Blog Archive 2014

Liverpool U18 ITF Grade 5, Day 3

Monday 17^th November 2014

After two difficult matches in Qualifying, Toby and Alex caught a break today and the decision to stay an extra night to try to get into the doubles paid off.

I got a sense this morning that neither of the boys were that impressed with my training schedule for the day as we were up and out of the hotel by just after 6.30am!! We needed to get an early start because we didn’t have any booking priority on the practice courts due to neither of the boys playing today. That meant that we arrived at the tennis centre just before 7am but as the centre didn’t open to 7.30am we went across to the gym to warm up there.

Originally I thought that we’d only be able to get on a court from 7.30-8am as after that time all of the players with matches today should have needed the courts but we were very fortunate to be able to stay on the same court for an hour and a half. For the first 30 minutes we had the full court and were able to do a lot of specific work around Toby and Alex’s groundstrokes then from 8-9am our attention moved to their volleys and specific doubles work – we even managed to get a few full court serving points in at the end of the session!

It was a good training session where both boys worked hard but at 9am the really hard work began! As Toby and Alex lost in the Qualifying they both knew that their best bet for getting into the doubles would be to sign-in with a main draw player and they had 3 hours to make that happen!

After an hour Alex had 2 options for a partner; a Belgium and a Czech player but they would only stay for doubles if they won their opening singles match. Toby on the other hand had nobody! To be honest I felt as though Toby could had done more to find a partner so at 10.15am I bet him that I could find a partner for him before he does! Feeling extremely confident Toby took the bet and the challenge was on but, like my most coaches, I had a trick up my sleeve!

Once I had finished some work on the computer I went outside and called Matt Summers (who lost in qualifying yesterday) to see if he wanted to come back up to Liverpool to play doubles with Toby. His answer was a very firm “Yes” so job done! Even though Toby had lost the bet he was very grateful that he now had a partner but the twist to the tale is that by this stage Alex’s two options had both lost and so he was left with nobody!

After more asking around trying to find a partner I eventually came up with the idea of asking Anders (the tournament director) if there were any players he knew of that were looking for a partner and, with 5 minutes to go until the sign-in deadline, Alex partnered up with Thomas Kyle from Lancashire.

Boy’s Doubles Draw

With the stress of the morning over and both boys into the doubles we had some lunch and then I beat the pair of them at table tennis!!

Then at 1.30pm the three of us and Nell Millar went over to the Wirral Indoor Tennis Centre for our second training session of the day. The courts over there were excellent and at just £9 per hour it was a much better option than fighting for 30 minutes of training on half a court at the tournament site.

The session was mainly doubles specifics and all of us worked very hard to get into positions to finish as many points at the net as possible. That led to all of us getting ‘pinned’ at some point in the session but ‘pin of the day’ has to go to Toby who managed to get Nell ‘I’ve never been hit before’ Millar right on the top of the head!

After an hour and 15 minutes of very good training we had a little ‘Bounce’ tournament to cool down and then it was back to Liverpool to drop Nell off before Toby, Alex and I went to the train station to pick up Matt.

In was then off to our 3^rd hotel of the trip which is right in the centre of Liverpool before heading out to dinner at 6.30pm.

Schedule for tomorrow:

(4) Jake Hersey (GBR) & Luke Oakley (GBR) vs Toby Huffer (GBR) & Matt Summers (GBR) – 3^rd match after 9am

Alex Hagon (GBR) & Thomas Kyle (GBR) vs (3) Vuk Budic (USA) & Simon Carr (IRL) – 4^th match after 9am

Liverpool U18 ITF Grade 5, Day 2

Sunday 16^th November 2014

It was another difficult day for the team at the Liverpool Junior International today as Alex faced an inform George Hutchings from Lancashire.

As Alex was 3^rd match on after 9am we met for breakfast at 6.45am and then packed up all our things as we’re moving hotels today. We then got over to the tennis centre for just before 8am so that both boys could have a full warm-up in preparation for their practice session from 8.30-9am.

Even though Alex has been training on clay in Spain for the last couple of months he’s adjusted to the pace of the indoor hard courts well and he found a very good level during the 30 minute pre-match session this morning. By 9am Alex had gone through everything that he needed to and we left the court to make way for the first round of matches of the day.

Before Alex went on for his match we got some food, went through his pre-match tactics and goals and then watched some of the other qualifying matches. While we did that Toby took himself off to the gym and went through his daily strength and conditioning programme. He then returned in time to watch and analyse his opponent from yesterday in his 2^nd round match against Matt Summers.

As the 2^nd match on Alex’s court was coming to an end we left Toby watching Aidan vs Matt to do some further warm-up and movement work to sharpen Alex up before he went on court for his match at 12pm.

We’d seen George play last week in Loughborough and also in his 1^st round match yesterday so we knew that we needed to be aggressive and look to take his time away whenever possible. In the first game Alex pressed a little too hard during the rallies and ended up getting broken but after a 20-point second game, where Alex had numerous game points, he found his range and looked to be clear on exactly how he needed to play to beat George. Unfortunately George took that game and with it his confidence and level of playing increased which led to him taking the 1^st set 6-0.

Even though Alex didn’t get a game on the board in the first set it was still very competitive and the set lasted 41 minutes. The second set continued to be close in terms of the score in each game but whenever Alex got into a winning position he either over-pressed and missed or George would step up and play very good tennis to win the point. Alex continued to fight hard throughout the set and managed to hold serve at *0-4 but George was just too good on the day and went on to win the match 6-0, 6-1 in 1 hour and 25 minutes.

Straight after the match Alex and I sat down to debrief and we both came to the same conclusion that tactically Alex had played the match pretty well but he just needed to play the big points a little better.

Once we’d eaten some lunch we went to our new hotel to check in and then returned to the club at 4pm to warm up for our second training session of the day. Due to the main draw players having the priority on the indoors bookings we were relegated to the outdoor courts but that didn’t stop Toby and Alex from working very hard and putting in an excellent hour of training.

Toby and Alex battling the cold conditions on the outdoor courts this evening

After the session the boys showered and changed at the club and then we headed straight into Liverpool for dinner at ASK. It was then back to the hotel to watch the start of ‘I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here!’ and then get an early night because it’ll be and early start for practice tomorrow.

Liverpool U18 ITF Grade 5, Day 2

Saturday 15^th November 2014

As Alex had a Bye in his opening singles match it was down to Toby today to join him in round 2 but first he had to get passed a tough opponent in Aidan McHugh from Scotland.

We all met for breakfast this morning at 6.45am and then left the hotel at 7.30am to take the relatively short 20 minute across Liverpool to the tennis centre. We were one of the first to arrive this morning but as it got closer to 8am the courts started to fill up and so the boys were relegated to the side of court 2 to finish their physical warm-ups. At just before 8.20am Toby and Alex took to court 4 to go through a very good pre-match practice session where both of them found a good level and by 9am Toby felt well prepared for this match.

Between when we finished the practice and when Toby went on for his match we got some food, relaxed and played a little table tennis before going through Toby’s pre-match preparations and warm-up.

Then at 11.50am Toby went on court to face Aidan McHugh from Scotland. We didn’t know anything about Aidan before the match but as the match progressed it was obvious that the 14 year old was a very good player and during the match I was told that he’d won almost everything there was to win at a British U14 level!

Toby and Aidan warming up for their 1st round match

As the 1^st set started to develop Toby matched anything that Aidan threw at him and raised his level on numerous occasions when the games started to get close. Both boys were playing at a very high level throughout the set and apart from a very close game at *4-4 neither of them looked as though they were ever going to lose their serves. As the set moved into a tie-break it was very hard to find anything between either player but it was Toby that got a mini-break on the second point and then managed to extend his advantage to take a 5-2 lead. Aidan managed to claw back a couple of points but Toby stayed strong and continued to play some very aggressive tennis to eventually take the first set 7-6(4) after an hour and 15 minutes.

Both boys had a toilet break at the end of the set and when they returned it was Aidan that got out of the blocks the fastest while Toby seemed to struggle to find his first set form. Aidan broke in the second game and went on to hit 8 winners and only 6 unforced errors in the set to take it 6-0 despite Toby having game points in the first two games.

The start of the third set was more like the first set with both boys matching each other from the back of the court; Toby was 40-15* up on Aidan’s serve in the opening game but Aidan then reeled off 5 winners in a row before Toby responded well with a good service game of his own. Toby was broken when serving at *1-2 but each game was still very close and if Toby could have converted his game point at *1-4, *40-30 then the score line might have been a lot closer. Unfortunately Toby lost the advantage in that game and Aidan played a very good service game to hold and take the match 6-7(4), 6-0, 6-1.

Toby was obviously disappointed with the result but he competed hard throughout and there’s never any shame in losing to a player who maintains a high level like Aidan did over a match lasting just over 2 hours and 40 minutes.

After Toby and I debriefed the match I was back on court with Alex for his second training session of the day from 3.30pm until around 4.15pm.

It was great to see all the courts busy with players practicing after the matches this afternoon

Alex trained this afternoon with Sam Ferguson and the session was mainly point based to prepare both boys for their 2^nd round matches tomorrow. By the time Alex finished he was striking the ball great and looking forward to getting stuck into the tournament tomorrow!

Once both Toby and Alex had cooled down we headed back to the hotel to change and relax for an hour before dinner. We then headed into Liverpool at 6pm for dinner at Nandos and then it was straight back to the hotel for an early night.

Schedule for tomorrow:

(3) Alex Hagon (GBR) (1771) vs George Hutchings (GBR) (UNR) – 3^rd match after 9am

Winner to play a 2^nd match after rest.

Liverpool U18 ITF Grade 5, Day 1

Friday 14^th November 2014

As International Travelling Coach approaches its 4^th Birthday at the end of next week it is once again time for the last trip of the year and I couldn’t think of a better place to have it than in Liverpool! This tournament will be the 69^th international tournament that I have been to since starting International Travelling Coach at the end of 2010 and it will be the 180^th international event that I have coached players at – hopefully next year will see my 200^th international tournament!

Following a very good two days at the Loughborough British Tour event with Toby Huffer and Alex Hagon, we left Loughborough early this afternoon for the two hour journey to Liverpool. Alex joined Toby and I in training on Wednesday before we left for the British Tour event and it was great to have him back on a trip after spending the last couple of months training in Spain.

Despite the relatively short journey to Liverpool it didn’t stop Alex dozing off shortly after we left:

Doesn’t he look so peaceful?!!

… Or Toby taking selfies!

It’s much better when they’re sleeping!!

At least Toby did manage to take a good one of the Silver Jubilee Bridge over the River Mersey:

At 3.30pm we arrived at the tennis centre in Wavertree and the boys went straight into their physical warm-ups before having a very good training session for an hour. The boys spent the first 30-40 minutes getting used to the courts, drilling and warming up each part of their games and then finished the session with some point play.

Alex and Toby playing some points at the end of the session this afternoon

After cooling down and stretching out we left the centre at just after 5.30pm and went back to the hotel to shower and change before meeting up with the My Tennis team for dinner.

Coming to the event was a little bit of a gamble for Toby as he was 11^th Alternate this morning but when the sign-in closed at 6pm he was easily inside the cut-off and there were in fact 5 byes in Qualifying!

I always say it but it does surprise me when the British ITF events do not have full draws, in this case however, it actually helped us out!

Boy’s Qualifying Draw

Schedule for tomorrow:

Aidan McHugh (GBR) (UNR) vs Toby Huffer (GBR) (UNR) – 3^rd match after 9am

Sri Lanka U18 ITF Grade 5 (week 2), Day 3

Sunday 12^th October 2014

It was a good day of training today ahead of finding out if the boys have got into the doubles draw tomorrow.

We were up and at breakfast this morning at 8am as the plan for the day was to do two good sessions on court and a gym session too. However, when we arrived at the club at 9.15am we were surprised to see that there had been a huge downpour of rain directly over the club but there was no sign of it on the way to the club which is less than 1.5km! The referee told us that the courts would be out for the next 2-3 hours so we got straight back into a Tuk Tuk and went back to the hotel.

When we got back we hit the gym for a good hour and a half session where Toby went through a strength session followed by some intervals while Nils did some core work and finished with some intervals of his own.

We then had some lunch in the room and went over the details from the matches yesterday to prepare the boys for their on-court session in the afternoon.

Luckily for us the sun had been out since the big downpour this morning and when we arrived back at the club at 1.30pm the courts had dried out completely. The boys went through their physical warm-up on court and then hit for around 20 minutes before going straight into playing two sets.

