Monday 21st November 2011
HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY TO INTERNATIONAL TRAVELLING COACH!
In the last 12 months I have travelled to 17 international tournaments and helped to make Tennis Europe and ITF events more accessible for a lot of players. In the next 12 months I hope to increase the number of events and introduce some senior events to my calendar. If you are interested in travelling to events or would like to be kept up to date on my plans please email me (rob@itc-tennis.com) your email address and I’ll add you to my mailing list.
Today was a mixture of emotions as the team took 1 win and 1 loss but it could have so nearly been 2 out of 2.
Play started today at 9am but when we arrived at the club at 7.30am to warm up we were surprised to see all of the match courts closed for practise – the reason being that they were repainting all of the lines on the courts! It was then a free for all to try and get on the back courts but luckily, with the help of the WIN Academy Team, we managed to have a solid 30 minutes so Jack and Mia were prepared to play.
The match before Jack’s was a very quick 6-0, 6-0 so at around 10am he took to the court for his 1st round match. Jack started well against a very talented boy from Madagascar and, after breaking for the first time, took a 4-2 lead. He was then pegged back to 4-4 after struggling with his consistency of serving but did well to maintain his aggressive play to hold and break to take the first set 6-4. At this stage Jack seemed in complete control but at the start of the second set he gave away too many cheap points when serving and returning to find himself 2-0 down. He then fought hard to get back on serve at 2-2 but in his next 3 service games he didn’t win a single point. Fortunately he was returning well and broke back each time until it got to 5-5. He then held serve and had 2 match points at 6-5* but failed to convert on both leading to the tie-break. Jack performed poorly in the breaker and hit 6 unforced errors out of the 7 points he lost to lose the second set 7-6(4).
The third set was a very close battle but the heat took its toll on Jack as he struggled to stay consistent in the long rallies with a player who was prepared to be out there all day long. Jack was broken at 1-1 and then again at 3-5 to eventually go down 4-6, 7-6(4), 6-3. It was a really tough loss but Jack improved his level significantly from his match yesterday and showed that he can compete with the main draw players. I’m very positive that Jack will learn from his singles matches this week and be a much better player in the doubles tomorrow and the singles event next week.
As Jack was in the middle of his 3rd set Mia went on the court next to him to face Jone Kruger from South African. Both of the girls were a similar height and build and they were both playing for their first ITF points – it was really going to be a battle of who was going to perform on the day. From the start Mia looked the better player and it was only going to be a matter of time before she made a breakthrough. After being a little tentative at the start she broke the South African’s serve at 2-2 but gave up her own serve cheaply straightaway to level the set at 3-3. She then responded very professionally to break straight back and from there she never really looked in trouble taking the next 8 games in a row to win the match 6-3, 6-0 and earn her first ITF points! Matches like this one are a good way to get into the event but there’s no point winning them easily if you don’t improve your game so that you’re prepared for the next round. After the match I explained to Mia that if her level today was a 4 out of 10 then she might need an 8 out of 10 to win the next round and I asked her how we should go about increasing her level to that standard. She responded by saying she wanted to get back on court after lunch to work on the specifics from the match and find the level she would need for the next match.
At 5pm we were back on court for a solid hour until Mia felt as though she was ready to take on the 4th seed tomorrow. After training we cooled down, showered and changed and met up with Jack and Julia for dinner. The dinner, as always, took ages to arrive but then it took even longer for the girls to finish it so Jack and I went through his match in detail!
So . . . it was a pretty good 1st Birthday all in all, yes I would have loved Jack to take the win in the second set but it wasn’t to be and he learnt a lot about himself and his game from it. Mia gave us a nice birthday present with some points on the board and everyone is fit and ready for some more wins tomorrow.
Schedule for tomorrow (it’s going to be a long one!!):
Julia Weisel (USA) (1052) vs (6) Elizabeth Kapari (GHA) (712) – 3rd match after 9am, not before 11.30am
(4) Nikita Dawda (KEN) (495) vs Mia Smith (GBR) (UNR) – 4th match after 9am
Jack Large (GBR) & Jack Oswald (GBR) vs Herman Abban (GHA) & Saidi Nkurunziza (BDI) – 5th match after 9am, not before 2pm
Mia Smith (GBR) & Julia Weisel (USA) vs Stephanie Mbaya (KEN) & Megdalene Mutua (KEN) – 6th match after 9am
