Gran Canaria U12 & U14 TE Cat.2, Day 2

Friday 15th October 2021

With one day to go until the start of the U12 girl’s qualifying draw it was time to put the final touches to Isla’s preparation while Matthew continued his unbeaten run of practice sets!

We started today with a slightly earlier practice than yesterday and first up from 10-11am was Isla. Having spent the whole of last week training at the Soto Academy in Southern Spain, Isla’s clay court game is really starting to develop and this morning she put in a brilliant session both in terms of working on the specifics in her game and also the resilience to do that in tricky conditions.

Matthew then came on court at 11am and, as always, put in a good shift for the whole hour. He told me he wanted to work on his defensive skills this morning but, after I’d made him chase wide balls for the best part of 40 minutes, I think he wished he hadn’t! His commitment was first class though and his clay court game, like Isla’s, has improved hugely over the past two days.

After a quick visit to the supermarket for lunch we were back at the club at 1:30pm ready to start our preparation for this afternoon’s training.

**A view over the 7 clay courts at the El Cortijo Club De Campo in Telde**

Isla had another good hour’s training and, like yesterday, the whole of the afternoon session was spent playing points and developing the tactics that we want her to use in her match tomorrow.

Matthew then came on court for his second session of the day and, luckily for me, he took on Zangar Nurlanuly from Kazakhstan in a practice set. Zangar was signing in for Qualies today as he didn’t enter the singles but is ranked 80 in the Tennis Europe rankings.

**Matthew returning Zangar’s serve this afternoon during the practice set**

Matthew played another great practice set (must have been the preparation I gave him yesterday!) and stormed to a 6-1 win in about 25 minutes. It was not only a great win against a quality opponent but the way he adapted his game to the style of his opponent on quite a bouncy clay court was superb … hopefully he can continue to develop in this way over the next couple of days before he plays his first match on Monday.

For dinner tonight we went to the same place as last night (Isla’s choice as she is playing tomorrow) and while we eating the Qualifying draw came out:

**Girl’s U12 Tennis Europe Qualifying Draw**

Schedule for tomorrow:

Isla Smith (GBR) vs Marta Crespo De Olano (ESP) – 1st match on at 9am