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Halton U16 TE Grade 3, Day 6 – Singles Semi-Finals

Friday 26th August 2011

Yesterday Cameron became the first ITC player this year to make the semi-final of an international singles event and today he was looking to go one better.

Semi-final days are always difficult; no-one wants to lose in a semi-final where as if you lose in the final at least you experience the last day of the tournament and get to play in front of at least a few people in the crowd. That’s why you should expect players to be more nervous for a semi than a final and that was the case today with Cameron. He wanted to do so well that he ended up being nervous most of the morning – my response to this is always the same; “it’s good to be nervous because it shows you care about the match, I’m worried by the players who say they don’t get nervous”.

After our normal warm up in the gym and 30 minutes on court training Cam was feeling better and ready to do battle. He had to wait until the match before had finished before he went on but that gave him time to reflect on yesterdays match, prepare his game plan for today, eat, re-grip rackets and generally get him focused for the match. As it was getting closer to match time we all stayed relaxed by competing at “Fruit Ninja” on the iphone – great game, especially when you get three very competitive people together!

Cam took to the indoor courts just after 11.30am and even though he was taking on a player a couple of years younger he knew that Lucas Taylor is a tough player and it wasn’t going to be easy. Cam’s focus at the start of the match was superb – maybe this was due to him being nervous and that made him concentrate more but what ever the reason it worked and he raced to a 2-0 lead. Cam then got broken and ended up losing the next 2 games as Lucas started to find his feet in the rallies. So Cam went from 2-0 up to 3-2 down but dug deep to keep in the set with Lucas who by now was stepping up and taking the ball on more. Cam broke back and then following a few close games Cam got the break at 5-4 to take the set 6-4. Cam’s level was good but he did need to come up the court more and look to finish points from the net as Lucas was very quick around the court and kept making him play one more ball.

In the second set Cam’s confidence grew and he really took his game to Lucas; his serving was much bigger and the unforced error count remained reasonable. Cam took a 3-0 lead and then it went with serve until 5-2 when Cam had a match point on Lucas’ serve but missed a simple short forehand which gave his opponent a bit of belief. Lucas held and then broke Cam easily and everyone watching knew that the next game would really determine the match. As Cam has done all week he responded well to being broken and stepped up from the start of the 5-4 game hitting 2 clean winners and not allowing Lucas to really get into the rally. On his second match point Lucas missed a simple rallying ball to give Cam the match 6-4, 6-4. It ended up being a little more difficult that Cam would have liked but he played well against a tricky opponent and at the end of the day a win is a win and he’s in the final tomorrow!

As we finished early and as it’s Saturday tomorrow (with hopefully less traffic on the road) we decided to drive back to Kent so Cam could save some money and have a good nights sleep in his own bed! We still met up for dinner and of course as it was Cam’s choice we ended up going to Nando’s!!

Schedule for tomorrow:

Boy’s Singles Final:

(1) Julian Cash (GBR) (24) vs Cameron Hawkins (GBR) (UNR) – 2nd round on after 10am, N.B. 11am

Halton U16 TE Grade 3, Day 5 – Singles 1/4 Finals

Thursday 25th August 2011

In the 7 years I have known Cameron I have never seen him work as hard as he did today, every point he fought hard for and he kept believing all the way to the end of the match. Definitely a day he should be proud of – maybe it was all down to the Nando’s!!!

A later than normal start today as we had breakfast at 7.30am, warmed up in the gym at 9am and took to the indoor courts (due to the rain) at 9.30am. Cameron was second round of matches on so after fully preparing he was all ready to go just after 11.30am.

Cameron was going to write a little bit about the match here . . . in fact he started writing it and then got tight, just like he did at the end of the match (sorry Cam!!!!). Cam started a little poorly but Dan came out of the blocks very fast, it was obvious he’s full of confidence having just won U14 Nationals without dropping a set. Dan took control from the start, moving well and really taking his forehand on putting Cam under a lot of pressure. Cam was broken at 1-1, then again at 2-4 but despite breaking straight back he was broken again at 3-5 to lose the first set 6-3.

Cam’s response to his performance in the first set was very professional; he broke in the first game and then continued to step up the court more and be the more aggressive player throughout the set. He was broken back when serving at 3-2 but again responded well to take the next 3 games and the second set 6-3.

