Tuesday 11th October 2011
It’s always a lot harder to write this Blog after a tough day on and off the court but I’m sure we’re going to look back on this day in a few months time and realise it was just one step on the journey to a player becoming a professional player – that doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt though!
After meeting up with the other guys for breakfast at 8.30am we took the 10am bus to the practise courts and after a good physical warm up I hit with Mia for just over 30 minutes to prepare her for her singles match. It was then straight back to the hotel for a quick shower and change before getting some lunch. We’d already made sure that we had a “Not Before” time for Mia’s match which meant that we didn’t have to rush back to the club and wait around there all day. We eventually got back to the club just as the match before Mia’s went on which was perfect timing as it gave us a chance to go through a thorough pre-match talk, setting tactics and goals for Mia to focus on.
.jpg "Mia warming up against Hsing-Ping Cheng")
Mia warming up against Hsing-Ping Cheng
Mia went on just before 3pm against 8th seed Hsing-Ping Cheng from Chinese Taipei and from the start I was very impressed. Unlike last week she wasn’t tentative at all and she knew exactly what she needed to do but more importantly she knew exactly how she was going to do it. The first game was really close and despite losing it Mia looked very comfortable and really up for the match. She held strongly with 4 unreturned 1st serves and then broke Cheng to take a 2-1 lead. The games then went with serve until Mia was 5-3 up when the heavens opened and the rain came hammering down. It was actually exactly what I wanted as Mia had just started to up the pace on her shots (which she didn’t need to) resulting in more unforced errors so it was a good chance to refocus her. After around an hour they were back on and I hope my words of wisdom helped Mia to break Cheng’s serve straight away to take the set 6-3. I haven’t seen Mia play a more professional and smart set of tennis (74% 1st serves in and 12 winners in the set) but the tough job was now to keep that up.
Unfortunately that’s exactly what Mia struggled to do and from the start of the 2nd set it was obviously it was going to be a bit of a rollercoaster. Mia went 3-0 within 6/7 minutes but played 2 solid games to get back to 2-3*. It was then the 6th game of the set that was the important one and Cheng responded to Mia’s threat by stepping up and hitting 4 clean winners in a row. Instead of accepting that sometimes your opponent is allowed to play well Mia got frustrated and went on to lose the next 2 games to lose the set 6-2.
At the rain break at the end of the first set we talked about the possibility of being up or down throughout the match and I urged Mia to remember how she played in the first set to get into a winning situation. She must have thought about that at the start of the 3rd as she played a good steady game to hold in the first game, Cheng then held to make it 1-1 and that’s when Mia started to wobble again. She was broken in the next game but broke straight back only to lose her serve again – 2 1st serves in 2 games wasn’t helping and that’s why it’s so important for players to think about what’s happening when it’s happening and not just reflect on it later. That 5th game was massive and Cheng gained a lot of confidence from it. The rest of the set went with serve until Mia was broken at *3-5 to lose the match 4-6, 6-2, 6-3.
Mia was understandably very disappointed at the end of the match but it’s good that losses hurt, if they don’t then the match is meaningless and at the end of the day if it hurts then you’ll remember it and hopefully it won’t happen again. She played a superb 1st set and if we can maintain that level throughout a match then there aren’t many girls at this level that are going to be able to get the better of her. Wins are important and we did come here to get singles wins but she’s learnt a huge amount over the last two weeks and has still a chance to pick up some points in the doubles.
After cooling down, showering and stretching out we met up with the others for a great dinner back at the hotel which included more Track and Field on the iphone as well as trying to solve Julia’s riddles – see if you can get this one:
“I am used to bat with, yet I never get a hit.
I am near a ball, yet it is never thrown.
What am I?
Answers on the Facebook page please – www.facebook.com/itctennis1
Training day tomorrow as doubles is not until Thursday.
