Tuesday 24th April 2012
We finally got on the clay today after a couple of days of heavy rain but unfortunately we came up against a very tough opponent who made life very difficult for Dave throughout the match.
It was nice to wake this morning to see the sun shining and even nicer when we found out that it had been dry overnight so the matches would be outdoors on the clay. After a good breakfast we headed over to the West Hants Club at 8.30am and then we both warmed up for half an hour in preparation for Dave’s pre-match warm up from 9.15 – 9.45am. I always believe that it’s up to the player if they want to hit with another player or with me before their match and both have their advantages – if Dave was to hit with another player it means I can be there right next to him throughout the session and answer any questions he might have. But if he hits with me then we can do exactly what we want to do and not have to worry about going along with what the other player might want to do. The pre-match hit is always very personal; some players like to do an hour including lots of specific drills and some players like to do 15-20 minutes just to get a feel for the ball. The player should always make the decision themselves of how long they want to hit for so that they’re happy before they compete.
After the session Dave got some food and then we relaxed while watching some of the Women’s $10k first round of qualifying matches. The matches were quite quick and not before long Dave was back in the gym warming up for his match. We then went through our pre-match talk an then it was time for business!
Dave has started a little slow in matches this week so we had talked about electing to receive if he won the toss today but when it came time to choose he was feeling confident so he decided to serve – unfortunately that was the wrong choice!! After being broken in the first game Dave had 4 chances to break straight back but couldn’t convert on any of them and when Hewitt eventually held it gave him a big confidence boost. Hewitt then went on to win the next 4 games in a row with some very solid hitting combined with accurate aggressive play as soon as he got the opportunity to attack. Despite Dave losing the first set 6-0 he actually played much better than the last 2 days but obviously he was up against a player who was striking the ball very well.
Dave held his serve in the opening game of the second set and then forced Hewitt to save another couple of break points in the next game before the set was levelled at 1-1. Dave was then broken in the next game after some inconsistent serving combined with Hewitt stepping up more on his returns. Hewitt then took a 5-1 lead but Dave increased his serving level to make sure Hewitt would have to serve it out at 5-2 to take the match – which he ended up doing very well.
The score line reads as though it was a very one sided match but in reality the games within the match were very close and had Dave taken some of the early opportunities to break the score line might have been much closer. There were lots and lots of positives to take away from the match and credit has to go to Ashley Hewitt for playing very well throughout.
After cooling down and having some lunch we were back on court at 3pm with Tom Allen for another hour and 15 minutes to reinforce the level that we want to achieve consistently by next weekend for the Edinburgh $10k. Many players would not want to get back on court after a tough loss or they might complain about having to do so but Dave was completely the opposite. He wanted to get out there and work on his game as he knows that’s the only way he’s going to achieve the goals that he’s set for himself.
After the session Dave went off for some treatment on his back while I watched fellow Kent boy Matt Short fight hard to take a very close match 7-6 in the third set against Belgian 4th seed Arthur De Greef – great effort Matt.
Once Dave was finished we got some food before leaving the centre to return home. We’ve now got a few days to train back in Chiswick before heading up to Edinburgh for the qualifying of the Futures event on Sunday.