Nils played very well in the opening set, it was probably the best I had seen him play on the whole trip and the issues that he had been having with his consistency were non-existent! Nils took a lead early on in the set and then maintained his focus until 4-0 when he threw in a random game of four unforced errors. He did well to get back on track in the next two games and won both of them to take the set 6-1. Toby’s level during the set had been a little erratic but the result of the set was mainly down to the level that Nils was playing at rather than mistakes that Toby was making.

At the end of the set I brought both boys together to go through some of the notes and stats that I had taken and then we re-set some goals before the boys went into their second set.

Toby and Nils competing hard during their sets this afternoon

Toby found a much better level at the start of the second set and was able to dictate more of the points which resulted in him taking a 2-0 lead. Nils responded well and raised his level to break Toby and then hold himself to level the set at 2-2 but Toby fought back to hold serve in the next game which kept the set on serve. Despite some tight service games (especially Toby’s service game at 4-4 which lasted 10 points) the rest of the set went with serve until 5-4 when Toby managed to tough out another long game and take the set 6-4. By this stage the boys had been playing for over 2 hours and were both quite exhausted but they managed to sum up enough energy to finish the session with a match tie-break which Nils eventually won 10-8.

It was a good session where both boys worked hard on developing their games and also dealing with some difficult situations during the sets. Once we were finished we played a few games of ‘bounce’ as a cool down and then the boys consulted the referee about the possibilities of getting into the doubles tomorrow before we headed back to the hotel.

Nils joined his family for dinner this evening while Toby and I decided to have a change of scenery and go to the tennis club to eat at the Italian restaurant. We didn’t realise that it was movie night there though and they had a big screen set up right outside the restaurant:

Movie night at Santore’s Italian restaurant

After dinner we headed back to the hotel to relax and ended up watching the end of Die Hard 3 followed by almost the whole of Die Hard 4!!

Sri Lanka U18 ITF Grade 5 (week 2), Day 2

Saturday 11^th October 2014

It was another very difficult start to Qualifying again this week as both Toby and Nils came up against stronger opponents in their opening rounds.

Due to the sheer volume of rain we’ve had over the last few days here in Colombo the referee had decided to make the start times this morning much later than he normally would have so that the clay courts had time to dry out. That meant that the boys had a lie-in and we met for breakfast at 8.30am. We then headed over to the club at 9.30am with the plan being to hit from 10.30-11am and then have some lunch before Nils was first on at 12.30pm. However, when we arrived we were told that there were no practice courts available as the club coaching programme was using all of the bottom clay courts and the hard courts were being used for matches!

I eventually managed to convince one of the coaches to let us use his court for 30 minutes until his next lesson turned up and, after warming up thoroughly, Toby and Nils had a good practice on the clay for the first time in 3 days! We got almost everything warmed up on the clay apart from serves and returns and after the lesson had turned up we moved to one of the hard courts to finish our practice.

At 12.15pm (a little earlier than scheduled) Nils went on court to face Devanand Mohan from India and following a very good week of practice Nils was going into the match full of confidence. Unfortunately after a couple of long games at the start of the match Nils found himself 0-2* down and with that his frustration started to build while his opponent grew in confidence. Nils was playing some points at a high level but just couldn’t find the consistency to do it enough to get games on and board. Despite getting frustrated with how he was playing Nils kept battling away and even at 6-0, 4-0 down he continued to fight has hard as he could to get his first game. He was rewarded by breaking his opponent at that stage of the match and after taking at *40-0 lead in the next game I thought he was going to start a comeback but it wasn’t to be and he eventually went down 6-0, 6-1. Nils was not so much disappointed with losing that match as much as he was with not being about to produce the level of tennis that he had in training over the last 6 days – but that’s tennis and if it was easy to reproduce our training level in matches then we’d all be much better players!

Toby started to warm up for his match just as Nils was finishing so after I had a quick debrief with Nils I went straight to Toby’s court to watch him play Rishi Reddy from India.

Toby and Rishi warming up for their match

Toby started well and raced to a 2-0 lead by playing some solid tennis but then Rishi really raised his level and hit 10 winners in the next four games to completely turn the set around. Toby managed to hold on to his next service game to keep the score close but Rishi held and broke Toby for the 3^rd time and went on to take the set 6-4.

After the 1^st set Toby took a toilet break and when he returned he seemed to have a clearer plan of what he needed to do to stop Rishi from dominating the points. He stepped up from the very first game of the set and starting controlling his opponent a lot more from the back of the court which in turn prevented Rishi from hitting winners. Toby played his best game of the match at 3-2* and although he didn’t win the game he created lots of opportunities for himself and made Rishi hit 3 winners to win the game. That game took quite a lot out of Toby and when Rishi hit a dead net cord on the first point of the next game and then Toby double faulted it seemed as though the momentum shifted in Rishi’s favour. Toby was broken at *3-3 and even though he was *40-15 up at *3-5 he couldn’t convert that game and eventually went down 6-4, 6-3.

Overall it was a good match but what was really interesting was that both Toby and I agreed that the 2^nd set was much better than the 1^st set, however, the stats don’t see it that way! – 1^st set Toby hit 8 winners and 15 unforced errors which equals an aggressive balance of -7 whereas the 2^nd set was 4 winners and 19 unforced errors which equals an aggressive balance of -15. So, why was the 2^nd set better? Because Toby controlled more points, increased his intensity during the rallies and created more opportunities. Unfortunately he couldn’t convert those opportunities but his game will develop more playing that way and next time hopefully he will take more of those chances.

After the match Toby and I had good debrief by the side of the court and we both agreed that as much as it was disappointing to lose, there were a lot of positives to come out of it, especially in the 2^nd set.

We returned to the hotel at around 5pm and had a couple of hours to relax before we went out at 7pm to meet Nils’ family and friend for dinner at the Gallery Café. It was a bit of a hard task to find the restaurant but the long journey was definitely worth it as the food was amazing! We all had the fillet steak which was recommended by Nils’ dad and then the boys had a ‘chocolate nemesis’ for dessert which was as good as it sounds!

A fantastic meal and great company at The Gallery Cafe

Our attention now turns to trying to get into the doubles on Monday and getting back into training starting first thing in the morning.

Sri Lanka U18 ITF Grade 5 (week 2), Day 1

Friday 10^th October 2014

As week 2 starts here in Colombo it was another very wet day but we made the most of it and ended up getting in a good session on court this afternoon.

The plan for today was always to have a lighter morning and let the players have a lie-in as they’d been getting up between 6-7am for the last week, and then have a longer training session this afternoon. As the morning went on it seemed as though everything was going to plan; the boys didn’t set an alarm and just let themselves wake up naturally and then after breakfast they both got stuck into some school work.

Two very focussed students!

We then all had lunch in the apartment at 12pm and had planned on going over to the club at 1pm but almost as soon as we finished eating a huge thunderstorm came over Colombo:

A little different to the view yesterday

We knew the courts would be flooded so we decided to stay at the hotel for a while and eventually went over to the club at 3pm. Even at that time the match courts were still very wet so we went down to the bottom two hard courts and, while the boys went through their warm-up routines, I swept the puddles off the court!

Once we had completed some good sprints Toby and Nils began hitting and despite the court still being quite wet we had a good session for an hour and a half. We did a lot of work on depth and consistency of shots and then moved on to warming up their volleys before the boys decided to finish with some points.

Nils stretching for a backhand volley during the points

By the end of the session both boys felt good and ready for their match tomorrow.

Once Toby and Nils had signed in we went back to the hotel to change and then headed out to dinner at the other Hilton again. During the meal the draw was posted and to our surprise there were only 15 players in Qualifying!

Boy’s Qualifying Draw

After dinner we headed back to the hotel and started watching the next DVD in the pile which was “A million ways to die in the West”. We’re currently about half way through and it’s actually not bad!

Schedule for tomorrow:

Nils Larsson Regnstrom (SWE) (UNR) vs Devanand Mohan (IND) (UNR) – 1^st match at 12.30pm

Rishi Reddy (IND) vs Toby Huffer (GBR) (UNR) – 2^nd match after 12pm

Sri Lanka U18 ITF Grade 5 (week 1), Day 8

Thursday 9^th October 2014

After waiting almost 3 days to play their doubles match the boys finally got on court today but it was just unfortunate that they came up against a very good pair in the opening round.

Due to yet more heavy rain overnight we knew when we woke up this morning that the clay courts would be out of action and that the whole tournament would be moved to the hard courts. We confirmed that with the referee after breakfast and decided that it would be better to stay at the hotel and practice on the hotel court rather than have to fight to get on the one practice court at the club.

With a revised ‘not before’ time of 12pm for their doubles match the boys warmed up in the gym at the hotel and then got on court at 10am for their tennis session. The court at the hotel is surrounded my concrete walls which made an already hot morning even hotter!

It was a hot one down there this morning!

We stayed on court for around 45 minutes during which time Toby and Nils warmed up every part of their game and then we worked on a few doubles drills to finish. It was very hot on the court and we all agreed that we didn’t want to do too much and get too tired before the match, so at 10.45am we headed back to the apartment to shower and change. We then headed to the club to get some lunch, go through the goals and tactics for the match and then it was a case of sitting and waiting for our court to become available.

After the match before ours went to a 3^rd set, Toby and Nils eventually got on court at just before 2.30pm to face top seeds Indra Patwardhan and Arjun Ramakrishnan from India. Both boys were really up for the match and, having done a lot of training for it over the last 4 days, they were looking very confident from the start. After Indra held serve in the 1^st game Toby and Nils responded by holding a tight service game on a sudden death deuce point and then, following a strong game, broke Arjun to take a *2-1 lead. The first point of the next game could have been the most important point of the match; Nils put in a good 1^st serve down the ‘T’ and Toby crossed really well on the first shot but somehow their opponents managed to scrape the ball back and win the point. After that point the Indians seemed more confident and they upped their games to break Nils, hold serve and then break Toby to take the first set 4-2 (short sets because of all the rain delays and having to play 2 doubles matches in 1 day).

The 2^nd set was more one-sided than the first as Indra and Arjun raised their games significantly both when serving and returning to take the set 4-0. Toby and Nils were understandably disappointed with the loss but they did create chances in the first set and were up against two good players who had played together a lot in the past.

As the boys had been training and competing for the last 8 days I insisted that they took the afternoon off completely – no schoolwork, no gym work, just relax and unwind a bit before everything starts again tomorrow for the 2^nd tournament.

With that in mind we got back to the apartment at around 3.30pm and then spent the next couple of hours watching the end of “The Inbetweeners 2” and the first half of “Coach Carter” before we headed out to dinner at 6.45pm.

Both boys have been extremely disciplined with what they have been eating all week and so tonight I let them loose on the whole buffet at the Hilton! They didn’t actually go too crazy as they knew they had to train the next day but they did enjoy a dessert . . . or 3!

When we arrived back at our hotel Toby said he needed to go to the cash machine to get some money out but as he put the card in the slot he missed the card reader and dropped his card down a gap in front of it! We could all see the card sitting there but the gap was too small to reach it with our fingers and the hotel staff said we’d have to wait until the bank came along to open the machine. We had no idea how long that would be and I was up for a bit of a challenge so I went to the apartment, got a coat hanger and some physio tap and headed back downstairs. The hotel staff said it was not possible to get it out but after convincing them to let me give it a go I eventually managed to reach the card, stick it to the coat hanger with the physio tape and gentle navigate it back through the gap – a fine achievement if I do say so myself!!

After all that excitement we went back to the apartment to watch the end of Coach Carter and then relax for the rest of the evening.

Sri Lanka U18 ITF Grade 5 (week 1), Day 7

Wednesday 8^th October 2014

The weather today was a lot better than it was yesterday; we still didn’t get the doubles played but we had a very good training day and the boys studied hard too!

While Nils stayed in the apartment and continued to plough through his school work, Toby and I were up early to get in a really good couple of hours in the gym. Toby continued to follow his strength and conditioning programme which dictates exactly what he needs to do depending on how many days he has until his next singles match. The programme includes 3 strength sessions, 2 conditioning programmes, 2 injury prevention programmes, a pool recovery session and a stretching routine for each day which doesn’t leave him short of something to do on a rainy day!

Toby starting his 3rd set of ‘Sumo Deadlifts’ this morning

Sometimes it can be hard to keep motivating yourself as a player, especially when training gets tough in the gym, and that’s why I always try and workout alongside the players . . . after all, I can’t have them beating me too easily can I?!

