Saturday February 19th 2011

The second week has come to a close and tomorrow the foursome becomes a threesome as I (Devan) am staying in Kenya! Not going to lie I’m definitely going to miss Farah, Beth and Rob. These past two weeks have been filled with amazing memories. Watching the OC constantly and going gaga over Ryan, singing Hey Soul Sister almost every morning as we walked to the tennis courts, Beth walking into poles after dinner or just plain ol’ bonding time every evening.

 Even though Beth and I lost our final 6-4 6-3 today we both are so pleased with what we have achieved as a team. Especially since this is only our second tournament together! Hopefully this won’t be our last tournament together but just the beginning of an awesome partnership!

Our last night was spent eating dinner with our friends from Portugal and then coming back to the hotel to enjoy some delicious dessert! Hmm, a great way to end the trip! We are all stuffed with smiles on our faces. I’m excited for the third week and I can’t wait to get stuck in but it won’t be the same with out these three. Definitely a memorable two weeks. Can’t wait to see what the next trip holds! Toodle loo itc-tennis website and itc-tennis readers

Heeeey guys, its Farah! I understand Rob told you all about my exciting blister popping experience yesterday… that was fun, almost took Dev out ha-ha! Word of advice, don’t attempt to pop a blister with an earring, not a good idea, it won’t make it better, trust me! Going home tomorrow its going to be weird saying bye to everyone, after so long with everyone, sad times. It’s been a great two weeks, going to miss Beth, Dev and Rob! Not going to lie though, I can’t wait to play on normal indoor courts again, clay is definitely not for me. Can’t really think of anything else to say now so I’m going to hand the laptop over to Beth now, byee! … PS excuse my hair in the pictures, was having a bad hair day, hair is not my priority in the morning!

Hellooo its Beth, a bit emotional writing the final blog of the trip but hey ho its been quite a successful one in some ways and in others its been interesting at times but most of all I feel we have all learned a lot together as a team and individually about ourselves and our games. Me and Devan lost in the doubles final today which was tough for us, we didn’t play our best throughout the match but at times there where some good doubles played by us but just not often enough to take it! My serve wasn’t on today at all so I got broken a few times which wasn’t ideal…Not a bad effort making final though for mine and Dev’s 2^nd tournament together!:) All in all it’s been a great two weeks, looking forward to the next event to get my ranking inside the 150 mark by the end of the year!! Going to pack my bag now and get some sleep ready for the flight home tomorrow!!! Until next time… Team Kenya 2011!!!!!! Beth x

Friday 18th February 2011

It was a great day today with two superb doubles performances as Devan and Beth look to finish the week on a huge high.

It was a standard start to the day today with breakfast at 7am and training from 8.30-9.15am including their pre-match warm up and specific doubles work to make sure the girls were sharp and ready to go from the first point. The doubles is still two sets up to 4 and a match tie-break for the third so you cannot afford to start slow or before you know it you’re a set down.

Before the girls went on we watched our new friend Artur Completo, who’s been destroying the draws last week and this week, take another win in the singles semi-finals and then it was time for us to get stuck in.

Beth had got revenge on Szuppers yesterday and today was Dev’s turn to get one over on Onyancha. The girls didn’t start particularly well with Beth getting broken in the first game on a sudden death deuce but then they went on to win the next 7 in a row to go 4-1, 3-0. The chair judge wasn’t really with it for the whole match and the girls had to remind him that it was the end of the set at 4-1, much to their amusement! At 3-0 in the second Reimchen held but Beth served a great game to take the match 4-1, 4-1. It was a good performance even though the girls looked a little nervous at times but they kept encouraging each other to take the ball on and close the points out.

An hour and a half later they were on Centre Court for the semi-final against 2nd seeds Finch & Shestakova. It was the best performance I’ve seen from the girls as they attacked from the start, dominated the net in every point and both served very well to destroy their opponents 4-1, 4-0.

It was a great win that they thoroughly deserved and next up is a tough final against top seeds Mai El Kamash & Julia Grabher; lets see if the girls can get some revenge now for Farah.