At this stage Dan’s unforced errors started to mount up but Cam was waiting too much for him to miss rather than going after the points. Cam was broken in the first game of the third but broke straight back and then the next 4 games went with serve. At 3-3, just like in the second set Cam gave up his serve too easily (the 3 double faults didn’t help!) but again like the second set Dan just couldn’t hold after breaking and Cam made it level again at 4-4. Despite having 3 match points at 6-5 Cam just couldn’t finish it off and it was on to a tie-break. With both players looking a little edgy Cam did well to be aggressive and not give Dan anything to attack. He took a 5-1 lead and on his 5th match point he managed to close out the match 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(3).

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It was a really hard fought win for Cam playing through the tightness and mentally performing well to win the breaker after having the match points in the game before.

Mia was courtside to watch some of Cam’s match but she’s also been working hard off the court on the physical side of her game; she did 2 x 30 minute bike sessions as well as a strength and stabilisation session in the afternoon so they both deserved an early finish to the day.

We went back to the accommodation at 4.30pm and while Mia and Cam chilled out I took to the road for an hours run to keep my training going for the Great North Run in September – follow how my training is going at https://itc-tennis.com/category/gnr-2011.

Schedule for tomorrow:

(3) Lucas Taylor (GBR) (238) vs Cameron Hawkins (GBR) (UNR) – 2nd round on after 10am

Halton U16 TE Grade 3, Day 4

Wednesday 24th August 2011

It was a big day today as Mia looked to follow Cameron’s example by taking down a seed and make it to the ¼ finals.

We warmed up as normal at 8.30am in the gym and then while Mia warmed up on court with Emily Smith Cameron got a basket of balls and worked on his serve on his own. Mia had a great pre-match hit and after completing her match sheet we spoke about her goals and game plan before she went on court at 10am.

The first set was a bit of a rollercoaster; it started with Mia getting broken but then breaking straight back, then the next 4 games went with serve, the next 4 went against serve and it ended up going to a tie-break after the girls held their last two games service games. With in those 12 games the level of tennis wasn’t great; both girls were making far too many unforced errors and not taking the chances they had. In the tie-break Nika was the more solid of the two players but only had to win 1 point as Mia gave her the other 7 to lose it 8-6. In total Mia hit 39 unforced errors to Nika’s 27 and hit 18 winners to Nika’s 5 – not ideal!!

Mia responded well at the start of the second set breaking serve but then mentally completely lost her way losing the next 4 games which were all down to her missing. She soon found herself 5-2 down which is when something clicked in her head and she started to make Nika work more for the point and test her more in each rally. Mia got it back to 5-5 and then after each of the girls held we were back to another tie-break! Unfortunately the second set tie-break was almost identical to the first set with Mia giving Nika 6 of the 7 points she needed to take the match 7-6(6), 7-6(5).

It’s a match that I’m sure Mia will want to forget quickly as the stats don’t make good reading:
• Unforced Errors: 86 to 65
• Winners: 32 to 13
• Mia’s game point conversion: 41%

After lunch I went on court with Cameron to prepare him for tomorrow, we warmed up and played a set out (in which I just about managed to sneak the win!) and ended the session with some specific drilling based on the notes we made about his next round opponent. While Cameron was drilling with me Mia got back on court and worked on her serve for 40 minutes before joining us to end the session for some basket drills. She then went into the gym to complete her strength and conditioning programme while Cameron stretched out and showered.

Tough day today for Mia but I do like to see a player respond well and take it upon themselves to get back on court and back in the gym to make themselves better which she did.

Dinner tonight was Cameron’s choice (and definitely not mine!!) so we drove the 10 mile journey to High Wycombe in search of the closest Nando’s! I’m really not sure what the attraction is but soo many of the senior and junior players seem to love it. If it makes him happy and means he’ll perform better then I’m up for it!!

Schedule for tomorrow:

Cameron Hawkins (GBR) (UNR) vs (2) Daniel Little (GBR) (151) – 2nd round after 10am

Halton U16 TE Grade 3, Day 3

Tuesday 23rd August 2011

Another big day for Cameron today as he had his round of 16 singles match as well as a doubles ¼ to compete for, Mia on the other hand had a training day in preparation for her singles match tomorrow.

