Barbados U18 ITF Grade 4, Day 5

Monday 1^st April 2013

We had a mixed day today as Georgie came through her first round match convincingly while Mia took a commanding first set lead but unfortunately couldn’t maintain her level.

It was another early start this morning as the fight for practice courts continues!! We got to the club at just after 7.30am to warm up and then Mia and Georgie got on court from 8-8.30am to warm up for their singles matches while Alex had to wait until 8.30am before he could get a court. As Alex was signing in for a Lucky Loser place he needed to sign in 30 minutes before play started and then it would be a case of waiting all day to see if anyone would pull out . . . or get defaulted, like today!

During the practice session from 8-9am a German boy hit a ball over the fence and a young local spectator caught the ball but wouldn’t give it back! The German then went off the court to get the ball back and after an argument, which involved the German boy’s dad too, all three of them got into a fight. I’ve never seen anything like it at a tournament and after the police were called the German boy was eventually defaulted from singles and doubles. That meant that Alex had an opportunity to get a Lucky Loser spot but, as there were two players who lost in the last round of qualifying that both had rankings, it would have to be drawn out of a hat. Alex unfortunately picked out the other boy’s chip so lost out on a place in the main draw.

After that crazy start to the day, Georgie went on at just after 10.30am to play her first round match against Mary Meredith from America. The conditions today were very windy and it was difficult to find a rhythm from both ends of the court but Georgie started the match well and broke serve in the first game. She then went on to take a 4-0 lead and even though Mary held serve in her next two service games, Georgie served out the set to take it 6-2. At the end of the set Mary called the physio onto the court and after a brief assessment of her condition she said that her shoulder was too painful to carry on playing so she pulled out.

After the match I had a brief chat with Georgie before she cooled down and stretched out. We then all got some lunch at the club and our attentions then turned to Mia’s pre-match preparations.

Mia went on just after 1.30pm to play qualifier Madison Harrison from America who is the younger sister of top 100 player Ryan Harrison. Mia knew Madison from when she trained at the IMG academy in Florida and she had seen her play during qualifying so was ready to take her on!

Mia started the match well and just like in her match last week she was very patient from the back of the court while still maintaining an aggressive level to put her opponent under pressure. Mia took a 3-0 lead and looked in full control of the match but a few negative comments to herself after missing a couple of shots in the next game allowed her opponent back in. Madison held serve for the first time at 3-0* and, as she could see Mia was starting to get down on herself, her confidence started to grow. Madison went on to win the next 11 games in a row to go from 3-0 down in the first set to 6-3, 5-0 up in the second before Mia then held serve.

The two games at 5-0 and 5-1 were actually two of Mia’s best in the match and I had a feeling that a big fight back was about to begin but Madison served well in the last game to take the match 6-3, 6-1.

It was a disappointing match and one that if Mia could have stayed positive and maintained the level that she started the match with then she would have definitely come through it with a win.

After Mia had finished Alex and Georgie went through their band and injury prevention work for 45 mins then had a stretch out to end the day. We then got the shuttle bus back to the hotel at 4.30pm which gave the players an opportunity to relax or go swimming in the hotel pool before we left for dinner.

The plan tonight was to go to Oistins to see the Fish Festival and to eat at a local surfer’s restaurant but we didn’t realise that the restaurant was closed on Mondays!

So instead we had a walk around the town before heading to St. Lawrence Gap for a nice meal in a Brazilian restaurant overlooking the beach.

 

We got back to the hotel just after 8pm and then went through some psychology work as well as the individual analysis from their singles matches.

Schedule for tomorrow:

Georgie Axon (GBR) (690) vs (2) Mira Ruder-Hook (USA) (374) – 3^rd match after 9am (Summerhayes Courts)

Matthew Foster-Estwick (BAR) & Ajani King (BAR) vs Alex Hagon (GBR) & Christian Haushammer (USA) – 4^th match after 9am (not before 12pm)

Abigail Altick (USA) & Jenna Friedel (USA) vs Georgie Axon (GBR) & Mia Smith (GBR) – 8^th match after 9am (not before 4pm)