At 11am we left the gym and went back to the apartment where Nils had lunch waiting for us – he’d only ordered room service for us, not actually cooked it himself! Once we’d finished lunch we watched the start of ‘Bad neighbours’ and then at 12.30pm we went over to the club to have our pre-match training session.

We’d planned on training for an hour and a half before the boys had their doubles match but due to the amount of rain we had yesterday the clay courts were still extremely soft. That meant that we had to train on the hard courts and we knew that if there was another downpour while we were training then the doubles would again be cancelled.

After warming up Toby and Nils pushed themselves very hard this afternoon and it showed in the quality of their ball striking throughout the session. Both boys had struggled with their consistency at the start of the trip but since then they have both improved a lot and it’s obvious that their confidence has improved more each day. As the session went on we worked more specifically on their doubles tactics and in particular their hand speed around the net. Unfortunately just as we were about to move into serve and return the rain started and within minutes the court was completely soaked!

With that we left the court and were immediately told by the referee that the doubles was cancelled for the day so the boys changed and then we headed straight back to the hotel.

Much to the boy’s disappointment I decided that they could get stuck into their school work from 3.30-5.30pm and then we headed out for an early dinner at TGIs near the Old Dutch Hospital.

Dinner was pretty good but the entertainment was even better! For those of you that read the Blogs from Namibia in May you’ll remember some forfeits involving a hair net – well this time Nils was on the receiving end of that one while I had to eat my dinner with a balloon on the back of my head – I’m not sure how Toby got away with not doing one this evening – he must be hooking the game somehow!!

When we got back to the apartment we watched the end of ‘Bad neighbours’ and then much to Nils’ delight we watched the start of ‘The Inbetweeners 2’.

Schedule for tomorrow:

(1) Indra Patwardhan (IND) & Arjun Ramakrishnan (IND) vs (WC) Toby Huffer (GBR) & Nils Larsson Regnstrom (SWE) – 3^rd match after 8.30am (not before 11.15pm)

Sri Lanka U18 ITF Grade 5 (week 1), Day 6

Tuesday 7^th October 2014

Today was a bit of a non-event really as almost as soon as we arrived at the tennis club this morning the heavens opened and it poured down with rain for the whole day!

I was up early this morning and had a good run in the gym before I met the boys at 8am for breakfast. We had planned on leaving the hotel at 9am and even though it seemed like it was going to rain at any moment we called the referee and to our surprise he said that the singles matches were on court so we made our way over to the club. As soon as we arrived Toby and Nils started there warm-ups but within 5 minutes the rain started! It only lasted a few minutes so the boys got back out to warm up and complete their daily sprints before we went down to the back clay courts to hit. Toby and Nils were both hitting very well from the back of the court but just as we were about to go into some cross court hitting the rain came down . . . and didn’t stop!

Check out this video on the Facebook page: www.facebook.com/itctennis1

We stayed at the club to have some lunch and were hoping that the rain would ease so that we could get a Tuk Tuk back to the hotel without getting soaked . . . but it only got harder!

The highlight of our day – another crazy Tuk Tuk journey!

Eventually we got back to the hotel and relaxed for half an hour while we watched the end of The Inbetweeners movie (which Nils loved!) before the boys got stuck into their school work from 1-3pm.

It was then time to hit the gym and all three of us went through our own training programmes for around an hour and a half. It was great to see Toby and Nils getting on with their programmes in a very professional way without having to rely on a coach to guide them through it.

After the gym session we went back to the apartment, showered and changed and then headed out early to try and find somewhere to get some DVDs before we went to dinner. Last year I visited a video shop and ended up buying 6 of the latest DVDs for around £5 but I couldn’t remember the name of the shopping centre – all I knew was that it was either Liberty Plaza or Majestic City! We tried Liberty Plaza first but typically it was the wrong one and after driving around in the rain for 30 minutes we got to Majestic City and picked up 10 DVDs for £7!

From there we headed straight to the other Hilton for dinner and then it was back to the apartment to watch the first half of ‘Non-stop’ before the boys turned in for an early night.

Schedule for tomorrow (weather dependant!):

(1) Indra Patwardhan (IND) & Arjun Ramakrishnan (IND) vs (WC) Toby Huffer (GBR) & Nils Larsson Regnstrom (SWE) – 5^th match after 12pm (not before 4.45pm)

Sri Lanka U18 ITF Grade 5 (week 1), Day 5

Monday 6^th October 2014

We had another very good training day today and following almost 4 hours of on-court doubles work, the boys are ready and raring to go for their 1^st round match tomorrow.

In order to get a full court to train on this morning we got up early and were at breakfast for when it opened at 6.30am. We then headed over to the club at 7am but, following a short spell of rain while we were at breakfast, the clay courts were out of action so we went straight onto the hard courts to warm up. We then managed to stay on the hard court (despite the security officer trying to kick us off, or make us pay, again!) for almost two hours and during that time we worked hard on Toby and Nils’ doubles game which included their consistency in the cross court rally, their court positioning and their volleys and movement forwards to finish points at the net. It was a tough session but both boys worked well and we were all surprised by how quickly the session went!

At 10.15am Toby and Nils signed in for the doubles and then we headed back to the hotel to get some lunch and relax before it was time for both of them to get stuck into their schoolwork. As much as the players always dislike having to keep up with their school work while they’re on the road, it’s still a very important part of their lives and I always make time for it during every tournament.

At 2pm we got a Tuk Tuk back to the tennis club and for the second time today the boys went through their very thorough warm ups:

Toby and Nils rolling during their warm up

Once we had all warmed up I challenged the boys to a couple of court sprints and I’m pleased to say that I can still keep up with them … just! We then walked down to the back clay courts and had one of the best training sessions of the trip. The session was just over 2 hours long and all of us were pushing each other to compete harder while maintaining a high level of focus on what we had worked on this morning. We ended with a short doubles set up to 4 games where Toby and Nils could only play back to the half court that I either served or returned from. It gave them an ideal opportunity to work on their doubles tactics in a matchplay situation and, just like this morning, I was really pleased with how hard they worked and how they tried to execute the game plans that he had discussed.

By the time we finished at 5pm the doubles draw was out:

We then went back to the hotel and, while Toby went straight into the gym to complete his strength programme, Nils hit the books again to do some more school work.

For dinner this evening we went back over to the other Hilton hotel and once again we all had the buffet which this evening had a ‘Thai’ theme. Toby and Nils loved the food but also loved the fact that they got me back for the forfeits they had to do yesterday! So here’s me walking around the restaurant holding our table candle above my head!!

Never one to be left out of doing the forfeits!!

Schedule for tomorrow:

(1) Indra Patwardhan (IND) & Arjun Ramakrishnan (IND) vs (WC) Toby Huffer (GBR) & Nils Larsson Regnstrom (SWE) – 4^th match after 8.30am (not before 12.45pm)

Sri Lanka U18 ITF Grade 5 (week 1), Day 4

Sunday 5^th October 2014

It was a much more positive day today as not only did Toby and Nils put in a very good day of training but they also received a Wildcard into the doubles!

Yesterday we wanted to book an early practice court for this morning but we were convinced by the referee that it was going to rain overnight and he said it was best to book after 10am. So with that in mind we had a bit of a lie-in but when we did meet for breakfast at 8am the weather was amazing! – I’m sure Toby and Nils appreciated the extra sleep though!

We warmed up at the club at 9.30am and then managed to get a full court to practice on from 10am until 11.15am. During the session we focussed on the areas that Toby and Nils had struggled with in their singles matches yesterday – namely consistency at their personal ‘higher levels’ and also depth of shot both when under pressure and when attacking. Despite the conditions being hotter and more humid this morning than before on the trip, both boys worked very hard and were feeling much more positive by the end of the session.

Another thing that made both boys even happier was when I told them after the session that I had spoken to the referee and the tournament director, and they had agreed to give them a Wildcard into the doubles draw. Whenever I travel to events I always try to build good relationships with referees and the personnel who organise the events as you never know when you might need a favour – luckily for us the tournament committee here like us and we were all very grateful for the Wildcard.

After lunch Toby and I went through the details of his match from yesterday and compiled a list of the things we wanted to work on over the next 6 days before Qualifying starts next Saturday. One task that I had set both Toby and Nils after their matches yesterday was to ask other players to hit with them during the week so that they were getting more variety and I was very pleased that both of them arranged to play practice sets this afternoon.

Nils was first up at 1pm and he was taking on Hyung Sung Choi from Korea. Nils’ specific goals were to increase the consistency of his good level of hitting (his 8/10 shots) and also reduce the number of unforced errors that he missed over the baseline during the set. Nils did both of them very well and even though he lost the set 6-3 he stayed at his 8/10 level for around 80% of the session and only missed 4 balls long in the whole set.

Nils competing hard against Hyung Sung Choi in their practice set this afternoon

Toby was next on court at 3pm and he was playing Saitejas Mopuri from India who is in the main draw this week. Toby’s main goals were to find a better depth off his backhand side and also have a specific focus for each point that he played depending on the score in the game. The set was very close from start to finish and even though Toby lost it 6-2 he had game points in 6 of the 8 games and every game apart from 1 went to Deuce – that just goes to show how close sets can be in tennis even though the score line might not reflect it.

Toby chasing a wide forehand against Saitejas Mopuri (IND)

At 4.15pm we headed back to the hotel with both players feeling a lot more confident and looking forward to working at their doubles tomorrow before their 1^st round match on Tuesday.

Once we got back to the hotel Toby went down to the pool to complete a recovery session while Nils went through some injury prevention work. We then all got ready and headed out for dinner at 6.30pm to TGI Fridays by the Dutch Hospital.

The boys were in good spirits again over dinner; Nils was loving his rack of Ribs . . .

. . . while Toby was not so impressed with having to eat his dinner through a Cricket helmet after losing at Subway Surfers . . .

. . . and I was just happy that Chelsea beat Arsenal!!

It’s going to be an early start tomorrow so we can get a full court to practise our doubles specifics so hopefully the weather will be kind to us again!

Sri Lanka U18 ITF Grade 5 (week 1), Day 3

Saturday 4^th October 2014

It was a tough start to the first tournament for Toby and Nils here in Colombo as they both came up against good opponents in their first matches and played in difficult conditions.

As Toby was scheduled for a 9am match we were all up early and at breakfast for when it opened at 6.30am before heading over to the club at 7am. The original plan was to warm up from 7.30-8am and then go through our on-court session for 30 minutes but due to the overnight rain all of the clay courts were out of action. We waited until 8.30am before warming up and then managed to get on one of the hard courts for just over 30 minutes to loosen up before the matches. Toby and Nils were both hitting well and by the end of the session they were feeling confident going into their matches.

Between when we hit and when Toby went on court for his match we had a couple of hours so both players completed their pre-match sheets and set themselves goals that they would like to achieve in their matches. We then had an early lunch before Toby went on court at 11.45am to face Siddharth Anand from Indian.

Toby had a slow start to the match and lost his serve to Love in the first game but broke straight back to level the set at *1-1. From those first two games it was obvious that it was going to be a close match as both boys were hitting well from the back of the court and there was no obvious weakness in either of their games. At *3-3 Toby was broken for the 2^nd time and soon found himself 5-3 down after some strong attacking tennis from his opponent but Toby responded well and played some very smart tennis to hold and break to level the set at *5-5. Unfortunately, after taking the first point of the game, Toby double faulted twice and ended up losing four points in a row to get broken before Siddharth held serve to take the opening set 7-5.

The first set had been very close and it was a tough one to lose especially as it was very hot and humid on court. At the start of the 2^nd set Siddharth had a bit more of a spring in his step while Toby found it difficult to recover from losing the tight 1^st set and from the opening game I knew Toby was going to find it difficult to turn the match around. Toby ended up going down 6-0 in the 2^nd set but it was a lot closer than the score line suggests and Toby had many chances to get games on the board in a set that lasted 40 minutes.

As soon as Toby had finished Nils went straight on the same court to take on Adil Kalyanpur from India and at the start of the first set I thought I was watching Toby’s match again! Nils was broken in the first game and then broke straight back to level the score at *1-1 but straight away Adil upped his level to race to a 5-1 lead. Nils was playing some good tennis against a strong opponent but he just couldn’t find his best level consistently enough. Nils kept fighting though and played a good game to hold serve at *1-5 before Adil served out the 1^st set 6-2.