We arrived at the club this morning to find that it had rained overnight and the macadam courts were still wet – even worse news though was that rain was forecast for the rest of the day. We went into the gym to warm up at 9am; Mia had a longer more physical warm up as she wasn’t competing today but Cameron just had his standard 20-25 minute pre-match warm up. We then headed to the bubble to warm up on court and as we made our way there we were told that all of the U16 matches would be in there throughout the day – a good refereeing decision as at least the players knew where they stood then and there wouldn’t be any confusion. Cam had a good hit with his doubles partner and by 10am he was ready and looking forward to competing.

After eating, changing, filling out his pre-match sheet and talking about the match Cam got on court around 11.30am for his match against 7th seed Marco Ferrandia from Germany. I said to Cam before he went on that seedings and rankings mean nothing at this level and to his credit he didn’t give his opponent any necessary respect based on that. Cam got off to a flyer racing through the first set 6-0 only missing 5 balls in total! It’s not always a good thing to win a set so comfortably against an opponent who obviously can play and at the start of the second Marco started to find his range.

As Marco started to increase his winners from 1 in the first set to 14 in the second Cameron started to get a little more frustrated and then his errors started to go through the roof (literally!). Cam recovered from 3-1 down to level the set at 3-3 but another lapse of concentration at 4-5 gifted Marco the second set 6-4. So . . . now it was “Game On” and let’s see how Cameron would react! To my delight Cam came out in the third much more aggressive and much more focused, just like the first set. He raced to a 3-0 lead by hardly missing and really taking the game to his opponent. Marco held at 3-0 but then Cam increased his level again and took the next 3 games to win the match 6-0, 4-6, 6-1. It was a great effort, he learnt a lot about his own concentration but I also learnt a lot about how mentally tough Cam can also be when he wants to.

After a debrief and some lunch I was back out on the court with Mia in the rain to fine tune her game for tomorrow. Mia trained well today, especially as most of the day she was training with other girls while I was preparing Cameron for his match. We trained for just under an hour before I had to go back inside to watch Cameron’s doubles match but Mia stayed out there to serve and then went into the gym to complete her strength programme and stretch out.

To be honest I wish I had stayed out there in the rain (!!) as Cameron and Dag didn’t really change much from the level they found yesterday. Their opponents today were brothers from Malta who were both pretty solid and knew their way around the doubles court. Unfortunately Cameron and Dag didn’t impose themselves anywhere near as much as they should have done and gave their opponents too many opportunities to get back into rallies when it should have just been finished. Despite having chances in the first set and a set point in the second Cameron and Dag went down 7-5, 7-6(6). They did fight hard but they both need to do a lot of work on their doubles game.

Cam and Dag in doubles action today

By the time both Mia and Cameron had showered and changed it was around 5.15pm so we left site early and chilled out at the accommodation for a while before heading out to a local pub for dinner. Mia had some interesting games to play at the table including naming body parts beginning with the letter ‘B’ – I’ll save her embarrassment by not going through all of them but I had to draw the line when she tried using “blackheads” as one!!!

Cam’s got a training day tomorrow so it’s just down to Mia in the singles:

Schedule for tomorrow:

Mia Smith (GBR) (UNR) vs (3) Nika Hein (GER) (835) – 1st round on at 10am

Halton U16 TE Grade 3, Day 2

Monday 22nd August 2011

We were up bright and early at 6.45am this morning and down to breakfast for 7.15pm. Breakfast officially wasn’t due to open until 8am but we as we needed to start warming up at the club at 8.30am we decided to risk it! The chefs were fantastic and got out the cereals, yogurts and made us some toast so we had enough to start the day 🙂

After physically warming up for 30 minutes Cameron and Mia took to the court at 9am for their pre-match hit. Both of them had to hit with other players that the tournament arranged as there are only 4 practise courts but neither of their practise partners turned up!! So I hit with Cam and Mia hit in a three with two other girls. By 9.30am they were both warm so they got some food and then changed into their match kit ready for when they were called.

Both of them were scheduled to play 2nd round on after 9.30am. Normally this isn’t a problem even if they are playing at different ends of the club but today Mia was scheduled on court 3 and Cameron was scheduled on court 1 . . . at Great Missenden Tennis Club!!