After the doubs we tried to relax for a couple of hours but Farah had other ideas!! The blisters on her toes have been getting worse each day and after the tournament doctor tried unsuccessfully to help this morning we took it upon ourselves to try and take away the agony she was in. I won’t go into too many details in case you’re reading this over breakfast but it was like a volcano erupting when Farah managed to burst it with a sterile syringe!! It’s been much better since so hopefully it did the job.

In the evening we met up with Team Bath, Artur and Pedro his coach and had a great meal at the Fairview hotel. We’ve been going there each evening this week as it’s perfect for the players; they can go up to the counter, select their pasta, their meats and vegetables and then watch at the chef cooks it all in front of them. Team Bath flew home tonight and it’s been great having them around for the two weeks. All of the players have been great and it’s so nice to have a group that have supported each other so well throughout the trip.

So . . . doubles final tomorrow . . . bring it on!

Schedule for tomorrow:

(1) Mai El Kamash (EGY) & Julia Grabher (AUT) vs <b>Devan McCluskey (USA) & Beth Askew (GBR)</b> – 2nd on after 9am (N.B. 11.30am)

Thursday 17th February 2011

Like last week it was now down to the business end of the week today when the points get greater and the players have no choice but to perform if they want to make Semi-Finals and Finals.

We woke up to a dry morning for once, everyone met for breakfast at 8am and by 9am we were making our way over to the club to warm up. We hit from 9.30am until around 10.15am on what was more like an ice rink than a tennis court! It was very difficult to keep any kind of rally going and Beth managed to end up on the floor a few times!

Beth went on around 11.30am and from the start she struggled to find the form of the last two days. It was a similar match to when she played Devan last week where she was very inconsistent allowing the player to pick up lots of cheap points in every game. Despite the errors she went 4-2 up in the first, her Austrian opponent came back to lead 5-4 but Beth fought hard to hold, break and hold again to take the set 7-5. The second was almost identical to the first; Beth played ok in stages but it was far too inconsistent for a 1/4 Final match. She took a 4-3 lead and then served for the match at 5-4 but played 3 loose games and lost the set 7-5. There was no doubt in my mind that Beth was going to come through the match and win but she had to address the unforced errors as well as the fact she was building up her opponents confidence by feeding her mid-court balls. The third continued the same way as the first two sets; Beth went 4-2 up but couldn’t hold on and lost the next 4 games to go down 5-7, 7-5, 6-4 in over 3hrs. It was a tough one to watch let alone to lose but Beth has performed much better this week and once she gets more matches under her belt she’ll close out these matches even if she’s not performing well.

While Beth was still in the third set Farah went on for doubles and by the time I got there they were at 4-4 and starting a tie-break (short sets due to the rain). They eventually lost the tie-break 7-0 but I found out later they were 3-1 up in the set! With these short sets you have to start quickly and put your opponents away before they get into the match. Once Brigit and Alicia won the first their confidence grew and they took the second 4-2. Farah had been struggling with a big blister on her toe which was causing her a lot of pain but despite losing the match she put in a good performance to end her week.

Beth had an hour and a half to recover from her match and at 4pm she was back on the court with Devan to face the girl she had just lost to and the Italian girl who won the tournament last week. Beth took a couple of games to get into it, which was expected after a tough loss, and Devan did a great job of encouraging her and keeping the team strong. After 4 breaks of serve Beth and Devan held and broke to take the set 4-2. They had relaxed and were playing good doubles and took that into the second set where they won it 5-3. It was a good boost after a tough, long day on court.

The girls ran for 10 minutes at the end of the day and then had a long stretch out before we went out for dinner with the Bath team who are flying home tomorrow.

Schedule for tomorrow:

Devan McCluskey (USA) & Beth Askew (GBR) vs (3) Michelle Onyancha (KEN) & Anastasia Reimchen (GER) – 2nd on after 9am

Winner to play the semi-final later in the day.