Nils ripping into a forehand during the 1st set

Even though the temperature had dropped slightly since Toby had finished it was still very humid on court so it was good to see Nils taking on some food at the end of the set and also changing his shirt for a fresh start to the 2^nd set. Nils came out for the start of the 2^nd set with a good intensity and even though he went 3-0 down he showed good fighting spirit to win the next two games to stay close to his opponent. The 2-3* game was crucial though and unfortunately Nils hit 4 unforced errors to give his opponent a 4-2 lead and also a bit of confidence. Adil then stepped up to play his best tennis of the match and take the next two games and the match 6-2, 6-2.

As soon as Nils had finished I asked both boys if they wanted to get back on court later in the afternoon to work on their games following their matches – Toby wanted to rest but Nils wanted to train as soon as possible so, after showering and getting some lunch, we warmed up again just after 3.30pm. It was a good opportunity to practice again on the match courts and Nils and I had a very good session for just over an hour. Our main focus was helping Nils to find a consistency at his higher level of hitting and after identifying that too many errors were coming from him missing long we set up some drills to address those types of mistakes. The drills seemed to work as one of our rallies saw Nils hit 53 shots in a row at a very high level!

After the session we went back to the hotel to change before heading out to the other Hilton hotel for dinner. I went there last year for dinner but we were surprised to see that even though it’s a more expensive hotel than where we are staying, the buffet dinner is actually cheaper! That meant that we all went for the buffet and all had a very good dinner for just over £12!

It’s back to training now tomorrow and then sign-in for the doubles is on Monday.

Sri Lanka U18 ITF Grade 5 (week 1), Day 2

Friday 3^rd October 2014

It was a good final day of practice today and even though the weather forecast said it was going to rain all day, we managed to get two very good sessions in on the clay courts.

The boys had a lie-in this morning after a very long day yesterday and were up at 7.30am for breakfast. The breakfasts at the hotel are probably the best meal of the day and all three of us had a big meal to set us up for our first full training day.

After Toby negotiated the price with a Tuk Tuk driver we headed over to the club at 9am and then warmed up from 9.30-10am before getting straight on the back clay courts. As there was a lot of rain yesterday all of the clay courts were quite soft and damp but it was still much better preparation than training on the hard courts. Toby and Nils worked well for the whole of the session which lasted just over an hour and our main focus was consistency and point play. I joined in with the boys for a bit of variety and it was great to see both of them hitting at a higher level than yesterday even though it was still very humid today.

Nils and Toby playing some points during training this morning

After cooling down and showering we ate lunch at the Italian restaurant that opened on the day that we left last year. The food was very good and it’s going to be great to have a decent place to eat when we’re at the tournament site for the next couple of weeks.

Boys and their mobile phones … nothing changes!

At 1.30pm all three of us went through our individual warm up routines again and then at 2pm we got onto the match courts for our 2^nd session of the day. The match courts were just as soft as the back courts but probably played a little better as they were a little more like clay rather than sand! We all hit for around 20 minutes to warm up groundstrokes, volleys, smashes and serves and then it was straight into match play for the rest of the session. Both Toby and Nils had specific aspects of their game that they were looking to sharpen up before tomorrow and by the time we finished at 3.45pm both boys felt good (maybe a little tired though!) and ready for their matches tomorrow.

Toby and Nils signed in for Qualifying at 4pm and then we headed back to the hotel to go through some recovery work. Toby and I hit the gym for 45 mins and then Toby completed a swimming pool recovery session while Nils stretched out in the apartment and then got on with some school work.

There was just the 3 of us for dinner this evening as Nils’ family have gone to the south of the island but Toby and Nils were kept entertained by Tom and Jerry on ‘The Cartoon Network’ which was on TV in the restaurant! After a good dinner we headed back up to the apartment to relax and get ready for the matches tomorrow.

Schedule for tomorrow:

Siddharth Anand (IND) (UNR) vs Toby Huffer (GBR) (UNR) – 1^st match at 9am

Adil Kalyanpur (IND) (UNR) vs Nils Larsson Regnstrom (SWE) (UNR) – 2^nd match after 9am

(WC) Thevan Perera (SRI) (UNR) vs Siddharth Anand (IND) (UNR) OR Toby Huffer (GBR) (UNR) – 3^rd match after 9am (not before 1pm)

Sri Lanka U18 ITF Grade 5 (week 1), Day 1

Thursday 2^nd October 2014

Following the British grass court events over the summer and the British junior ITFs it has actually been 4 months since I last travelled abroad for an international event so I was very much looking forward to getting back out to Sri Lanka again this year.

I met Toby Huffer at Heathrow airport yesterday evening and after battling hard not to pay excess baggage we eventually had to give in and pay the £55 fee before they would let us check in!! We boarded the plane just before 9.30pm and just after take-off we were both asleep. We actually only woke up briefly to eat dinner last night and breakfast this morning so I think in total we slept for around 8 hours of the 10 hour flight.

We arrived in a very humid Colombo at 12.45pm and, after we collected our baggage, we were met by our driver who took us straight to our hotel. We then had some lunch and just as we were finishing we were joined by Nils Larsson Regnstrom from Sweden who will be part of the team for the 2 tournaments.

We got Nils settled into our 3 bedroom apartment and then headed next door to the supermarket to stock up on water before heading to the tennis club. For Toby and Nils it was their first experience of riding in a Tuk Tuk – and they both loved it even though it was a bit squashed in the back!

As all of us had flown to Colombo overnight it was important for the boys to have a lengthy physical warm up before hitting. So, from 4.30-5pm, both of them went through some foam rolling, dynamic stretches, mobility work and sprints before we got on court. We then had a good hour of training on the hard courts (because the clay were still wet from rain during the day) and despite the humidity being very different from Sweden and England both boys worked hard throughout. We probably would have stayed on court for longer but by 6pm the sun had set and the huge bats were out so we decided to call it a day!

Toby and Nils getting used to the conditions at the tournament site

After the session we headed back to the hotel to stretch, unpack, relax and get ready for dinner.

We were joined at dinner by Nils’ mother, father and sister and even though there was a bit of a delay in the food arriving, when it did it was very good! Then at 9pm we had another short trip to the supermarket to get some fruit and some snacks before heading back up to the apartment to relax.

Last year the two events here were really good and I think it’s going to be a lot of fun working with Toby and Nils over the next couple of weeks.

Edinburgh U18 ITF Grade 5, Day 3

Sunday 6^th July 2014

Toby had another close 3 set singles match today but even though he put in a good performance, he unfortunately came off second best!

As it was Sunday the breakfast at the B&B didn’t officially start until 8.30am so we helped ourselves to cereal, toast, yoghurts and juice and then left to get the bus at 7.45am. That gave us enough time to get over to Craiglockhart and warm up ready for our 8.30am practice.

Originally Toby was going to hit with me for the session but Main Draw number 2 seed Tom Wright was available and looking to train so I got bumped! Toby and Tom had a very good pre-match hit and after Toby had warmed up everything there was still 5 minutes left so the boys played some points. That gave Toby a chance to work on the things we had discussed after his match late last night but weren’t able to get back on court until this morning.

At 9am the 1^st round of matches went on court so we relaxed and got some food while making sure we kept track of the scores on Toby’s court.

As the first match on court 5 finished we went back over the details from Toby’s match yesterday and then put together our game plan for today. We had watched Angus Bradshaw play the whole of his 1^st round match so we knew what to expect and also knew that Toby needed to raise his level from yesterday.

At 12pm Toby and Angus went on court and, like the 3^rd set yesterday, the first 5 games all went against serve! Toby was the first to hold and in doing so he took a 4-2* lead by playing some aggressive tennis from the back of the court. Unfortunately Angus responded well and raised his level while Toby became a little more passive which resulted in Angus winning the next 4 games in a row to take the 1^st set 6-4.

Apart from a period of a lot of unforced errors in the last few games of the set, Toby hadn’t done a lot wrong and once he realised that he couldn’t afford to give Angus cheap points he suddenly took control of the 2^nd set. At 3-3* Toby broke serve, held with 4 out of 4 first serves and then broke again to take the set 6-3 and leave him with stats of 9 winners and only 8 unforced errors in the whole set – a big improvement from 8 winners and 25 unforced errors in the 1^st set!

I knew the 3^rd set was going to be a real battle and Angus came out firing in the first game after a toilet break. Toby matched him for the first couple of games but then Angus’ strength showed as his winner count increased significantly and he raced to a 5-1 lead. Toby kept fighting though and held and then broke for the first time in the set but Angus broke straight back with 3 winners in the final game to take the match 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 in just over 2 hours.

Despite the disappointment of the loss Toby was pleased that he had raised his level from yesterday and knows exactly what he needs to do now to be ready for the Queenswood ITF which starts next Saturday.

Once Toby had cooled down and stretched out he got some food and we headed back to the B&B. While Toby watched the tennis I went for an hour long run in the pouring rain to keep up with my training for the Great North Run. I only managed to get lost twice (!!) but eventually found my way back to the Canal by the tennis centre and then back to the B&B in time to watch the end rest of the Men’s final from 5-5 in the 4^th set.

We’ll head back to London tomorrow morning and then get straight back on court on Tuesday to prepare for Queenswood next weekend.

Edinburgh U18 ITF Grade 5, Day 2

Saturday 5^th July 2014

We were the first at the tennis centre this morning and the last to leave tonight but it was all worth it as Toby fought very hard to come through his Qualifying 1^st round match.

To secure a practice court this morning we got up early and got the 6.48m bus from outside our Bed and Breakfast which got us to the tennis centre at just before 7am. As we started to warm up on the court the Groundsman shouted across from Centre Court to tell us that we were too early to be using the courts! In 15 years of travelling to international tournaments I’ve never been told that before!

We were eventually allowed to use the court at 7.30am and Toby and I had a very good 30 minute practice session to get him prepared for his match. We then left the site at just after 8am to get the bus back to the B&B and have a well-deserved breakfast.

Most of the morning and early afternoon was spent at the B&B as we had a ‘not before’ time of 3pm for Toby’s match. At 12.30pm had lunch at Zizzi’s and then made our way back to the tennis centre at around 2.15pm so that we would have enough time to go through our pre-match preparations before Toby went on court.

After a bit of a delay Toby eventually went on court at 4.45pm to face fellow Brit William Barrett. Toby started very well hitting 6 winners and 0 unforced errors in the first 3 games to take a 3-0 lead but then a lapse of concentration and an increased level from William saw the set levelled at *3-3. Toby then played a good 2 games to hold and break to take a 5-3 lead and even though he was broken while serving for the set, he broke straight back to take it 6-4.

Toby and William warming up on Centre Court

Toby raced to a 2-0 lead at the start of the 2^nd set and it looked as though he was going to go on to take the set 6-0 but William fought back to win the next 3 games in a row. From that stage the set became very scrappy; both boys were struggling to find a consistent enough level from the back of the court and both were finding it difficult to hold serve. William eventually took a 5-3 lead but Toby worked hard to save a set point a 4-5* and despite levelling the set at 5-5, he went on to lose the next 2 games and the set 7-5.

The 3^rd set was much the same as the 2^nd but this time the first 8 games of the set went against serve!! Both Toby and William were returning well but just couldn’t find enough first serves when it really mattered and the number of double faults from both players increased significantly as the set went on. As the match time reached 2 hours 30 minutes Toby decided enough was enough and at *4-4 he played one of the best games of the match to hold serve for the first time in the set. He continued to find a good level in the next game and on his first match point he made no mistake taking the match 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 after 2 hours 40 minutes.

It wasn’t a great match from either player but Toby managed to dig deep and get through it which gives him another chance to improve tomorrow in the next round.

After sweeping the court and collecting the balls Toby left the court just after 7.30pm! We then cooled down and had a very good stretch out while debriefing the match before getting the bus back to the B&B.

We needed a quick dinner tonight so we headed to Nandos for some chicken and rice and then went back to the B&B for an early (ish!) night.

Schedule for tomorrow:

Angus Bradshaw (GBR) (UNR) vs Toby Huffer (GBR) (UNR) – 3^rd match after 9am

Winner to play in the Last Round of Qualifying after rest.

Edinburgh U18 ITF Grade 5, Day 1

Friday 4^th July 2014

Happy Independence Day to all of my America friends / followers!

After spending the last 5 weeks working with a senior player over the grass court season it was back to the ITC schedule and the first stop of the summer is the Edinburgh ITF.