Mia played a good first set against a tricky opponent; she was taking the ball on well and moving up the court to take time away. She took a 3-1 lead but stuttered a little as Celine stopped missing as much and started to make life a bit more difficult. After being broken at 3-1 Mia responded but breaking, holding and breaking again to take the set 6-2. With that I was straight off down the road for the 7.5 mile journey to the other club to watch Cameron.

When I arrived Cameron was 5-2 up and he quickly took the next game to take the set. He was playing well and using the slow macadam courts to his advantage – no-one likes to play a lefty, especially one who can really rip the ball and make it kick up and off the court like Cameron does! The second set was a bit of a strange affair as Cameron was in full control for the whole of it but he just couldn’t hold serve!! He broke to go 1-0 then the next 8 games went against serve until Cameron finally held at 5-4 to take the match 6-2, 6-4. It ended up being a bit of a grind but Cam got their in the end and claimed his first junior international ranking.

As Cam was in the middle of his second set Mia called me to say she’d won 6-2, 6-1 – good news al round and we were 2 from 2!

It was then straight back to Halton and a quick break for some lunch and a debrief for both players before Mia was back on court with Emily Smith for their doubles. They were seeded 4 this week but they came unstuck against a German and a Russian who were just more focussed, more motivated and a little tougher than our girls. It was a disappointing 6-2, 7-6(4) loss but hopefully lessons will be learnt and areas will be improved.

Cameron was straight on after Mia and his match was very similar to Mia’s, in fact I’m still trying to work out how him and his Swedish partner managed to win the match!! Their British opponents played much better doubles but Cameron and Dag stuck in their when the going got tough and pulled out a 5-7, 6-4, 10-7 win.

I’ve said it before but I really think coaches need to spend more time working on doubles tactics in training so that players know what their doing when it comes to competition. There are far too many players standing in the wrong positions, not moving, not dominating the net and not communicating with each other. In these events, and in ITFs, doubles points go towards your singles rankings; in fact it’s actually possible to get to top 100 U18 ITF just on doubles wins! You have to win some big events but it is possible to do it!

We were finished quite late this evening so the players showered and changed at the club and then we headed straight out to Aylesbury again for dinner. We managed to get a voucher for Prezzo so we ate their and saved a bit of money!

Schedule for tomorrow:

(7) Marco Ferrandia (GER) (978) vs Cameron Hawkins (GBR) (UNR) – 2nd on after 10am

(4) B Cassar Torregiani (MLT) & M Cassar Torregiani (MLT) vs Dag Gudmundsson (SWE) & Cameron Hawkins (GBR) – 4th on – N.B. 3pm

Halton U16 TE Grade 3, Day 1

Sunday 21st August 2011

This week we’re off to RAF Halton in Buckinghamshire for the U16 Tennis Europe event and the team consists of Mia Smith and Bromley Tennis Academy player Cameron Hawkins. Mia has some U14 TE points from Solihull earlier this summer and as those points count towards her U16 ranking they have helped her move into the main draw of the event this week. This will be Cameron’s first Tennis Europe event and only his second junior international event after Edinburgh ITF in July. He moved into main draw very late on Friday evening and so both of the players are looking to achieve TE points with a 1st round main draw victory tomorrow.

We met today at Bexley Tennis Club at 11.30am and trained for a couple of hours on the same surface (macadam) as the tournament is on. Both Mia and Cameron worked hard in hot conditions and by 1.45pm we were all done and ready for the hour and 20 minute drive to Halton.

After a brief detour (so we didn’t run out of petrol!!) we arrived at the club around 3.45pm, signed in and managed to get on court again for another 45 minutes of good training to get used to the match courts and get the journey out of our system.

Mia and Cameron getting a feel for the courts

After a thorough stretch out we headed over to Green Park which will be our home for the week. The accommodation is pretty basic but we’ve got a whole block of rooms to ourselves and for £20 a night including breakfast you can’t really go wrong!!

For dinner tonight we drove into Aylesbury and ate at Pizza Express before going straight back to the accommodation to prepare for tomorrow and have an early night.

Schedule for tomorrow:

Mia Smith (GBR) (1904) vs Celine Zoetelief Tromp (FRA) (UNR) – 2nd round after 9.30am

Cameron Hawkins (GBR) (UNR) vs Kaloyan Mihaylov (BUL) (1228) – 2nd round after 9.30am

Doubles:

To be confirmed after entry deadline

 

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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