Wednesday 16th February 2011

It was another long day today at The Nairobi Sports Club but at least we managed to complete Devan and Beth’s singles matches, the doubles however were not so fortunate.

Following heavy rain, thunder and lightning overnight I got over to the courts at 6.45am this morning to check out the state of the courts – it wasn’t pretty:

I then went back to the club to meet the girls for breakfast who weren’t too pleased with having to get up early for nothing! We went back over to the courts and were told there would be no play before midday so we decided to go to the supermarket to get some water. When we got there it was still shut as the manager was stuck in traffic – not the news the girls wanted to hear:

As the sun came out and the courts began to dry we warmed up and went through some specific footwork drills through the ladder for 20 mins. It’s important that the players don’t get bored during rainy days so short periods of activity are great to keep them energised while not wasting too much energy. We didn’t have a chance to practise on the courts before Devan went on but Beth and Devan did hit against the practise wall and then hit some volleys and smashes on the hockey pitch to get themselves warm and ready to play.

Devan went on around 2pm and started a little erratically but managed to take a 3-2 lead before 6th seed Michelle Onyancha broke twice and held twice to take the 1st set 6-3. Devan was quite inconsistent during the 1st set and a change of racket at the start of the 2nd gave her the chance to commit more to her shots. It did the trick and Devan raced to a 4-0 lead before being pegged back to 4-3 but managed to keep her head and take the set 6-4. The 3rd set then followed a similar pattern to the 1st with Devan being too inconsistent and not being able to find the balance between consistency and pace. She did very well to fight back from 4-1 down to 4-3 and had 15-40 on the Kenyan’s serve at 3-4 and 4-5 but couldn’t convert finally going down 6-3, 4-6, 6-4. A very tough loss but hopefully Devan learnt a lot from the match and will use it in her last event next week.

Beth had gone on at the Public Service Club at the start of Devan’s 3rd set so as soon as Devan had finished I had my bag on my back and was off running around the corner to watch her play. When I arrived Beth was 5-1 up on the finalist from last week and was playing very well. She had 6 set points in total and was broken at 5-2 but at no time did she let her head drop and she stuck to her tactics finally taking the set 6-4. The second was just as good as the 1st with Beth playing her strong lefty game taking the Madagascan girl off the court at every opportunity. She again went 5-1 but a little slip in concentration (not helped by the referee who didn’t know what he was doing!) cost her the next 2 games. At 5-3 Beth regained her focus and played 4 great points in that game to take a very deserved and impressive win 6-4, 6-3. Beth’s come on a long way since losing to Devan last week and her confidence is growing everyday.

We got back to the club just before 6pm to find out that the doubles had been cancelled and there were still no practise courts as they were using every one for matches. Beth had a good cool down with Farah around the Hockey pitch, they then all stretched out before we headed back for a quick shower and an early dinner.

Schedule for tomorrow:

(8) Beth Askew (GBR) (872) vs Winner of (4) Dawda (KEN) (662) vs Szupper (AUT) (UNR) – 3rd on after 9am

2 rounds of doubles to follow for Devan & Beth and Farah & Beatrice Lombardo (ITA).

Tuesday 15th February 2011

Despite telling the girls that we would have breakfast at 8.15am they were again down early and joined me around 7.45am. I was busy compiling information and factsheets for upcoming trips which was much to their disappointment as they just wanted to use the computer to check their Facebook!

We made our way over to the club at 9.30am and to our surprise court 1 was up and lined and we were told we could hit on it as they wanted to try and start matches a little earlier than scheduled to catch up from yesterday. We jumped on and managed to stay on there until 10.15am, fending off the foreigners and allowing the Bath team to go on when we were done – all the Brits working together, that’s what we like to see!

Farah was 1st up at 10.45am. After yesterday she was 6-3, 2-0 down and we’d had a long chat about the match and what we wanted to try and achieve to get back on track. To her credit she did cut down the unforced errors from yesterday and won the first game once they re-started but she really struggled with her serve and ended up going down 6-3, 6-1. There were lots of positives that came from it and after this week and last week she knows she can compete with top 200-300 players.

