this week around the world:

Cardiff Men’s Futures:
Oli Golding & (fellow Kent boy) Sean Thornley – Doubles Winners

Poitiers Women’s $100k
Elena Baltacha – Singles Finalist

Barnstaple Women’s $75k:
Anne Keothavong – Singles and Doubles Winner – HUGE EFFORT!

St. Petersburg ATP 250:
Colin Fleming & Ross Hutchins – Doubles Winners

Thailand ITF Grade 2:
Katie Boulter & Katy Dunn – Doubles Finalists

Holland ITF Grade 4:
Callum Poland-Smith – Doubles Winner

That’s a great effort from everyone – keep up the good work!

Schedule for tomorrow:

(4) Lina Hohnhold (GER) (333) vs (16) Mia Smith (GBR) (624) – 2nd round after 9am

Saturday 29th October 2011

Due to Mia having a bye she didn’t play today so it gave us another day to get used to the courts and get sharp before her match tomorrow.

As the centre only has 4 courts and the players competing today had priority at 7.30am and 8am we got up nice and early to walk the 20 minute journey to the centre at 6.20am! It was rather cold at that time of the morning and pitch black outside so our topic of conversation on the walk were the millions of stars covering the sky! The 20 minute walk managed to raise the heart rate a little so once we got to the centre Mia completed her dynamic stretches and then hit with an Austrian girl for 30 minutes until 7.30am. We were then able to stay on court until 8.30am as players had not turned up for their courts so after only expecting to train for 30 minutes we actually got in a great hour and a half.

Mia training in Davos – CLICK FOR VIDEO

After getting the bus back to the hotel we then had breakfast and both of us managed to catch up on some missed sleep!

We were back at the centre at 2.30pm for some lunch before heading onto the squash court for some movement and medicine ball work which lead nicely into another good hour on court after the matches had finished. We also managed to watch the end of fellow Brit Omari Owens-Maxwell as he took a 1st round win 6-2, 6-1 over a Swiss wildcard.

By this time it was just before 6pm so we walked back to the hotel, showered and changed and then headed straight out for dinner at the local Casino! The food was really good but we weren’t best pleased with being charged £3.50 for 2 glasses of tap water – no tip there then!!

Tomorrow is another early start so Mia completed her pre-match sheet tonight before getting an early night. Clock’s go back tonight which mean’s we get a much needed extra hour in bed ?

Schedule for tomorrow:

Michelle Leuthi (SUI) (UNR) vs (16) Mia Smith (GBR) (624) – 1st round at 8.30am

Friday 28th October 2011

It’s been a long day today of driving, flying, catching 3 trains, walking, getting on a bus and then to top it all off our last bus didn’t turn up so it was another 20 minute walk back to the hotel!

After a few months of being woken up in the middle of the night by a new born baby you would have thought that waking up at 4.15am would have been easy but after 2 and a half weeks in Vietnam, a week in Spain and then straight down to Bath for the LTA U14 National Tour I think October might be catching up with me – either that or I’m going soft!! I met Mia at 5.15am just off the M25 and then we headed straight to Gatwick for our 7.20am flight to Zurich.

After a brief nap on the plane we arrived in Zurich and then it was straight onto the train to the City Centre to wait for our connection towards Davos. By this time it was around 11am and as we’d been awake for almost 7 hours I sent Mia off to get some lunch while I watched the bags – that was a BIG mistake! She came back with a couple of “Chilli Bratwurst” and seeing the look on my face she responded with “That’s all they had!” So believing her I tucked into the most expensive sausage and bread roll I’d ever had; it seemed ok at the time but I’m not sure my body agrees with that now! On the way to our next train we past the place Mia got the sausages to find they had a great selection of sandwiches including some lovely Chicken Schnitzels – I was pleased!!

The scenery on our next two train journeys was amazing as we wound our way through the Swiss Alps to the ski resort of Davos:

…..……

Next up was my turn to make an error! I’d been telling Mia all week that it was going to be really cold so pack everything to keep her warm. With that advice on board we both left the train wrapped up for the Artic and after 2 minutes of walking to our hotel in 20° heat we realised it might not have been entirely necessary!!

Switzerland is notoriously expensive but I managed to find a great deal on a hotel and when we arrived we they gave us free passes for the busses and cable cars in the town which is sure to save us quite a bit of money and allow us to explore a little. We headed out at 3pm and in typical Swiss fashion the bus was bang on time for the short 4 minute journey to the Tennis Centre. Mia then signed in and after a late lunch (the sausage really didn’t do the job!) we warmed up and had a great session on court with a couple of different players. It took Mia a little while to get used to the altitude and the bouncy courts but in the second 30 minute session she was superb.

After the draw was completed we headed out to get the bus back but the timetable we had didn’t match up with the one at the bus stop so rather than waiting 40 minutes for the next bus I made the (very popular!) call of walking back. It actually only took 20 minutes and we managed to stock up on some supplies at the supermarket as well as grab some dinner.

Mia doesn’t play tomorrow as she is seeded 16 and has a bye so the only practise court she’s able to get is at 7am for 30 minutes. It’s therefore going to be another early start and due to the busses not starting until 6.48am we’ll be walking to the centre! All good fun though and we’ve got to make use of the hats and gloves 🙂

Qualifying Draw:

Michelle Leuthi (SUI) (UNR) vs (16) Mia Smith (GBR) (624) – scheduled for Sunday 29th October