Friday 29th March 2013
It was Alex’s last day of preparation today before qualifying starts tomorrow, while Mia balanced some training with some school work as she looks to be fresh for main draw on Monday.
The tournament started a shuttle bus service today which, on one hand is great as it will save us a lot of money in taxi fares but on the other hand it means that we will have to stick to their timetable which will not always fit in with our plans. After having breakfast at 8.30am we got the 9.30am shuttle and, after a delay while the other players / coaches got themselves organised, we eventually got to the club just before 10am.
The court situation this morning was a bit of a free-for-all but I had managed to get one of the staff to reserve us a court yesterday so we warmed up at 10.30am and then starting hitting at 11am. It was another hot session but our plan was always to do an hour in the morning followed by an hour and a half in the afternoon with the main focus of finding Alex’s match level. Mia and Alex worked well together and after a 20 minute warm up they went through some specific drills based on their goals from last week. We then finished the session just after 12pm with some serve and return so that Alex was ready for a practice set in the afternoon.
There wasn’t any catering facilities at the club today and as it was Good Friday most of the local food outlets were closed. Luckily Kevin, the Barbados Davis Cup captain, offered to take us into Hastings to get some food and then we returned to the club and had lunch while watching the Barbados team train.
.jpg)
Barbados Davis Cup team training session
Mia decided to rest for the afternoon session and complete some of her school work for a couple of hours while Alex and I took to the court again. Alex was supposed to play a practice set with George Cartledge but George got the times wrong so it gave me a chance to step up! We had a good set in pretty hot and humid conditions but it was in the drilling and points afterwards where the level really increased – that might have had something to do with the 50+ people that were watching the session!!
By 4pm Alex was hitting really well from the back of the court and finishing points at the net effectively. He then signed in and after cooling down and stretching out we all got the bus back to the hotel at 5pm.
We went to Mamma Mia’s for dinner again this evening and then once we got back to the hotel we continued with our psychology work until about 8.30pm when our attention turned to watching Murray take down Gasquet in the Miami semi-finals.
Alex and Mia went to bed around 9pm but it was a late one for me as I waited until after 11pm for the draw and order of play to come out – as I was told last week “they work at their own pace here on the islands!”
Schedule for tomorrow:
Joshua Blanchard (BAR) (UNR) vs (8) Alex Hagon (GBR) (1811) – 6th match after 9am (not before 3.30pm)