As soon as Farah had finished Devan was on so it was straight over to the court to begin our support. During days like these the players have the tough job of managing time, staying out of the sun, watching their court to see when they’re going on be on, eating at the right time and getting everything prepared and the coach has the tough job of going from match to match, preparing and debriefing and making sure the players are doing everything they need to. Luckily the three girls are very professional and it means I can concentrate more on the players on court and less about the ones off the court!

Devan was playing a Belgian girl who is out here as part of a big group from the “6th Sense” Academy and the girls had met before in Luxemburg qualifying where Devan had taken a win. Devan started a little erratically going 2-0 down after two very long games but settled down after that and went from 0-2 to 5-2 by playing some very solid, well constructed points. She was broken at 5-2 but nothing was going to faze Devan today and she regained her focus to take the set 6-3. Two big goals for Devan today were to reduce the number of unforced errors (she set 15 or less in a set as her target) and stay positive throughout. In the first set the unforced errors were a little high but in the second she hit 14 and at the same time hit 9 winners taking the set 6-3. She was very positive throughout and didn’t let either of the two breaks of serve against her bother her in the second set – a very professional performance and a great start to the week. 

Beth was due to be on at the same time as Devan but Court 2 was struggling to dry and eventually at 2.45pm she got moved off site to the Public Service courts which were a 5 minute walk away. The courts there were actually much better and Beth took full advantage. Britt Geukens had made the Semi-Finals last week and it could have been a tricky match but Beth’s been working very hard on her shape and consistency and used it to great effect today taking the girl away from the court before stepping up and hitting the space early. Beth hit 12 winners in the first and 13 unforced errors (I always think a good target is 10-15 winners a set and 10 or less unforced errors) taking the set 6-2. She then kept on top of the girl in the second racing to a 5-1 lead before getting a little edgy and losing a little focus allowing her opponent to get back to 5-4. Beth maintained her professionalism throughout and broke the girl to 15 to take the match 6-2, 6-4. It was a great result and a very good performance from Beth – a lefty on clay, definitely one I’d prefer to avoid!!

We were finished for the day after a long cool down at 6pm and met up with the Bath team for dinner. Farah had a tough match today but hopefully learned a lot, Devan and Beth performed well and have interesting matches in the last 16 tomorrow. Devan plays Farah’s doubles partner from last week while Beth plays the girl that beat Devan last week in the 1/4’s:

Schedule for tomorrow:

(8) Beth Askew (GBR) (872) Vs Hariniony Andriamamanarivo (MAD) (1294) – 2nd on after 9am

Devan McCluskey (USA) (1750) vs (6) Michelle Onyancha (KEN) (772) – 2nd on after 9am  

Doubles to follow unless it rains again!

Monday 14th February 2011

HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY!!

It was a long day today of waiting around after it rained yesterday evening and throughout the night as the courts took all morning to dry out.

Even though we planned to meet for breakfast this morning at 8.30am the girls were down at just before 8am so it gave us time to go through last weeks matches again and make sure they had a clear plan of how they wanted to play today.

Once we got to the courts we realised there wasn’t going to be much play this morning as the courts were still very wet and none of the nets or lines on the courts had been set up. The first change was “not before 11am”, then it was “not before 12pm” and I think some play eventually got going around 1pm. We managed to fight hard for a practise court (as there was only one!) and the girls got in a good match warm up for 30 minutes. All of the girls were looking good and the training over the last three days was starting to show.

Devan and Beth’s matches, which were scheduled off-site, got cancelled around 2pm but Farah managed to get on just after 3.30pm. Farah had the top seed but from last week she knew that it doesn’t necessarily mean she’s a great player and was prepared to make her work hard for each point. Farah started well and wasn’t giving her opponent as many cheap points as she did last week but neither of the girls could hold serve. It was only at 3-4 when Farah’s opponent held for the first time and then broke serve to take the set 6-3. There was then a quick rain delay which gave me a chance to chat with Farah and go through important points from the first set, mainly making sure her opponent is earning the points, that Farah is focusing on the first 3 shots of the rally and that she is using her spin on both sides to control the ball more. Farah responded well and despite losing the next 2 games she played a much better and had game points in both games. The rain then came down very hard and the match was suspended at 3-6, 0-2.

