Sunday 27th November 2011
Only the one match in qualifying today but Jack made light work of it while Mia and Julia tightened up their games in preparation for main draw tomorrow.
As Jack had a midday match he had a bit of a lie in while Mia and Julia were up early to get on court before the crowds arrived! After warming up we had a really good hour and a half training from 9-10.30am where we continued the work we’d been doing on finding a more consistent higher level. I managed to get a box of balls so we could add in some basket training as well as hitting a high volume of serves. As the girls were finishing the temperature really started to rise which was precisely the time Jack started his physical warm up! He then hit with Charlie Ridout from WIN Tennis Academy for just over 30 minutes to get him ready for his qualifying match.
By the time Jack went on it was really hot; I was sitting in the small stand by the side of court 4 and the metal roof made it seem like a sauna – I’m sure it was cooler on the court! We didn’t know a lot about Jack’s opponent except that he had struggled in qualifying last week but then got a Lucky Loser and ended up winning a round in the main draw.
Jack started the match well going 3-0 up but a slight lapse of concentration meant he gave up his serve cheaply in the next game. He responded well by breaking straight back and after dominating the majority of the points from the back of the court he took the set 6-2. Jack was in full control of the match but his opponent was making life a little tricky for him and Jack found it quite difficult to get into a good rhythm. Despite this Jack kept the pressure on when serving and after breaking a couple of times at the start of the second set the result was never really in doubt. In the end Jack came through 6-2, 6-2 to qualify for the main draw.
Jack wanted to go straight back on court as soon as he had finished and we had a good 20 minutes training which helped Jack find more of a rhythm at a higher level. It wasn’t perfect but it helped to get the match out of his system and we decided that we’d do a little more on court later.
Pictures to be uploaded as soon as the internet can deal with it!!
At 4pm Mia, Julia and Jack were all back on court for the last session of the day. Julia trained for an hour with Ruby Grant on one court while Jack and I hit on another with Mia sharing half the court to work on her serve. After 20 minutes Jack was hitting really well and so decided to join Jack Oswald for a bit of doubles training while I moved over to work with Mia on her serve and return before we finished the session with a little more basket drilling. By 5.15pm everyone was happy with their own level so we stopped the session to cool down, stretch, shower and change. We then met back up at 6pm to go back to the club to check the draw and find out when everyone was playing tomorrow.
Draws to be uploaded asap!
We had planned to go to the beach tonight for dinner but our normal taxi driver wasn’t available and when the replacement tried to charge us $20 for a 5 minute journey I told him we weren’t interested! It was quite amusing how he went from $20 to $10 and then to $5 before saying he’d accept BIF 5,000 (less than $4) all in the space of 3 minutes!!
After dinner at the hotel the players all had an early night in preparation for their 1st round main draw matches tomorrow.
Schedule for tomorrow:
(q) Jack Large (GBR) (UNR) vs Andriatokiana Ratsimandresy (MAD) (UNR) – 3rd round after 9am, not before 11.30am
Megdalene Mutua (KEN) (UNR) vs Julia Weisel (USA) (1051) – 3rd round after 9am, not before 11.30am
Mia Smith (GBR) (UNR) vs Paige Mbugua (KEN) (UNR) – 4th round after 9am, not before 1pm
So . . . Jack plays the same opponent as in the 1st round last week and Julia and Mia play their 1st round doubles opponents from last week!