Toby Huffer and I got the train from Bexley to Edinburgh yesterday so that we could have a full day training on the clay today before the Qualifying of the ITF starts tomorrow. When we left home Toby was 35^th Alternate but I always say to players and parents that it’s worth going and signing in for the British events as even Edinburgh is only 4-5 hours away by train.

Toby and I had a good breakfast at 8am this morning and then headed over to the Craiglockhart Tennis Centre at 9am to try and get a morning practice in before the rain came down that was forecast for midday.

After a good warm up we worked hard for an hour and 15 minutes through the drizzling rain that always seems to be apparent at this tournament! I hadn’t been on court with Toby since the two ITFs in Namibia back in May but it was good to see that his hitting level and his work rate has improved over the past six weeks. The morning session was very general so that Toby could get a feel for the ball and get used to the Green Clay courts. Once he had found a good level with all of his shots we ended the session and went to the gym to cool down and stretch out.

While we had lunch we sat by the courts watching some of the LTA Grade 2 tournament finals and then at 2.30pm we headed over to the other side of the tournament site to warm up for our 2^nd session of the day.

Toby decided that he wanted to play a lot of points so that he felt sharp for tomorrow and he said there’s no better way than playing a practice set with me (I think he really wanted to get some revenge for our set in Namibia!!). After a tight first 3 games where Toby had both game and break points I ended up sneaking a 2-1 lead, but then I managed to break and hold to move 4-1 ahead. Toby continued to play some aggressive tennis and won the next two games to get the set back on serve but as the rain got heavier I somehow broke back and then held to take the set 6-3! The level of the set was good and I was happy with the way Toby played throughout.

We headed to the gym again after the session so that Toby could cool down and stretch out while I got stuck into some very tough intervals on the running machine to keep up with my training for the Great North Run in September.

Just before we left the club we checked to see how many players had signed in for Qualifying and were told that it would Toby would be very close to the cut off but if more players signed in then he might miss out.

Over dinner we found out that exactly 32 players had signed in so everyone that signed in got in which made it well worth taking the gamble to come! Here’s the draw:

Boy’s Qualifying Draw

After dinner we headed to the Games Arcade at the Bowling Alley in Fountain Park for a couple of games at Air Hockey and some very competitive racing car games – despite losing at Nascar I was pleased to take Toby down at Outrun!

Schedule for tomorrow:

Toby Huffer (GBR) (UNR) vs William Barrett (GBR) (UNR) – 6^th match after 9am

Montenegro U18 ITF Grade 5, Final’s Day!

Saturday 31^st May 2014

It was a fantastic end to a great week here in Podgorica as Holly and Lauryn won the doubles title which we were defending from last year when Holly Hutchinson and Georgie Axon won it.

We had an early start this morning as we had to make sure everything was packed up and ready to check out by the time our taxi came at 7.15am. I had asked on numerous occasions yesterday for a large taxi to the club as we had quite a lot of baggage but for some reason they decided to bring a small one – much to Holly and Camille’s delight:

Holly and Camille are under there somewhere!

We arrived at the club at 7.30am and went straight on court to warm up. Lauryn joined us shortly afterwards and then at 8am we went into our training session to prepare the girls for their doubles final. Just like yesterday, Camille and I hit with the girls to warm them up and then we went into some cross-court drills with the main focus moving forwards and controlling the net. That was something that Holly and Lauryn did very well yesterday and I knew that they would need to do the same today if they were to take the title. At just before 9am we warmed up some serves and then went into some points so ensure the girls were planning points both on serve and return.

After the session we got some food and then waited for Oana Gavrila to finish her singles so that we knew what time the doubles final would go on. To keep themselves busy Holly and Lauryn decided to have a game of Chess . . . I couldn’t help but hope that their doubles tactics would be better than their Chess tactics!!

The focussed pair before their Final

At 12pm the girls went on to face Oana Gavrila and Nina Marjanovic and, following their opponents winning the title last week, we knew it was going to be a tough match. Holly and Lauryn started well and from the first game they put their opponent’s serve under a lot of pressure. After losing a very tight sudden death deuce point in the opening game, Lauryn held serve at *0-1 and then they broke Oana’s serve to take a *2-1 lead. From this point both girls relaxed more and started to play some very good doubles which saw them hold and break again to be in control of the set at *4-1. Lauryn was then broken after a bit of a loose game but the girls responded very professionally to break back in the very next game and then they went on to take the set 6-3.

Lauryn was broken again at the start of the second set following a few too many unforced errors from both girls, but from 0-1* down they refocused and won the next 3 games in a row to secure a strong 3-1* lead. Oana and Nina were hanging on though and kept fighting in every game like you would expect of a Romanian and Serbian. The next game went against our girls on another sudden death deuce point but from *3-2 they fought back the nerves to win the next 3 games in a row to take the match and the title, 6-3, 6-2.

It was a great match to watch and I was really pleased for Holly as not only did she take her first ITF title but she also played well all week and deserved the win today. After the match they had the trophy presentation – here are the Champions!

Montenegro U18 ITF Doubles Champions

Once Holly had cooled down and showered we went to the restaurant next door to get some lunch and then at 2.30pm we said our goodbyes and got in the taxi to take us to Dubrovnik airport.

The 3 hour drive was absolutely stunning; one thing I can never get over when I’m travelling is the amount of amazing places around the world that are tucked away in the corner of a country and are not well known. I would have never thought of going to Montenegro for a summer holiday but the places we passed this afternoon were beautiful:

Just one of the amazing views on the coastal road between Montenegro and Croatia

We also had a little boat trip thrown in; it was only about 5 minutes but we were all very impressed!

The view from the boat on the way to Croatia

At 5.30pm we arrived at Dubrovnik airport, checked in and then waited for our 8pm flight back to London.

It’s been another fantastic trip to Montenegro and I look forward to coming back next year. My attention now moves to the grass court season which, for me, starts tomorrow morning with a 6am drive to Nottingham for the women’s $75k.

Montenegro U18 ITF Grade 5, Day 7

Friday 30^th May 2014

We had another good day at the Eminent Tennis Club today as Holly and Lauryn beat the number 1 seeds to advance to the Final of the doubles.

After having early starts for the last 4-5 days the team decided that they needed a lie-in this morning and so we met for breakfast at 8am and then got over to the club to warm up at 9.30am. The plan was to warm up on the indoor court and then train on there for an hour but once we’d completed our warm-up we lost the court to some private coaching! That gave Camille and I a chance to talk through her singles and doubles matches from yesterday before we managed to get on the clay to train at 11.30am.

We managed to get a full court to train on so on one half court Camille hit with Lauryn while on the other half court I hit with Holly. Once we’d warmed up everything we went into some doubles specific drills to work on a few areas that had been highlighted from yesterday’s ¼ final match and then we played a tie-break to finish off.

The girls then had a bite to eat and at just before 1pm they went on court to face number 1 seeds Wiktoria Kulik and Karolina Silwanowicz from Poland. Lauryn had lost to Wiktoria yesterday in a very close three sets and so today she was looking for revenge, while Holly was aiming for her first ever ITF Final.

Our girls started well and played a solid first 4 games, all of which went to sudden death deuce but went with serve. Then at 2-2* Holly and Lauryn took advantage of a poor service game from Wiktoria and got the very important break of serve. They then continued to play well and once Lauryn held (to another sudden death deuce) they took a 4-2 lead and ended up taking the set 6-4.

When the second set started both Holly and Lauryn looked very confident on the court and they both moved very well at the net to control most of the points in the opening 3 games. That resulted in them taking a 3-0 lead but at the start of the very next game the heavens opened and the first real rain of the week came down. During the rain delay we had a quick chat but the main message was to just keep doing what they were doing and dominate the points at the net. After a 15 minute break the rain stopped and the players went straight back on court. Lauryn was broken in the next game but our girls responded well to win the next 3 games convincingly to take the match 6-4, 6-1.

Both girls were pleased with the result as well as how they played but I think Holly was the most pleased as she finally broke her run of losing in semi-finals!!

Once Holly had cooled down and showered we headed back to the hotel to relax for the afternoon while the rain kept pouring down outside.

Dinner tonight was a rather long affair as one game of cards lasted almost an hour and a half! It was then time to pack up and get ready to leave the hotel in the morning as we have a flight home booked in the evening from Dubrovnik! Hopefully we’ll have the difficult task of trying to take a winner’s trophy on an easyJet flight!!

Schedule for tomorrow:

(4) Holly Horsfall (GBR) & Lauryn John-Baptiste (GBR) vs Oana Gavrila (ROU) & Nina Marjanovic (SRB) – 2^nd match, time To Be Confirmed

Montenegro U18 ITF Grade 5, Day 6

Thursday 29^th May 2014

Camille’s tournament came to an end today after a tough battle with the 4^th seed, but Holly and Lauryn are through to the semi-final of the doubles after knocking out Camille and Itana this afternoon.

After having an early breakfast we made our way to the club to warm up and get ready for our 8.30am practice court. Holly and Camille hit for around 30 minutes and both girls were hitting the ball well throughout the session. Then at 9am we came off the court and I sat down with each of the girls individually to go through their singles and doubles matches from yesterday. It took around an hour to go through all four matches but both girls gave some very accurate feedback and their post-match sheets made very interesting reading!

Once we were finished going through yesterday’s matches, Camille and I talked through the goals for her match today and then at 11am she went on court to face 4^th seed Patrycja Polanska from Poland.

Camille started a little nervously and after a poor service she went 0-2 down but she then responded well and won the next 5 games in a row to take a 5-2 lead. By this stage Camille was playing very confidently and dictating most of the points from the back of the court while her opponent was getting more and more frustrated! Camille was broken while serving for the set at 5-2 but again responded professionally and broke straight back to take the first set 6-3.

At the end of the set Patrycja went for a toilet break and when she returned she was a completely different player; she was much more aggressive while at the same time making sure that she limited the amount of free points that she gave Camille. That led to her racing through the second set 6-1 in 30 minutes and even though the set seems very one sided, Camille’s winner count was the same as in the first set and her unforced error count was actually 5 better! Unfortunately her opponent had completely switched her stats and, after hitting 3 winners and 20 unforced errors in the first set, Patrycja hit 13 winners and only 10 unforced errors in the second.

Once that set was finished it was obvious that Patrycja was well into her stride and it was going to be very difficult to break the rhythm she had found. Camille continued to work hard and tried to dictate the points like she had done in the first set but her opponent was not going to give up the lead and went on to take the third set 6-0 while posting impressive stats of 8 winners and only 3 unforced errors.

Camille was very disappointed at the end of the match but to be fair to her opponent she did play very well, especially in the third set.

Once Camille had cooled down, showered and stretched we headed to the restaurant next door to get some lunch and relax before the showdown in the doubles between Camille & Itana and Holly & Lauryn!

The girls took to court 1 after a bit of a delay at around 3.45pm and from the first couple of games I knew it was going to be a big ask for Camille and Itana to come through the match with a win. I knew that Camille was more than capable of competing at the level that Holly and Lauryn were playing at, but unfortunately for Itana it was just too difficult. Holly and Lauryn raced through the first set 6-0 and even though Camille and Itana took a 1-0 lead in the second set after breaking Holly, it only lasted 1 game before they were broken back. Holly and Lauryn played some sharp doubles and once they took a 3-2 lead in the second set there was no looking back for them. They finished off the match 6-0, 6-2 to advance to the semi-finals tomorrow where they’ll face the top seeds from Poland.

Holly, Lauryn, Camille and Itana shaking hands at the end of the match

Once Holly and Camille had cooled down and had a good 20 minute stretching session, we got a taxi back to the hotel. We then met for dinner at 6.30pm and after a few very long games of cards we decided that it would be best to have an early night!

Schedule for tomorrow:

(1) Wiktoria Kulik (POL) & Karolina Silwanowicz (POL) vs (4) Holly Horsfall (GBR) & Lauryn John-Baptiste (GBR) – Time ‘To Be Confirmed’

Montenegro U18 ITF Grade 5, Day 5

Wednesday 28^th May 2014

This is going to be a shorter Blog than normal as it’s now 11.15pm and we’ve just got back to the hotel after being at the club for almost 14 hours today.

We arrived at the club just after 7.15am this morning and, as we had no priority on the court (because they were only reserved for 1^st and 2^nd round matches), it was a case of jumping on one as soon as it became available. The girls warmed up and then managed to have a good 30 minute hit from 8-8.30am before the 1^st round matches started.

