Bujumbura U18 ITF Grade 5 (week 2), Day 1

Saturday 26th November 2011

As one week ends the next begins and it’s quite handy that we don’t have to travel anywhere for the next event. Even though the players had week 1 consolation matches to finish today the fact that the qualifying sign-in was also today officially marks week 2 of the trip!

Due to the hot conditions plus the fact that all of the players have had singles, doubles and consolation matches this week it’s not surprising they were feeling a little tired this morning. I therefore gave them all the option of playing their consolation matches today, having a rest day or just having a light training day. Originally they all said they wanted to play but after training this morning Julia was feeling a little exhausted so she opted to rest leaving the other two ready to compete.

Mia was first up against Nelise Vester from South Africa and everyone was a little surprised when the match before them finished in 45 minutes with a score line of 6-4, 6-4! However they took to the court just before 1pm and Mia started with some fantastic tennis working the ball exactly as we’d been working on in training to take the opening set 6-2. Unfortunately her focus wandered a little at the start of the 2nd set as temperatures rose which Nelise took full advantage of breaking twice to take a 4-0 lead. Mia managed to break at that stage but the South African was too solid taking the next two games and the set 6-1. As they were a set all I asked the South African coach if he wanted to jump on court with me and do a bit of on court coaching (like in WTA events) to work with the girls – it was after all just a practice match and he thought it was a great idea. I had a good chat with Mia and she seemed confident when I left the court but obviously what I said didn’t quite do the trick as she made 10 unforced errors to lose the Match Tie Break 10-6. A disappointing loss as she’s twice gone close to beating two players with ITF rankings in the consolation but her focus has just let her down a little in the end.

Jack went on at the end of Mia’s 2nd set and by the time I got there with Julia he was 3-2 up against another South African; Keegan Sullivan. Jack was looking good at 3-2 but then Keegan really upped his game putting Jack under more and more pressure from the back of the court resulting in him winning 7 straight games. At 2-6, 0-3 Jack and I had a good chat at the back of the court which seemed to settle him down and regain some of the focus he had before. He then held, broke and held again to level the set with a much better serving percentage and much more aggressive play from the back. Keegan responded well by holding serve and then the rest of the set went with serve until 5-5. At this stage Jack’s service return had been working well but at 0-30 with Keegan serving he struggled to make his opponent play and Keegan went on to win the next 8 points in a row to hold and break taking the match 6-3, 7-5.

Both matches have been really beneficial for Mia and Jack and I hope they take the learning points into their respective tournament matches next week. Some people may have not wanted to play the consolation event but our team has benefited enormously from it and we’re very grateful to the referee for taking the time to arrange it.

After the matches it was around 3.45pm so we got some lunch from the supermarket and then by 5.15pm I was back on court with Julia for another 45 minutes of quality training. As we finished training so did the presentation for the winners of the tournament and then all of the winners stayed on court and hit with lots of the local young players. It was great to see so many of them working really hard while training with players up to 10 years older than them and with 6 players on 1 court. The club and the town have made such a huge effort this week and without a doubt it’s one of the best Grade 5 ITF events I’ve ever been to.

As Jack had signed in for qualies earlier in the day we then all showered and changed before heading off site for dinner tonight to the Havana Restaurant. Everyone had a great meal including Jack with his massive ¼ grilled chicken! Before they all went to bed I had an individual chat with each of the players to debrief the last 8 days, listen to their thoughts on their training and matches and then get them all set for the week ahead.

Schedule for tomorrow:

Boy’s Final Round Qualifying:

Jack Large (GBR) (UNR) vs Syed Kaleem (PAK) (UNR) – 1st match at 12pm