Sri Lanka U18 ITF Grade 5 (week 1), Day 6

Friday 9th October 2015

It wasn’t to be for Toby today in the 1/4 finals of the singles as he went down to Ondrej but later in the day the boys teamed up and both put in very good performances to knock out the number 2 seeds to secure their place in the semi-finals of the doubles.

It was an early start this morning with breakfast at 6.30am and then we got a Tuk Tuk to the tennis club at 7.45am. When we arrived the weather did not look too good and just as we started to warm-up it started to rain lightly so we went inside the clubhouse to finish everything off. By 8.30am the rain had stopped and the court was dry enough for us to train so we went through Toby’s normal pre-match hit which lasted around 35 minutes.

Once we had finished we headed into the air-conditioned referee’s office to try and stop sweating but what we didn’t realise was that outside the rain was absolutely pouring down! Eventually we got the message as all of the first round matches came off court but luckily the delay didn’t last too long and as soon as the sun came out the courts dried pretty quickly.

The match before Toby’s was a very quick 6-1, 6-0 so at 12.15pm he went on court to face his doubles partner and number 3 seed Ondrej Styler from Czech Republic. Having trained with and played doubles alongside Ondrej we knew that he was a strong player who had a big serve and big forehand so it was always going to be a tough match. Toby won the coin toss and elected to serve but was a little inconsistent from the back of the court and soon found himself 0-1* down. He responded well though and immediately broke back with a much better level of hitting but once again he struggled to do enough in his own serve game to hold serve. From 1-2* down Toby found it difficult to find the balance between being aggressive and maintaining a consistency whilst his opponent continued to serve well and use his forehand to control most of the points. At *1-3 Toby had a long service game and had game points but he ended up losing that game, and then the next 2, to lose the first set 6-1.

During the second set Ondrej played very well and took complete control of the match; his serve seemed to get bigger and bigger and during Toby’s service games he always seemed to have an answer for everything that Toby threw at him. In the end Ondrej took the set 6-0 in 25 minutes to take a well-deserved win and advance to the semi-finals.

Toby was obviously disappointed with his performance but sometimes you come up against an opponent that is just much better than you on the day and when that happens you just need to learn from it and identify the areas of your game that need to improve to compete at that level.

After the match we got some lunch and debriefed before heading over to the Singhalese Sports Club where the 2nd ITF tournament is being held. Toby was 5th on the qualifying list and unfortunately because he lost in the singles today he didn’t get a Special Exempt for the Main Draw. Luckily the clubs are only a 5 minute drive apart so once Toby signed in we headed back to the SLTA to prepare for his doubles 1/4 Final against Christian Cummings and Rishi Reddy which was scheduled for a 5pm start.

From the start I didn’t think there would be any way that the match would get completed as it gets dark by 6.15pm but Toby and Ondrej had other ideas! After a very close first 6 games Toby and Ondrej broke Christian’s serve and then played two very good games to hold and break to take the set 6-3 in 25 minutes!

Toby seemed like a completely different player to this morning and having played a very good first set where he served 100% first serves in and controlled the net well, he was in no mood to let his opponents back in the match during the second set. Toby and Ondrej played very well to break Christian’s serve at 2-1* and then continued to hold serve all the way until they took the second set 6-3. I was really pleased that Toby played one of the best doubles matches that I have ever seen him play against two good players but I was even more impressed that he only lost 1 point on his serve and only missed 1 return in the entire match!

Once we got back to the hotel we relaxed in the apartment until 7pm when the buffet for dinner opened. Whilst at dinner the draw for the 2nd week came out:

We’ve now got an interesting day lined up for tomorrow where Toby will be playing a doubles semi-final on the hard courts at SLTA followed by a 1st round Qualifying match on clay at SSC!

Schedule for tomorrow:

Week 1 Doubles Semi-Final:

Toby Huffer (GBR) & Ondrej Styler (CZE) vs Hung Minh Huynh (VIE) & David Nguyen (USA) OR Kabir Manrai (IND) & Muzammil Murtaza (PAK) – 3rd match after 8.30am

Week 2 Singles Qualifying:

(3) Toby Huffer (GBR) (2306) vs Gaurang Gaurang (IND) (UNR) – 7th match after 8.30am (not before 4pm)