Thursday 24th November 2011
Over the past few days it’s been the girls who have been getting the wins but the tables turned today as the girls struggled and Jack began to find his form.
The service at the hotel seems to be getting worse by the day and when we got down to breakfast at 6.40am there was only a few bits of fruit to eat. Eventually some bread came and we used the jam we had bought from the supermarket to make up our breakfast, it does feel as though we just living off bread though!!
After a good physical warm up the team hit from 8 – 8.30am and then Julia and Mia stayed on court to go through some doubles specifics until we got kicked off the match courts just before 9am. Julia was supposed to be the our first scheduled match of the day but due to a walkover Mia somehow moved up the list from 5th round on to 1st! She had already warmed up and was happy to play her consolation match early so on she went to play Giselle Umumararungu from Rwanda.
Mia started well and looked really up for the match even though she was completely dominating her opponent but at 2-1 things changed and she soon found herself 2-4 down. She was struggling with her consistency and gave away far too many cheap points resulting in her almost losing the set 6-3 – there was a mix up with the score but luckily the other girl was honest and said it was 4-5 rather than 3-6! The rest of the set was up and down before Mia lost it on a tie-break 7-2.
Mia in her consolation match today
Mia then took a toilet break to compose herself and when she came back she raced away at the start of the 2nd set taking a 3-0 lead. This was cut back to 3-2 as her opponent broke and held but Mia managed to get the break back and take the set 6-4. On to a match tie-break for the 3rd set then! Unfortunately it wasn’t a good tie-break from Mia and after taking a 3-0 lead she was distracted by a line call and soon found herself 3-6 down. She managed to get another couple of points on the board before going down 7-6(2), 4-6, 10-5
Just as Mia was finishing Jack took to the court for his next round consolation match – Julia still hadn’t gone on and then was told that she had been given a walkover and that she should have been told 2 hours before – Thanks!! After struggling in his 2nd set of his 1st round consolation match Jack’s goals today were to maintain a better focus throughout, increase his winning count and hit more aces. He achieved all three and even when I threw him the goal of hitting 2 backhand winners in the last 2 games he ticked that one off in style too. His opponent could have been quite tricky but Jack got on top and never let him into the match taking it 6-0, 6-1.
After debriefing Jack there was about an hour to go before Mia and Julia were due on for their doubles so we warmed up and did a bit of doubles work on the court to get them sharp and focussed ready to go.
They went on at 2pm for their semi-final against Ruby Grant from WIN Academy and Janet Kock from South Africa and, after being broken in the first game they fought back to break and hold to lead 2-1. At this stage they were playing well and looked like a strong team but when Julia was broken at 2-2 the wind really came out of their sails. They lost the next 3 games in a row to lose the set 6-2 and by that stage they looked very flat.
The 2nd set was much a similar story but this time they managed to break and hold when they were 2-5 down however they didn’t have enough to break again and lost the final game on a sudden death deuce point going down 6-2, 6-4. It was a real shame as it should have been an easier match than the round before but neither of the girls found the same level or the same hunger to get the win.
After the match Julia wanted to get straight back on court which I was really up for and we spend the next hour and a half working on her level from the back of the court followed by a little mental work around her serve. She was hitting great by the end of the session and serving huge which will hopefully carry over to her consolation match tomorrow against the Rwandan girl that beat Mia today.
This evening we took a taxi to the supermarket to stock up on more water and then met up with the Kenyan team at the Havana restaurant. This made a fantastic change to the hotel restaurant where we’ve eaten for the last 7 lunches and dinners!
Schedule for tomorrow:
Jack Large (GBR) vs Charlie Ridout (GBR) – 1st round at 10am
Julia Weisel (USA) vs Giselle Umumararungu (RWA) – 2nd round after 10am
