Saturday 7th May 2011

It was a very hot and humid day in Miami today as Devan played her first round match of the USTA College Bound Super Series event at the Royal Palm Tennis Club.

I was out exploring the local area this morning on a pre-breakfast run where I found some great basketball courts as well as a superb hard tennis court in a local park – I’m sure that’s going to come in handy for some training this weekend. We met for breakfast at 8am and then left for the club at 9.15am. Even though it’s only a few miles to the club the traffic here can be a nightmare so we gave ourselves enough time to get there and go through our 20 minute pre-match warm up before starting to hit at 10am. The club is really nice but I’m not convinced the club members are too happy with the event being there (reminds me of some clubs in England!!) and it was a bit of a fight to get a practise court for 30 minutes. By 10.30am Devan was warm and ready to go but still had to wait until 2pm for her match.

I always prefer to get away from the club when possible at tournaments to give the players a break, today was no different and after Devan had showered and changed we went and got some lunch before chilling out at the hotel until 1.15pm. We then drove back to the club and Devan warmed up and got set for her match.

Devan started very well, the first game was perfect as she was aggressive from the back of the court taking her opponent wide before attacking the space early. She did this three times in the first four points and in total she hit four winners in that game sending out a strong message to her opponent. Unfortunately her opponent fought very hard to take the next 5 games, Devan was doing the right things but she struggled to finish off the points once she had set them up well and her unforced errors started to increase. Devan broke at 1-5 but then was broken straight back to lose the first set 6-2. All Devan needed to do was reduce the unforced errors and she would be back in the match. She did just that in the second set and at the same time increased her winner count which resulted in an opposite outcome from the first set – Devan took it 6-2. At the end of the second set the USTA allow parents / coaches to talk to the players which I think is a great idea and one that other National Associations should encourage. I had a quick chat with Devan and said that she just needs to keep everything the same; keep attacking, keep the unforced errors down and she’ll be fine. She started the third set Super Tie-Break really well taking the first three points but then the level from the first set started to creep in and the unforced errors started to increase. In the end Devan went down 10-7 and the toughest part was that her opponent only had to hit 1 winner in the whole tie-break; the other 9 points were unforced errors.

It was still a positive match for Devan, her attitude throughout was excellent and her level from the back of the court was much more aggressive hitting a total of 27 winners, the only thing that hurt her was her unforced errors. It was definitely a tough result to take but we were both positive about where her game is going to go in the next 7 days to get her ready for the next ITF event in Delray Beach.

After dinner we went back to “Alex Rodriguez Park” to watch the second game between the University of Miami and Hofstra University and this time my iphone was charged!!

We’re now going to have a mini training block starting in Miami tomorrow and then we’ll move up to Delray Beach on Monday before either qualies on Saturday or main draw starting on Monday.

Friday 6th May 2011

It was decision day today as Devan had two choices for tournaments to compete in next week and we were only allowed to play one.

When Devan was planning this trip she had two goals in mind; improving her ITF ranking and also competing against other American players so College coaches could gauge her level. As Devan lives in England she doesn’t have a US National Ranking and that makes it difficult for Colleges to offer her a place without knowing how she would compete against the other girls who might be in a similar situation. She was recommended to play some of the USTA “College Bound Super Series” events and one of them fell right in between the ITFs. The problem was we only found out yesterday that she was in the event so today she made the decision to withdraw from the ITF to play the USTA event at The Royal Palm Tennis Club just south of Miami.

After making the necessary arrangements to withdraw from the ITF event we were just about to leave for Miami when we found out it was pouring with rain there so we had a quick change of plan and went over to the ITF site in Plantation to train on their courts for a couple of hours. The day off yesterday had had a positive effect on Devan; she was striking the ball much heavier and finding the depth and width that had been missing last week. After the session we had a quick lunch and then hit the road for the relatively short 40 mile trip down the coast to the tennis club.

We arrived at The Royal Palm Tennis Club just before 3pm and we were both very impressed by the immaculate courts and the 6 week old clubhouse (Devan wasn’t a big fan of the club cat though!!). We trained for just over an hour to get used to the courts and for Devan to play some service points before heading a few miles down the road to our hotel which is just opposite the University of Miami.

It was then laundry duty (which seemed to take forever!) and it was great to finally get everything washed and ready for the start of the second week. It’s always difficult to pack enough kit especially as baggage restrictions on planes are getting tighter and tighter but in America you always know you’ll be able to find somewhere to get the washing done – how clean everything comes out is another matter!

We had a great dinner (which was a little more than a “10 minute walk away” – sorry Devs!) and then on the way back we stopped by the university baseball diamond to watch the team take on Hofstra University from Long Island, New York. It was my first ever live baseball game and even though the U of M Canes were killing their opponents it was still great to watch and we’ll be heading back tomorrow to watch the second game where I’ll definitely be taking some pictures!

Schedule for tomorrow:

Devan McCluskey vs Sarah Monteagudo – NB 2pm

Winner to play (2) Athena Trouillot – NB 5.30pm