Barbados U18 ITF Grade 4, Day 1

Thursday 28^th March 2013

After a long day yesterday, which saw us arrive in Barbados at 10.30pm, we had a more relaxed day today as Alex started his preparations for qualifying on Saturday.

There was no set time for breakfast this morning as I wanted the players to have a lie in but they were both awake by 9am so we got something to eat and then got a feel for the hotel. We then decided to have a walk into Oistins to visit the local supermarket and stock up on food and water. Despite it being very warm, the walk was very picturesque and all of us were very impressed by the views.

Alex and Mia both had a bit of trouble with their shopping bags splitting on the walk back and Alex even tried to pay me to carry his bags!! Once we got back to the hotel we all sorted out our clothes that needed washing and then we took them to a local laundry on the way to the tennis centre.

The tennis centre is a lot smaller than the one in Trinidad and only has 4 courts but one of them is reserved for the whole week so that the Barbados and Puerto Rico teams can use it to prepare for their Davis Cup match which is next weekend. It’s going to be a really good experience for all of the players to be around a Davis Cup tie and I’m looking forward to being close to the action.

After warming up thoroughly I took Mia and Alex through some movement work with the ladder and then they had a really good session from 12.30-2pm. Both players were a little tired after the long travelling day yesterday but they worked hard and played well.

We were met by our taxi driver at 2.45pm who took us back to the laundry shop to collect our clothes and then we headed back to the hotel via a local shopping mall to get some lunch. For the rest of the afternoon the players relaxed at the hotel and kept cool in the swimming pool while I caught up on some admin work (and tried to dodge getting splashed by the side of the pool!!).

For dinner this evening we were joined by George, his coach Eddie and Matus Lazar (who Alex and George had played in the doubles in Trinidad) and his father. To get to the restaurant I decided that we would go via local minibus so all 7 of us squeezed into an already busy bus – still $2 each is much better than $50 for a taxi! Dinner tonight was at a local Italian called Mamma Mia’s in Hastings which was recommended by an English family who were staying at our hotel.

After the meal we waited for another local bus to get us back to the hotel and Alex’s excitement was obvious for everyone to see!

When we got back to the hotel we met in the lobby to go through some psychology work to help the players reflect on last week and prepare themselves for this week. Then at 9pm we headed back to our rooms for an early night.