The rest of the morning was spent trying to find a doubles partner for Camille and then at 12pm the draw came out:

Girl’s Doubles Draw

We then got lunch at the restaurant next door and then the early part of the afternoon was spent watching fellow Brits Mohamed Abdel-Aziz and Lauryn John-Baptiste come through their 1^st round matches. A big well done has to go to Mohamed who had a very difficult but rewarding win over the 7^th seed from Israel who tried every trick in the book to get under Mohamed’s skin.

Camille then went on at 4.30pm to face Jasmin Buchta from Austria and she produced a very high level of tennis from the start of the match. Over the last few days her training has been going well but there have often been fluctuations in her concentration but today she was spot on from start to finish. Camille broke serve for the first time at 2-2* and then after taking the first set 6-3 she upped her level to win the next 6 games in a row to take the match 6-3, 6-0. It was a convincing win and we were both pleased with her performance.

Camille setting up for a backhand winner on match point

Holly then went on court at 5.30pm to play Milica Cubranovic from Serbia and from the warm up it was obvious that it was going to be difficult as her game did not match up well with her opponent’s. Milica changed the pace a lot and didn’t allow Holly to get into any rhythm which saw her take a 6-2, 4-1 lead. Holly wasn’t about to give up though and she dug really deep to win the next 3 games in a row to level the set at 4-4. Despite being broken at 4-4 and 5-5, Holly broke straight back each time and when the set went to a tie-break I really thought Holly would take it. Unfortunately Holly didn’t play well until she was 1-6 down and even though she got it back to 5-6 a double fault cost her the match 6-2, 7-6(5).

Holly finishing a point was a very good backhand volley

The next match of the day was Camille’s doubles with Itana Pejovic from Montenegro against Ivon Mihaleva (BUL) and Beata Swiatlon (POL). The girls went on at 7.30pm and I have to say it was one of the worst doubles matches I’ve seen in a long time! Luckily Camille and Itana pulled through the match 6-2, 2-6, 12-10 (after saving a match point at 9-10 down) which meant that even though the debrief wasn’t too positive, they live to fight another day and can work on all the things we talked about tomorrow in the next round!

Our final match of the day was Holly and Lauryn against Lisa and Jana Friess from Austria which went on at 9.20pm! I was really proud of Holly this evening as, after she was so disappointed with her singles performance earlier, she came onto the doubles court and played the best doubles match I’ve ever seen her play. The Austrian sisters were a good pair but Holly and Lauryn played a very high quality match and came through 6-2, 6-4 – it did get a bit tight in the 2^nd set though as Holly and Lauryn lost 3 sudden death deuce games in a row from 6-2, 5-1 up but they remained positive and broke serve to take the match!

After the match Holly had some food that Camille managed to get from the restaurant next door and then we had to wait 20 minutes for a taxi that in the end didn’t turn up at all! Thankfully the coach of Camille’s doubles partner gave us a lift back to the hotel at 11pm and now it’s time to get ready to go again tomorrow morning at 7am!!

Schedule for tomorrow:

(4) Patrycja Polanska (POL) (510) vs Camille Verden-Anderson (GBR) (1246) – 2^nd match after 9am

Holly Horsfall (GBR) & Lauryn John-Baptiste (GBR) vs Itana Pejovic (MNE) & Camille Verden-Anderson (GBR) – After Rest

Montenegro U18 ITF Grade 5, Day 4

Tuesday 27^th May 2014

It was a very good final day of preparation today and now Holly and Camille are all set for their first round matches tomorrow.

Another early start saw us get over to the club at 7am this morning to ensure that we got a full court to train on for the whole session. Following Camille losing at cards last night she had to wear my match kit to warm-up in, but I can’t help but think it was a lot easier for her than it would have been had I lost!!

Camille looking good in my match kit!

After a thorough warm-up Camille changed into her training kit and we all had a very good session for over an hour and a half. At the start of the session we trained in a 3 so that Holly and Camille could work on hitting through the corners of the court without the rallies breaking own too early. Then, as the session went on, we developed the drill into open point play and for the last 30-40 minutes we played points with serve to ensure both girls were happy with all parts of their games.

At 9am we came off the court to allow the players in qualifying to warm up and prepare for their matches while we cooled down and stretched out. We then got a taxi at 9.30am to go back to the hotel and have breakfast before relaxing for the rest of the morning.

After lunch and a few more games of cards, we headed back to the club at 2.45pm and met up with fellow Brit Lauryn John-Baptiste who had travelled out with her mum this morning. Lauryn joined us for our afternoon session which started at the top of the club on court 5 before we had to move onto court 2 due to members wanting to use the other court. Our afternoon session was just to make sure Holly and Camille were feeling confident about their games and so once again it was mainly point based. After a solid hour on court both players were happy with their levels and so at 4.45pm we called it a day and headed off court to cool down and stretch out.

Before leaving the club for the day both girls signed in for the Main Draw and then after a bit of confusion with our taxi, we eventually got back to the hotel at around 5.30pm.

Dinner tonight was a bit of a quieter affair without any major forfeits! We still played a couple of games but our focus was more on watching the French Open on TV before the draw came out:

Girl’s Singles Main Draw

Schedule for tomorrow:

Jasmin Buchta (AUT) (889) vs Camille Verden-Anderson (GBR) (1246) – 5^th match after 8.30am

Milica Cubranovic (SRB) (1380) vs Holly Horsfall (GBR) (841) – 6^th match after 8.30am

Doubles to follow after rest

Montenegro U18 ITF Grade 5, Day 3

Monday 26^th May 2014

It was another very good day of training today and now there’s just one more day left before the Main Draw starts on Wednesday.

It was an early start this morning so that we could guarantee a full court for practice before all of the Qualifying matches started at 9am. We met for a small breakfast at 6.50am and then got a taxi to the tennis club at 7am before going straight on court to warm-up. Holly and Camille then trained together until 9am and, like yesterday, our morning session was based around consistency from the back of the court. Both girls were hitting very well and even though we had to share the court from 8.15am until 9am they still worked very hard and got a lot out of the session.

At 9am the Qualifying matches went on so we all left the court for Holly and Camille to cool down and stretch out while I saw the physio to try and loosen the tightness in my neck that I’ve had for the last couple of days. We then got a taxi back to the hotel at 9.30am and tucked into a well-deserved breakfast.

The rest of the morning was spent at the hotel relaxing and then at 12.30pm we met back at the restaurant for lunch. At 2pm we got another taxi back to the club and, as the Qualifying matches were still going in, we decided to go into the indoor tennis court (which was more like a sauna!) to warm up and then go through some strength and conditioning work. I was pleased to see both Holly and Camille have brought their own S&C programmes with them and I was even more pleased to see that they knew all of the exercises in the programmes!

At 3.30pm the first court of the afternoon became available and we were waiting court side to go on as the boys shook hands. This afternoon was another point based session so I joined in with the girls to add a bit of a competitive edge as I know that players hate to lose to the coach! As the session went on both girls started to feel a little tired and the level often fluctuated but it was still the best hour and a half of points that either of them have played since we all arrived on Saturday – and, much to the girl’s delight, Camille stopped me from winning overall by beating me in the last point of the session!!

Once we were done I went straight to see the physio again while the girls had another good stretch out on the balcony overlooking the river at the back of the club:

A nice relaxing place to stretch out after a long day of training

Our taxi driver collected us at 5.30pm and took us back to the hotel where we all showered and changed ready for dinner.

The girls are really starting to up the stakes with the forfeits and tonight’s ‘big one’ would see the loser having to warm up tomorrow in the kit of one of the other members of the team. Obviously that meant that if I lost I’d be in a dress or a ridiculously small skirt & ball shorts and if either of the girls lost then they’d be in my kit!! I had visions of Alex Hagon wearing Holly Hutchinson’s match kit while we were in Austria last year and to be completely honest when the game came down to either me or Camille I did start to feel a little nervous! Lucky Camille chocked first and I managed to pull through so I now need to sort out the biggest shirt and shorts that I can find for her!

After dinner we watched the end of the Bennateau vs Bagnis match which saw Bagnis, the Argentinian qualifier ranked 144 in the world, come through 18–16 in the 5^th set after almost 4 and a half hours! It was a great match and a good example for the juniors that once you step on the court the ranking of your opponent means nothing. Another example of that today was 3rd seed Stan Wawrinka going out to 39^th ranked Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 6-0 in the 4^th set.

Tomorrow will be a lighter day so that both girls are fresh for Wednesday but we’ll still have an early start to make sure we get a full court to play points on before everyone else turns up!

Montenegro U18 ITF Grade 5, Day 2

Sunday 25^th May 2014

It was another good day of preparation today and, after Camille moved into Main Draw after the qualifying sign-in, she’ll have another two days of training before her first match!

I met the girls at breakfast this morning at 8am and then at 9.15am we got a lift with Sasha to the club. As we were there before most of the other players we had a choice of the courts and so we decided to go on the top courts which were newly built for the tournament last year.

After having a long physical warm-up we got on court just before 10am and then had a very good training session for an hour and 45 minutes. We had already decided that the main focus of the morning session would be a lot of consistency and drilling from the back of the court and with that in mind we once again worked 2 on 1. For over an hour both girls put in a really good session and just as I thought a little tiredness was starting to kick in, I changed up the session and we went into some points from the back of the court. We all won our up to 7 point game on our own but the girls weren’t happy that I won mine 7-0 so they challenged me to a re-match before we stopped . . . and they made sure I didn’t win for a second time!!

Once we had cooled down, showered and changed, we went next door to the restaurant for a very nice lunch with a beautiful view of the river (I’ll make sure I get a picture next time).

At 2pm we went back on court for our second session of the day which was totally point based just in case Camille did have to play qualifying tomorrow. We started with some conditioned points for around an hour and then towards the end of the session we went into some open points with serve. It had been a hot day and even though both girls were feeling a little tired they still put in another quality session from start to finish.

Camille serving against Holly during the points this afternoon

At just after 4pm we cooled down and stretched out to end our first full day of training. Camille then signed in and the referee said that she would easily move up into Main Draw which means both girls will spend the next 2 days training before their first matches on Wednesday.

Dinner tonight was at the hotel restaurant and without any delay the girls were both keen on getting me to do some forfeits! Tonight Holly managed to escape but Camille had to endure crawling from the restaurant back to her room while I had to hop next to her – the stairs were not pleasant for either of us!!

Montenegro U18 ITF Grade 5, Day 1

Saturday 24^th May 2014

After a successful week in Podgorica last year where we ended up winning the doubles title, it was great to be back again and to prepare for U18 ITF Grade 5 at the Eminent tennis club.

I met Holly Horsfall and Camille Verden-Anderson at Stansted airport this morning at the ridiculously early hour of 5am and, after successfully negotiating the Ryanair check-in desk (not an easy task with so much baggage!) we ended up clearing security just before 6am. We then got some breakfast and boarded the packed plane ready for our 3 hour direct flight to Podgorica. For me the flight went very quick but then I did sleep for probably 2 ½ hours of it!

When we arrived in Podgorica we collected our bags and then were met at the airport by Sasha, the hotel manager, who I had got to know last year. He took us straight to the official tournament hotel and then after checking in we unpacked and met at the hotel restaurant for lunch. Holly Horsfall’s memory of what was on the menu and what we ate last year was phenomenal, I just wish I’d listened to her and asked for tomato sauce with my chicken tagliatelle as there was way too much of the creamy sauce!

After a quick trip down the road to the supermarket to stock up on water, we got a taxi to the tennis club at 2.30pm and then got on court to start our warm-up by 2.45pm. Even though everyone was still tired from the early start and the long morning of travel we had a really good hour and a half of training.

Holly (left) and Camille (right) working hard on their volleys this afternoon

We practised this afternoon in a 3 so that the player on their own always got a quality ball coming back and both Holly and Camille worked really hard throughout the session. Some players find it easy to get used to playing on red clay but others find it more difficult and that is why we made the decision to come out here early to get a lot of training in before the girls have to play their first match.

When we came off court we had a good stretch out and then were picked up by Sasha at 5pm to go back to the hotel.

Like last year, we will probably end up having dinner most evenings at the hotel as the food is of a good quality and is pretty cheap – tonight I had a very nice (and big!) Mexican chicken and rice and it came to €7.50! During dinner Holly got the ball rolling on the forfeits and we introduced Camille to our daily games of ‘Chase the Ace’ – I’ve got a funny feeling that the forfeits are going to get a lot worse as the week goes on!!

