Monday 4th February 2013
It was a day of mixed emotions today as Holly; our last remaining player in the singles, had a tough second round match while Alex got a good win in the doubles to mark his first main draw win of the trip.
We had a little bit of a later start to the day this morning with breakfast at 7.45am followed by our physical warm up before training at 9.10am. All three players trained together even though Anais didn’t have a match today and we managed to get just over 30 minutes on the court before the next players came on. Anais then stayed on court for another 30 minute to warm up Ria Vaidya for her singles match while Alex, Holly and I left the club to change up some money at the bank and to stock up on water and food at the supermarket.
As Holly wasn’t scheduled on until 4th match and Alex wasn’t due to be on until 5th match it gave us some time to watch some of the other main draw matches as well as have lunch at the hotel. Normally the food at the hotel can take anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour and a half to arrive so we’ve been opting to eat at the club but the food there has dramatically gone downhill in the last few days and a few of the players have felt unwell after eating there. After lunch Holly and Alex returned to the club to prepare for their matches but due to some courts moving much faster than others they had to constantly keep up to date with what was happening on their court.
At around 2.30pm Alex and I had one final session on court to work on some doubles specifics while Holly kept out of the sun and completed her pre-match sheet ready for her match. Both players then went on court at almost exactly the same time so I positioned myself between the two courts to try and take in as much of both matches as possible!
Unfortunately Holly didn’t start well in her match and despite this being the 4th time in two weeks where we’ve faced Sasha Alexander from Australia we still couldn’t get on top of her. Holly was broken in her first two service games and at 4-0 down things weren’t looking good but she managed to play better in the next game and had points to break Sasha’s serve but couldn’t convert them. In the end Holly’s consistency both with her groundstrokes and with her serve cost her as she lost the 1st set 6-0.
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Holly serving during her 2nd round match today
Holly started the 2nd set well and finally managed to break Sasha’s serve but it was her serve that again let her down and she gave the break up straight away. Sasha then broke again at *1-2 and once more at *2-3 as Holly’s serve continued to be too erratic. Something changed though when Holly was serving at *2-5; for the first time she seemed more relaxed and thought more about what serve she was going to hit and how hard she was going to hit it which increased her 1st serve percentage and resulted in her holding serve. Holly then played her best returning game of the match and had chances to break back but 2 huge serves from Sasha at Deuce gave her the game and the match 6-0, 6-3.
Overall it was a disappointing match from Holly; she tried to play the right way but was just too inconsistent on the day and for a 4th time in two weeks Sasha got the better of us.
Alex on the other hand was getting himself pumped up on the court behind me as he and partner Olivier Havugimana played some great doubles together against John Lutaaya from Uganda and Alex Meseguer from Spain. They broke in the 3rd game of the first set to take a *2-1 lead and then looked very comfortable at 4-2* before their opponent held and broke Alex’s serve to level the set at 4-4. The boys remained positive and encouraged each other well which led to them breaking straight back before Olivier served out the opening set to take it 6-4. Both Alex and Olivier were playing much better than last week and looked as though they were having a lot of fun on the court. The second set went with serve until 2-2* when Alex and Olivier broke and held to take a 4-2 lead but this time they didn’t make the same mistake as in the first set and took the next two games to win the match 6-4, 6-2. Alex was very pleased to get the win and after looking over in my direction gave a “Sweden” to celebrate!! He will now be playing tomorrow for his first ITF points but they have a tricky match against the 6th seeds – bring it on!
After the doubles Alex sat and supported Holly until the end of her match and then both players cooled down around the hockey pitch before stretching out together. On the way back to the hotel Holly and I had a short debrief but as the player’s emotions are always very high after a match I believe it’s always better to go through everything in detail the next day.
After another solid dinner of Mango Chicken at the Fairview hotel we returned to the courts to book practice for tomorrow and our focus now rest entirely on the doubles.
Schedule for tomorrow:
Lonah Bhwenje (KEN) & Chizi Mutsumi (KEN) vs (4) Holly Hutchinson (GBR) & Alena Mashtakova (RUS) – 3rd match after 9am (not before 1pm)
Lize-Elfrida Moolman (NAM) & Arki Truscott (AUS) vs (2) Anais Nussaume (THA) & Ria Vaidya (SIN) – 3rd match after 9am (not before 1pm)
Alex Hagon (GBR) & Olivier Havugimana (RWA) vs (6) Arian Ebrahimiyan (IRI) & Aliaksandr Streltsas (BLR) – 4th match after 9am
