Bujumbura U18 ITF Grade 5 (week 2), day 5

Wednesday 30th November 2011

A heartbreaking day brought our last tournament of this trip to an end as Mia, Julia and Jack were all knocked out of the doubles before they picked up any ranking points.

After a bit of a lie in I met the guys for breakfast at 8.15am and then we had an hour to relax before we started our warm up at 9.30am. Jack Oswald joined us for our training session this morning as it was all based around doubles tactics in preparation for their matches today. We had a good 50 minute session and were even joined by something trying to get involved with our training:

Jack Large and Jack Oswald were our first match on today taking on 4th seeds M Mohamed Hatem from Egypt and Gabra’el Teja from Kenya just after 12pm. Our boys started well and looked the much stronger team as they took care of their own serves well and kept the pressure on in their returning games. Eventually they got a breakthrough at 3-3 and firstly Jack Oswald held well and then Jack Large played his part by holding serve to take the first set 6-4.

During the second set the confidence that the “Jacks” had in the first set seemed to decrease as their opponents starting serving much better and taking their chances more. Jack Large was broken at *1-2 and, despite getting the break back, Jack Oswald was then broken at *2-3 which consequently saw them *2-5 down. Jack Large then held but their opponents played a solid game to hold and take the second set 6-3. The Match Tie-Break was really all over in the first 5 points as the “Jacks” struggled to recover from a 0-5 deficit. They fought hard to try to get back into it but eventually went down 10-5 to lose the match. It was a heartbreaker for both Jacks as this would have been their first ITF points – they got close and, with their work rate and professionalism, it won’t be long before their gain their rankings.

After lunch we played a bit of basketball to warm up and Mia and Julia took to the court around 3pm for their 1st round match against Lesedi Jacobs from Namibia and Elizabeth Kapari from Ghana. The opening games were of a very high quality and it was great to watch four girls who really knew how to play doubles. Mia held serve to start the match and then they broke to take a 2-0 lead but unfortunately Julia was broken back to put the set back on serve. At 3-3 Julia was broken for the second time and Lesedi and Elizabeth took full advantage by holding at 3-4* and 4-5* to take the first set 6-4. Mia and Julia had played well but were just not sharp enough on the key points.

The second set was a more one sided affair as, after Mia was broken at *2-2, their opponents won the next 4 games in a row to take the match 6-4, 6-2. It was definitely a match that Mia and Julia could have won but a loss of focus during the first set really cost them and then they never really got on top in the second.

After the match it was then the difficult job of changing flights and trying to get home as soon as possible. Luckily I have an amazing wife who, after driving 3 hours home, got straight on the case and managed to get our flights changed without a single charge – thank you darling x

Tomorrow will be a rest day before we travel home on Friday.

Next stop is the Wrexham U14 Tennis Europe event in around 10 days time so I’ll let you all know how it’s going from there.

If you have any questions about any upcoming trips or if I can help you in any way about an individual player please email me: Rob@itc-tennis.com and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.