Once we had finished dinner Holly and Camille went back to their room to complete some school work and then relax while I went to see a physio to try and alleviate some tightness in my neck that I’ve had for a couple of days.

We’ve got a full day of training planned for tomorrow and then we’ll wait to see if Camille will be in qualifying or if she has (more than likely) moved up into the main draw.

Namibia U18 ITF Grade 5, Day 6

Tuesday 13^th May 2014

We had another ‘Tricky Tuesday’ today as Toby suffered a 2^nd round loss in the singles and a 1^st round loss in the doubles.

We were up early this morning and at breakfast by 6.20am before getting the 7am bus to the club. Toby and Brandon then went through their physical warm-up exercises and then hit from 8-8.30am on centre court to prepare Toby for his singles match. Toby was hitting well and, despite the distraction of around 10 people warming up on the side of the court, he felt good about his game by the time we had finished.

The match before Toby’s lasted around 1 hour 45 minutes and in that time we completed a pre-match sheet, talked though our tactics for the match and watched some of the other first round matches. Then, at 10.15am, Toby went on court to face 14^th seed Damon Kesaris from South Africa.

Toby and Damon warming up for their 2nd round match

As you know if you’ve been following the Blogs, Toby has been working hard on finding a consistently aggressive level but from the start of the match today it was apparent that Damon could match him shot for shot and then increase his level when he needed to. That led to Toby going for a little more than normal and, as he’s not used to doing that, it resulted in a high number of unforced errors. At *0-3 down Toby tried to raise his level and his consistency but he often struggled to find the 2-3 quality strikes in a row that he needed to put Damon under enough pressure to make him break down.

The first set lasted just under 30 minutes and even though the scoreline read 6-0, the games were much closer than the score suggested. Toby continued to battle hard at the start of the second set and after holding serve to level the set at 1-1 his confidence started to grow. By that stage Toby was finding some very good combinations of shots but it was just the final ball that was letting him down and Damon took full advantage to break and hold to lead 4-1. The last two games of the 2^nd set were probably the best of the match, but it was Damon that won the important points and went on to take the match 6-0, 6-1.

After the match Toby expressed his disappointment with the scoreline but he also said he was pleased with the way that he had approached the match and the level he had found throughout. The goal now is to increase his consistency at his higher level and if he can do that then matches like this one will be much closer.

Between when Toby came off for his singles and when he started to warm up for his doubles, he just about had enough time to shower, stretch, eat and relax for around 30 minutes. Following Toby and Brandon’s doubles last week they knew exactly what they needed to do today and also knew that if they did not get outside their comfort zones then they would struggle to win the match.

Unfortunately they both started slowly and immediately went 0-3 down. They fought back though and played some good doubles to get back on serve at *3-4 but a poor service game ended up costing them the first set.

The boys started the 2^nd set much better and from the first game they started to move more at the net and finish a lot more first volleys. Toby was broken at *1-1 and then 3 more breaks followed which resulted in the set being all-square at *3-3. At this stage I really thought the momentum was with Toby & Brandon and, after Toby played a very good service game to lead 4-3, I thought they had really turned the match around. Shabani held serve in the next game and then another poor service game at a crucial time lead to Toby and Brandon being broken to a sudden death deuce point. It was always going to be tough to break Muzingaye’s serve as Shabani was extremely sharp at the net and, after a few very tight points, Toby and Brandon went down 6-3, 6-4.

The performance was much much better than last week but Toby pointed out straight after the match that if they had played like that in their previous doubles match they would have won. They then would have had more matches under their belts and could have been in a much better position to win this match today – which I agreed with 100%!

The loss in the doubles ended our 2^nd week here in Windhoek but I believe Toby has improved a lot over the trip and most importantly he feels much more comfortable competing at this level. He’s played 8 matches in total; won 4 and lost 4 and even though he hasn’t picked up any ITF points this time I am very confident that he will in the next ITF he plays.

For dinner tonight we decided to go to ‘Joe’s Beerhouse’ which has been highly recommended by a lot of people . . . and it was definitely worth it. I decided to go for the Game meat and had an Oryx fillet while Toby had a peppered steak. Both meals were superb and the atmosphere in the restaurant was great with everyone sitting together on long benches and eating under a big thatched roof.

Joe’s Beerhouse featuring it’s own mini which has travelled across Africa!

When we got back to the hotel it was time to pack up and get ready to return back to England tomorrow.

The next trip is a return to Montenegro for the Grade 5 ITF at the end of May . . . let’s hope we don’t come across any snakes this year!!

Namibia U18 ITF Grade 5, Day 5

Monday 12^th May 2014

It was an excellent start to the second week here in Windhoek, as Toby produced his best match of the trip to advance to the 2^nd round.

My day started a little earlier than Toby’s today as I got the 7am shuttle bus to make sure we got the timeslot we wanted on the only practice court available at the club. I then made my way back to the hotel and met Toby for breakfast at 8.30am. The plan was then to get the 9.30am shuttle to the club but once again it didn’t turn up! Luckily the hotel driver was available so he took us to the club and then at 10am we started to warm up for our practice session.

Our pre-match hit lasted just over 30 minutes and Toby was both hitting well and feeling positive by the time we finished. Between 11am and when Toby went on at 12.30am we spent the time preparing for the match by going through Toby’s pre-match sheet, keeping updated on the score on his court and staying relaxed by once again setting forfeits based on achieving a certain score on Subway Surfers!

I’m not sure whether it was the specific pre-match preparations that we went through or taking Toby’s mind off the match by competing with me on iPhone games, but whatever it was it definitely worked as Toby produced a very good performance!

Toby (right) warming up against Pieter Theron (NAM)

He started the match against Pieter Theron from Namibia very well and raced to a 4-0 lead. Over the past 4 days we’ve worked hard on him dictating points and playing at a consistently aggressive level and throughout the first 4 games he did that very well. Pieter then held serve twice in the next 4 games but in response Toby also held serve to take the set 6-2.

During the second set Pieter upped his game but by this stage Toby was feeling confident and continued to take the set to his opponent. One of Toby’s main goals was to maintain a 60-40 balance during each point and, even though Pieter increased his winner count from the first set, Toby made sure that his opponent had to work very hard for every point he won. Even at break point and game points down Toby continued to play aggressive tennis which ultimately saw him come through the second set 6-0.

It was a very good performance from Toby but, rather than us just take it easy after the match, we went straight onto the practice court to work on a few areas of his game for about 10 minutes before he cooled down and stretched out. By the time we got up to the referee’s office the doubles draw had been released:

Boy’s Doubles Draw

We then headed to Nando’s again for lunch where once again Toby’s attention turned to getting his own back on me for the forfeits he’d been doing all weekend! After losing the first battle I had to ask the waitress for a hairnet and then proceed to wear it during my meal and the plan was to wear it on the way back to the club too:

I thought it was rather fetching myself . . .

However, the tables soon turned on Toby as he lost the second game and he had to take over the wearing of it both on the way back to the club and also at dinner this evening!

. . . but Toby didn’t share that opinion!!

After lunch we went back to the club (for Toby to show off his new hair accessory to everyone there!) and then got on court with Brandon from 4-5pm for some specific doubles training. Toby and Brandon’s match last week had not been of the level that any of us had expected but this afternoon they worked very hard on their movement and placement of their volleys. We all wanted to stay on court longer as the session was of a superb level but the last bus back to the hotel was at 5pm so we had to take that one.

Once we got back Toby stretched out by the swimming pool and then we went back to our rooms to relax before dinner.

As we walked into the restaurant this evening everyone caught the sight of Toby with his hairnet on and even though his face went rather red I think he loved the attention from the girls!!

It’s growing on him though!!

Throughout the whole meal he kept bugging me to play again so that he could win his way out of the forfeit and eventually he won which saw me do 20 press-ups in the middle of the restaurant with the hairnet on!!

It was a good, hard-working day on the court and a fun day off the court today – hopefully tomorrow will be more of the same!

Schedule for tomorrow:

(14) Damon Kesaris (RSA) (1497) vs (wc) Toby Huffer (GBR) (UNR) – 2^nd match after 8.30am

Toby Huffer (GBR) & Brandon Levendale (ZIM) vs Shabani Kabura (BDI) & Muzingaye Sibanda (ZIM) – 4^th match after 8.30am (not before 12.30pm)

Namibia U18 ITF Grade 5, Day 4

Sunday 11^th May 2014

It was a happy Mother’s Day today here in Namibia as we put the final touches to our preparation for week 2.

As I said yesterday, the schedule for today was much lighter than our other training days as it is very important that Toby is fresh and ready to go for his first round match tomorrow. With that in mind we had a lie-in and met for breakfast at 8am and then got the 9.30am bus to the club.

Once we arrived we warmed up straight away and then managed to get on court for an excellent 2 hour session from 10 – 12pm. The first hour was spent focussing on Toby’s groundstrokes and making sure that he had a really good feel for the ball from the back of the court. Then at 11am we managed to get a whole court to ourselves so we went straight into open points with the focus again being on finding a good aggressive balance. Even though we’ve been here well over a week, the altitude is still a little difficult to deal with and so we have to make sure that there is a complete commitment to every shot. It is fairly easy to be consistent in the rally but it is a lot more difficult to find a consistency with a high hitting level and that is what is required to compete with the best players in the tournament. After playing a few sets of conditioned points we finished the session with around 20 minutes of serving points and by the time we were finished Toby was feeling confident about his game. Just to finish off we decided to play a best of 3 set game of ‘Bounce’ and, as Toby was feeling very confident, he decided the loser would have the forfeit of jumping into the swimming pool at the hotel fully clothed! At 1 set all Toby thought he had a chance but I upped my game to take the deciding set 5-2!

The shuttle was waiting for us when we finished so we went straight back to the hotel where Toby went straight to the pool to do his forfeit. However, we didn’t realise that there would be loads of the tournament players around the pool to watch him do it!

Toby casually preparing for his forfeit … good form …

… and splashdown!

After Toby’s ‘cooling off’ we stretched out and got a well-deserved shower before it was time for lunch. Last Sunday we had to have the buffet lunch at the hotel because there was nothing else available but it ended up being a lot more expensive than our normal pasta lunch. So today we headed to Nando’s to get some chicken and rice and when we arrived we saw that most of the other players had the same idea!

After lunch we headed back to the club as we were told by the tournament director that Toby still needed to sign in for Main Draw. Originally we were told that sign-in would open at 3pm but in the end it opened at 4pm and then the referee said we actually didn’t need to sign-in as Toby had officially been awarded a Wildcard! We weren’t too bothered about having to hang around until 4pm as it gave Toby a chance to get his own back on me with some of his own forfeits as he challenged me to Subway Surfers. I ended up doing some star-jumps on one of the stands by the side of the courts but Toby’s ones were much more special!

On our way to dinner in the evening Toby had to crawl into the restaurant and then ask the waiter his thoughts on a couple of meals while reading the menu upside down! Toby did both very well and just about managed to keep it together without bursting out laughing!

Toby crawling into dinner – not that anyone was taking any notice!!

Susan casually asking “Why don’t you read it the other way round?!”

Over dinner the draw came out and here it is:

Boy’s Singles Main Draw

Schedule for tomorrow:

Pieter Theron (NAM) (UNR) vs (wc) Toby Huffer (GBR) (UNR) – 4^th match after 8.30am

Namibia U18 ITF Grade 5, Day 3

Saturday 10^th May 2014

It was another good day of training today as we close in on the Main Draw which starts on Monday.

Last night I asked Toby to plan the next two days of training both on and off the court so that he was in control of what and how much he did on both days. He decided that we’d have an early start this morning to have a full training day and then reduce everything tomorrow so that he is fresh for his first match on Monday. We were therefore up and at breakfast by 6.20am this morning before getting the first bus to the club at 7am.

Toby and I then warmed up and had a good session on the match courts from 7.30 – 8.30am before the qualifying matches started. Toby hit well throughout the hour and it is obvious that the amount of training he has done in the last week has really helped him to increase the confidence in his game. He is looking strong from the back of the court and his volleys are improving each day – if he can keep trusting his game on the match court then I think he can do really well this week.

Even though we lost the court at 8.30am, we went straight down onto centre court to work on serve and return for another half an hour before heading into the clubhouse to go through a strength and conditioning session. Toby followed his own S&C programme while I went through my own and I think both of us managed to keep each other motivated without saying a word!

