Gran Canaria U12 & U14 TE Cat.2, Day 8

Thursday 22nd October 2021

This week marked Isla’s very first international tournament and, despite the loss in the doubles late this evening, she’s improved as a player and developed as a person hugely over the past 8 days.

Different day, same routine! Isla had the choice last night of having a lie-in and hitting on the hard courts later in the day to warm up or to get up early and train on the clay for 30 minutes … and I was pleased she made the right decision!

We had the best practice of the week from 7:45am until 8:30am and Isla’s highlight (which she said I have to mention!) was getting the ball stuck in the net from hitting it so hard! We’ve worked tirelessly on not hitting the net on clay so I’m not sure why she was so pleased!!

At 8:30am we made way for the GB U12 boys’ team so they could warm up for their matches and then we spent the next hour and a half watching some of the U12 girls play including Isla’s doubles opponents.

We then headed back to the hotel to get some lunch, complete some remaining school work and also get a little bit of rest as we knew the evening was going to be a long one!

At 4:30pm we arrived back at the club to find out that the 2pm match had just gone to 3 sets. Like with most scheduling at TEs / ITFs, the matches normally run late so it’s important that the players are prepared for lots of hanging round and are also aware of not being in the sun for long periods of time.

Isla and Victoria had a good hit for 45 minutes on the hard courts to prepare for their match and then we watched Macy play a really tough 3 set match where she narrowly lost to the 9th seed.

At 8:15pm, under the floodlights and with the moon shining down, Isla and Victoria went on court to face Alexia Paula Bastos-Sousa Betanzos from Spain & Georgiana-Victoria Juchi from Romania.

Victoria and Isla started the match a little nervously and were broken in the first game but they had opportunities in sudden death deuce games at 0-1 and 0-4. Unfortunately they were unable to take them and lost the first set 6-0.

The second set started to follow the same pattern as the first but Isla and Victoria kept fighting throughout. They were playing some good doubles together and most importantly they were trying to adapt to their opponents by changing court positions, moving at the net etc. After another sudden death deuce game that went against them at 0-2, they eventually got a little reward for their hard work by breaking serve at 0-4 but in the end their opponents were just too strong and they won the match 6-0, 6-1.

The girls left the court at 9:40pm and despite feeling disappointed I think both Isla and Victoria have made big improvements on and off the court this week.

That brings our first Tennis Europe trip of the winter to an end and overall it’s been a fantastic week. Matthew and Isla have had both experienced international competition for the first time, they’ve learned a lot about how these types of tournaments work, how to deal with opponents that speak different languages and what they now need to do to move to the next level with their own game development. A big thank you as always to the people that are supporting the Travelling Squad and hopefully I’ll be updating the blog in Bath at the end of October. The plan is then to do the Rafael Nadal Ten-Pro event at the end of November so if you are interested in joining us for this trip please let me know.