Tuesday 4th October 2011
It was a real mix of emotions today as Mia competed in her first ITF main draw in both singles and doubles. One match was disappointing, one was superb but most importantly she learnt a lot and developed her game in both.
Early start this morning; I had to give Mia a 6.15am wake up call as her phone was in my room charging and to my surprise she was already up! We had breakfast at 6.45am and then got on the bus early to make sure we got a seat.
After a good physical warm up Mia hit with a girl from Singapore for 30 minutes and by 9am she was ready to go. Unfortunately the rain came down which meant the schedule had to be changed so that all the girls got to play undercover. By 10am the sun had come out and the courts were now dry so a 3rd schedule was produced meaning Mia was moved onto an uncovered court starting at 10.30am.
It was Mia’s first ever ITF singles main draw but she looked very comfortable in the warm up and I was thinking that it was going to be a really good match. Unfortunately Mia’s consistency let her down from the start and her opponent from Taipei picked up on it early and decided she was just going wait for Mia to miss. Mia managed to hold at 0-4 and 1-5 but couldn’t do enough to break her opponent to get back into the set and lost the first set 6-2. Mia seemed to re-set at the start of the 2nd and played a really good service game but couldn’t convert her two game points leading her to get broken. She responded to this well by breaking straight back and holding to lead 2-1 but at this stage the form from the first set popped its head up again and Mia lost the next 5 games in a row while Yuna Usui only hit 3 winners. Mia was very disappointed to go down 6-2, 6-2 to a girl we both felt she could have beaten but there were a lot of positives to take from the match and I challenged her to show me the improvements that she needed to make in her doubles 1st round match.
The doubles, like the singles, was moved and I had to fight hard to get Mia an extra 5-10 minutes to be able to warm up properly but at 3pm Mia and Anais went on court. Also like the singles we had set performance and outcome goals so Mia knew exactly what was expected from her whether she won or lost. The first set was a bit up and down (like most girl’s doubles!!) – after getting broken and breaking straight back Mia and Anais then took a 4-2 lead before being pegged back to 4-4. To their credit they then focused in hard and won the next two games to take the set 6-4. The girls from Taipei weren’t done there thought and showed typical Asian attitude and commitment fighting all the way through the second set. Yun-Chieh and Lo got the break at 2-2 but again Mia and Anais fought hard to break, hold, break again to lead 5-3; it was then down to Mia to serve out the match! The first 2 points were shaky but Mia kept her cool and implemented what we had talked about after her singles to stay patient and make her opponent play more balls. She was as solid as a rock from the back which set Anais up to finish the volley on 2 occasions and the other 2 points were won through their opponent’s unforced errors – 6-4, 6-3! It was a great win, a superb performance from both girls and Mia showed huge character to come back from a tough singles loss and put in such a professional performance. Mia and Anais have formed a great team, their communication and encouragement for each other was first class and they’ll be ready to take on the 2nd seeds tomorrow.
The covered courts saved the day once again!
After debriefing, showering and changing we all got the bus back at 6pm and had a great dinner together in the hotel restaurant.
Schedule for tomorrow:
Anais Nussaume (FRA) & Mia Smith (GBR) vs Ah Song (KOR) & Claudia Williams (NZL) – 4th round on, not before 2.30pm
