Saturday 1st October 2011
It was a tough day today as we got used to the heat and humidity but we got a lot of work done and we were both very happy with how it all went.
After a restless night (partly due to going to bed far too early) I met Mia (who had slept like a baby apparently!) for breakfast at 7.20am which consisted of the Vietnamese classic of Eggs and Bread – you can have your eggs however you like them and they’re cooked right in front of you so it makes for a great start to the day! At 8am we were aboard the bus again for the 40 minute journey to the tennis centre and at 9am we were on the basketball court starting our normal 30 minute warm up. By 9.30am we were both absolutely dripping with sweat and the humidity was already taking its toll. From 9.30am to 11am we were on court hitting balls and the session content was completely down to what Mia wanted to do as she started her preparations for Monday. It was a good session and her level improved a lot as she got more used to the humidity and the bouncy court surface. At 11am, having drunk over 3 litres of water since breakfast, we had a break, changed and got some lunch.
This event is Mia’s first U18 ITF event and the experience she’s going to gain from it, apart from being invaluable, will set her up for the all the junior events she’s going to play going forwards. When you look at the current best female players in the world (with the exception of the Williams Sisters) they all started their ITF careers from a young age and by the age of 14 / 15 they all had a wealth of knowledge about themselves and their tennis that can only be gained from being on the road and being in uncomfortable situations away from your home country. Mia’s worked hard over the summer and her game is now at a level where she’s able to compete with the likes of players in these events so she’s mix in the ITFs and Tennis Europe events throughout the winter months.
After lunch Mia was back on court at 1.15pm to play points against a Japanese girl whose coach I got chatting to this morning. The girls had a competitive set which lasted just over an hour and Mia came out on top taking it 6-4 – she played well throughout and developed almost every area we worked on this morning so I was a very happy coach ?. Mia’s work wasn’t quite done there though as she had to sprint to chase down the bus which had left a little earlier than scheduled! Thankfully her speed work throughout September paid off and she managed to get there just in time which saved us having to wait at the centre for another 3 hours!!
It was nice to have a bit of a break before dinner but I didn’t really get to relax as I had to move rooms twice before I could settle in and unpack – all sorted now though and hopefully I’ll be in this room for the rest of the week.
We had a solid dinner of chicken, steamed rice and steamed vegetables but it was tempting to choose some fish from one of the dozen or so fish tanks by the side of the restaurant (NOT!). I’ll let you into one of the dishes on the menu each day so you can get a feel for what we’re looking at – and these are all genuine!
Interesting dish of the day: Boiled Snake’s Head! (Somehow I think we’ll be staying with chicken filet and rice each day!)
As there was no girls qualifying due to lack of entries and only 14 boys in the qualies there are no matches tomorrow which means we’ve got loads of courts to practise on all day as we make our final preparations before round 1 on Monday.