It was a good time for the rain to come down for Farah and we went over the whole match so far to get her set for tomorrow when the fight back will begin!

Schedule for tomorrow:

(1) Mai El Kamash (EGY) (223) vs Farah Abdel-Aziz (GBR) (1750) – 1st on at 11am TO FINISH 6-3, 2-0

(8) Beth Askew (GBR) (872) vs Britt Geukens (BEL) (1750) – 2nd on after 11am

Maryse Chaboteaux (BEL) (1199) vs Devan McCluskey (USA) – 2nd on after 11am

Doubles to follow later in the day unless it rains!

Sunday 13th February 2011

Madness in Nairobi!

Hi guys! Rob decided to leave me (Beth) and Farah to write today’s blog. Last night I decided to sleep in Farah’s bed because she has a mosquito net and the night before they decided to have me for dinner, but even so I still managed to get bitten about 1,000,000 times, great! 

We had breakfast at 7:15am then went down to the courts to warm up 8:40am. Practise went well; Jim put a 50 shilling bet on the 1st person to knock down the ball can so by the end of the drill Devan was 50 shillings richer!! I managed to stack it for a 5^th time in the past few days which wasn’t the most enjoyable experience of the day and I was covered in clay (again) but hey ho we all feel that we are in good form and ready for tomorrow.

After the morning session we went over into some lovely shade and did our IP (injury prevention) and bought some yogurts for recovery, which Farah cleverly managed to spill all over her Wimbledon towel! She wasn’t too pleased! (Don’t see why I would be pleased with yogurt on my towel-Farah!) Whilst doing our IP we all needed someone to hold onto our bands, which is when we discovered Rob is a secret multi-tasking man! 1^st one we have ever met, look at his skills!

We had a few hours off to chill, have lunch and watch some more of the OC, we love it! For our afternoon warm up I thought it would be cool if we played a game of cricket with the guys from Team Bath, it was…interesting to say the least and there was a lot of dodgy bowling going on. 

Farah – Afternoon hit wasn’t great for me, Beth, Devan and Brigit seemed to be playing well but I found it tough! Rob took some interesting photos of us playing tennis … I love pulling weird faces! We played a lot of points and by the end of the session we were all playing well!

 

Tomorrow I am playing a girl from Belgium last match on, Farah is playing a girl from Egypt 3^rd mach and Devan is also playing a girl from Belgium last match…we will let you all know how we get on tomorrow but until then goodnight!

Saturday 12th February 2011

It was all about preparation today as we put in a great days training to get ready for main draw which starts on Monday.It was an early start this morning as we met for breakfast at 7am and were warming up around the hockey pitch by 7.40am. We had decided to train early so that we could get on two courts from 8-9.30am (before the matches started at 10am) and make the most of a full day to get more used to the altitude as well as the courts. However, when we got to the courts the grounds men were still putting down the chalk lines on the courts so for the first 15 minutes we were moving from court to court! We were joined this morning by Yasmin Ebada who was top seed last week and beat Farah in the second round. It was good to have her on court so the girls could all hit together and I could go around and work with each of them individually. We ended up doing almost 2 hrs and then moved onto centre court to do some leg work including stair sprints, medicine ball lunges and calf raises; 

We finished off the session with some core work and then had good stretch out before walking across the cricket field back to the hotel for lunch and rest.In the afternoon we were on court again and the players dictated exactly what they wanted to do and how long they wanted to do it for. We trained between 3-4.15pm on the match courts followed by a long cool down to let the legs recover from a tough day on the clay.It was an early dinner this evening as the girls needed to catch up on some internet time! Time was mainly spent on Facebook but I think there was a brief email in there somewhere to their parents to let them know they’re still alive!!