Monday 12th March 2012
It was a big day today as Dave was competing in his first Futures main draw but despite a good draw in the doubles him and Oli Hudson couldn’t quite find enough to get the win.
As there is a Men’s and Women’s event on this week it is quite difficult to get practice courts during the day so we decided last night that we’d get to the centre when it opened at 8.30am this morning and then train on court from 9-10am. The session was the best one I’ve had with Dave; he’s improved a lot over the last week and was looking very sharp around the net which was one of our main goals before he played his doubles match this afternoon.
At 10am Dave had a break for an hour and a half before he was back on court again to warm up one of the main draw players for their match. This again gave us a chance to watch some of the main draw players and learn about what they do effectively in their play which will in turn help Dave to improve his own game as well as gain valuable experience at this level.
The men's main draw getting underway today
After Oli Hudson had finished his singles match he was given an hour and a half break before him and Dave were on court at 4.15pm to face Joseph Gill and Jonny O’Mara. The match started well for Dave and Oli as they were holding very comfortably but both of them were struggling with their returns. At *3-3 there had been 6 holds of serve and I got the feeling that it was our boys that were in danger of being broken first as their opponents were starting to put more pressure on them and move more at the net. Dave held in that game but at *4-4 Oli was broken and Joseph Gill serve it out easily. First serve percentages of 58% from Dave and 50% from Oli are quite low for doubles but 1st serve return percentages of 30% and 38% respectively are much too low.
Dave and Oli started the second set with much more purpose and looked a lot more like a doubles team who were prepared to move and dominate the net. After breaking O’Mara in the second game of the set they lead 3-0* and increased their lead to 4-1* before things started to go back to how they were in the first set. Dave and Oli then ended up losing the next 5 games in a row to go down 6-4, 6-4 in a match that they were capable of winning comfortably. The serving percentages improved to 69% for Dave and 65% for Oli but again the returning percentages were very low – a golden rule in doubles is always “Make your opponents play” and this is most important when returning serve.
The doubles match today and his singles matches in Tipton, Sutton and in Bath have been a great learning experience for Dave and I believe the last two weeks have helped him to become more aware of the areas of his game that need to be improved before his next block of Futures events at the end of April. He’s worked very hard and is very professional so I know he’s going to do well in his upcoming events.
My next event will be the U16 Tennis Europe Grade 3 event at the National Tennis Centre in London which starts on Sunday 25th March so I hope you’ll follow how the players do there.
If you have any questions about any of my upcoming trips or any questions at all about competing internationally at a junior or senior level please do not hesitate to contact me via Rob@itc-tennis.com.