After stretching out, we got a lift back to the hotel with one of the tennis coaches and then spent an hour relaxing before it was time for lunch. Toby then got stuck into some school work for a couple of hours until 3pm when it was time to go back over to the club for our second session of the day.

As this morning was spent working on specific areas of Toby’s game we decided that the afternoon session would be mainly point based. Like yesterday afternoon, Brandon joined us and both boys competed hard for almost an hour and a half. Even though we played a lot of points during the session we set them up based around finding a good aggressive balance to ensure the level of both players remained high.

Toby and Brandon during the points this afternoon

At 5pm we got the shuttle bus back to the hotel where Toby and I debriefed today’s on and off court sessions and then came up with a good plan for our final training day tomorrow.

Earlier today we did discuss having a change of plan for dinner and going somewhere different but in the end Toby decided to have it at the hotel restaurant. He decided to go for the chicken curry again which last week proved to be a little difficult to get out of the red hot cauldron that it came in. Tonight however he was ready for his ‘Bush Tucker Trial’ as he called it:

Ready for the challenge . . .

. . . but then it gets too hot to handle!!

Namibia U18 ITF Grade 5, Day 2

Friday 9^th May 2014

It was a good final day of preparation today . . . or so we thought until 6.30pm this evening!

We were up early again this morning to have breakfast at 6.30am and then get the 7am shuttle to the club. Like yesterday we went straight on court when we arrived to warm up for half an hour and then we had a really good hour of drilling and point play. We spent the first half an hour working on specific areas of Toby’s groundstrokes before warming up volleys and serves. We then finished the session with a couple of tie-breaks where Toby played at a superb level to take the first one 10-5. Lucky (for me!) I managed to sneak the second one before we lost the court to the main draw matches.

Straight after the session we went upstairs into the clubhouse to go through a good 25 minute core session and then finished our morning’s training with a thorough stretch out.

For the whole of last week the shuttle bus that takes us to and from the club had been on time but this week the drive has been slacking a bit! So, instead of getting the bus back at 9.30am, we had to get a lift with one of the parents as the bus didn’t turn up at all! Once we got back to the hotel we showered and changed and then headed to the restaurant at around 11.30am to get some lunch.

The early part of the afternoon was spent with Toby doing a good couple of hours of school work and me planning the tournaments over the summer. Then at 3pm we went to reception to get the shuttle to take us back to the club but guess what? It didn’t show up again! Lucky the hotel receptionist was able to give us a lift but as there were 6 of us we had to do it in 2 trips.

Brandon Levendale joined us for our afternoon session and, after warming up, the boys went straight into a practice set. Brandon had an excellent start to the set and took a 3-0 lead but Toby fought back to win the next two games and stay within touching distance of his doubles partner. The next two games were very tight with both boys playing at a high level but it was Brandon that won both games. Even though Toby was 2-5 down he remained positive and competed hard on each point to break and then hold his serve to get within one game of levelling the set at 4-5. However, after another tight game, it was Brandon who went on to take the set 6-4. The boys finished the session with a tie-break to 10 points and again it was Brandon that came out on top despite another close battle.

After cooling down and stretching out Toby signed in for Qualifying and then we got the bus back to the hotel. It was only at 6.30pm when the Qualifying draw came out that we realised that Toby had moved up into the main draw so we have another couple of days of training before he’ll play his first match on Monday. The positive is that we’ve got another two days to prepare for the Main Draw but the downside is that Toby was really looking forward to competing tomorrow!

Here’s the (rather empty) Qualifying draw:

Namibia U18 ITF Grade 5, Day 1

Thursday 8^th May 2014

The rest day yesterday saw the end of the first ITF here in Windhoek, and so today our preparations for the second week (a Grade 5 ITF) began before qualifying starts on Saturday.

At 5.30am this morning my alarm went off but I’m not sure I actually needed it as minutes later a huge rainstorm came down on the tin roof above my room! By the time we met at 6.20am for breakfast the rain had stopped but we had a feeling that the courts at the club would be completely out of action.

When we got there at 7am all of the courts were soaked and at first Toby didn’t think I was serious when I said we were going to warm up straight away, but then he soon realised that a wet court wasn’t about to stop us training! After the warm-up we went through a really good speed and movement session for an hour and even though the court was still wet, we managed to get through everything without falling over once!

A wet court never stops us Brits!

Once we had finished, Toby had a 15 minute break to have a small snack and then, as the courts had dried out, we went back on for our tennis session. Toby was really keen to play after having the day off yesterday and from the start of the session his intensity was very good. We warmed up groundstrokes and volleys and then we managed to get the whole court to ourselves so we decided to go straight into some points. During the second ‘up to 11’ it started to rain and within 30 seconds it was coming down very hard. It was disappointing to stop but at least we managed to get a good 45 minutes in and it was still worth getting up early for.

We got a lift back to the hotel with Courtney Lock and his mum but even the short walk from where they dropped us off to our rooms was enough for us both to get completely soaked! We then stayed at the hotel for a few hours to relax and get some lunch before we got the shuttle back to the tennis club at 2pm.

Once again we went straight on court to warm up and then started hitting at around 2.30pm. We had already planned to play a practice set this afternoon with the main focus being finding the level that Toby had played against Kris, but increasing the consistency at that level. The first few games were quite tight but I managed to take the important points and took a 3-0 lead. Toby immediately raised his game and served and returned much better to hold and break me in the next game. At 3-2 I felt as though Toby was right back in the set but a couple of inconsistent games from him gave me at 5-2 lead. Toby then produced his best service game to keep the pressure on but, after another close game, I managed to serve it out to take the set 6-3. One of the best things about travelling individually with a coach is that you’ve always got a lot of time to review matches / training and get back on court to make improvements. After discussing the set Toby wanted to go straight into another one but this time we decided to play a short set up to 4 games. The level was much better and the games were a lot closer than the first set but I just managed to scrape through 4-2!

By the time we finished playing it was 4pm and so we decided to go straight into a strength and condition session for 40 minutes and then have a good stretch out before the shuttle left at 5pm.

Overall it was a really good day and even though it rained a lot this morning we still managed to get 2 conditioning sessions in as well as 2 on-court sessions.

Once we left the club we stopped at the supermarket to stock up on more supplies and then it was straight back to the hotel to shower and change before dinner.

Tomorrow will be a lighter day as qualifying starts on Saturday but, because of the lack of practice courts during the day, we’re still going to have to get up early to guarantee a court.

Namibia U18 ITF Grade 4, Day 7

Wednesday 7^th May 2014

After 6 days of training hard and competing hard, we had a well-deserved rest day today which saw us go to the fantastic Dusternbrook Farm to see the Cheetahs and Leopards being fed.

Due to the early bus timetable this week we’ve been getting up around 5.45am so I thought it was about time that Toby had a lie-in today! We met for breakfast at 9.30am and then spent a relaxing morning at the hotel before it was time to leave for the farm.

One of the hotel taxi drivers picked us up at 12.45pm and took us on the 30km drive to the entrance to the land where the farm was based. What we didn’t know was that we had a further 18km on gravel roads – not that it made a difference to our driver as he continued to drive at 80km/h!

Not too bumpy, even at 80km/h!

When we went through the gates to the farm we were immediately met by Springboks, Oryx, Impala and Warthogs roaming free in their natural environment. The farm is the first and oldest guest farm in Namibia and has been at its current location since 1908.

The reception at Dusternbrook Farm

At 2pm we got into the open bus and took a short drive through the farm to where the Cheetahs were. As soon as they heard us coming both the two 7 year old males tracked the bus until we got to an open space where our guide started feeding them. It was brilliant to get so close to these amazing animals and as you can imagine we didn’t stop taking pictures! Here are some of the best ones:

Up close with the Cheethas!

Feeding time!

After 30 minutes we left the Cheetahs and drove down the track to see one of the Leopards, but, when we arrived he wasn’t as welcoming as the Cheetahs had been! It took a bit of time for the guide to entice out the 9 year old male and when he did come out he was a lot more aggressive than the Cheetahs had been!

Click here for a video that made us all jump!

Again we got some great pictures of the Leopard feeding including one of him climbing a tree to get the food that the guide had thrown up there:

Wherever the food is I’ll find it!

Eyes on the Prize … Got it!

Getting close … but not too close!

At 3pm it was time to leave him to his dinner and we headed back to the main farmhouse. We were due to leave straightaway but on our way to trying to find the toilet, Toby and I walked around the back of the main house to this breath-taking view:

Amazing views from the top of the farm

As we looked closer we saw more and more wild animals roaming in the reserve and it was really nice to see all of these animals without them being behind cages in a Zoo.

At 4pm we left the farm and, having been looking for different animals all afternoon, we suddenly saw a lot more than we did on the way to the farm! On the drive back I decided to try and edit some of the pictures / videos that I had taken but I didn’t realise that I had taken over 250!

We arrived back at just before 5pm and even though it was nice to get back to our hotel, it was an absolutely fantastic afternoon – I would recommend Dusternbrook Farm (www.duesternbrook.net) to anyone that comes to Windhoek and I hope I get the chance to go back there in the future.

That ends week 1 and we’ll start our preparations for week 2 tomorrow!

Namibia U18 ITF Grade 4, Day 6

Tuesday 6^th May 2014

It was a tough day at the office today as Toby lost a tricky match against the no.2 seed and then in the afternoon Toby and Brandon lost a disappointing 1^st round doubles match.

Our long day started with a 6.20am breakfast and then we were on court warming up at 7.30am for our 8am practice session with Brandon. Toby’s been hitting well all week and the pre-match session this morning was no different – his confidence has been growing with every match / training session and, considering he has only been on one previous ITF trip, he is looking very comfortable at this level.

After the session we had quite a bit of time to kill until Toby went on for his match; I got stuck into a bit of tournament planning while Toby split his time between watching some of the matches and playing Subway Surfers!! As the match before Toby’s was starting it’s second set we went through our pre-match preparations and then went on court to warm-up again which included a little movement work to get Toby sharp.

Toby then went on court at 12.20pm to take on 2^nd seed Kris Van Wyk from South Africa. Toby was looking forward to the challenge of taking on a player ranked inside the top 275 in the world and he made life very tough for Kris to hold serve in the opening game. Unfortunately Toby was broken in the next game and he soon found himself 3-0 down following a strong service game from Kris. He kept fighting hard though and played some good tennis to hold serve 3 times before Kris went on to take the set 6-3.

The second set was almost identical to the first set but this time Toby was broken in the opening game and it was always going to be difficult to break back as Kris’ serve was getting better and better the longer the match went on. Toby held serve at *0-2 and *1-3 with some good tennis during the set but his consistency at a higher level just let him down a little when it really mattered. After breaking Toby at *2-4, Kris went on to hold serve with 3 unreturnable serves to take the match 6-3, 6-2. It was always going to be tough against a good player like Kris but Toby definitely felt that the early breaks in each set really cost him and if he can increase his consistency, then next time he could make it a much closer match.

We only had an hour a 15 minute break before Toby and Brandon were back on court for their 1^st round doubles match. Before they went on I sat both of them down to go through what I expected from them on the doubles court and they had a clear gameplan both when serving and when returning.

Toby and Brandon warming up for their 1st round doubles match

They started the match against Tino Dahlem and James Roelofse very well and looked very dynamic in the opening two / three games . . . unfortunately after that the boys stopped moving as much and struggled to impose themselves as much at the net. Despite that, the first set went with serve until *4-5 when Brandon was broken and the boys found themselves a set down.

Toby and Brandon raced to a 3-0 lead at the start of the second set and kept hold of one of those breaks to take the set 6-4. Even though they were back on level terms I felt that it wasn’t a convincing set; 6 out of the 10 games were decided by a Sudden Death Deuce point and the amount that the boys were moving at the net and finishing first volleys was lower than during the first set. That meant that there was still a lot of work to do but it was Tino and James that started the match tie-break better and they quickly took a 4-1 lead. Toby and Brandon continued to work hard but a few poor shot selections at crucial times costs them a lot and their opponents went on to take the match 6-4, 4-6, 10-6.

Both boys were very disappointed with the result but it was their first match together and hopefully we can work a lot on their doubles before next week.

As we’re having a day off tomorrow Toby decided that he would like to have a change for dinner so, predictably, we headed off to Nando’s at 6pm. The food was actually pretty good but while Toby went for the hot sauce I decided that I would play it a bit safer and stick to the medium one!

We’re still undecided as to what we’re going to do tomorrow but we do have the options of a couple of game drives so we’ll see what happens!

Namibia U18 ITF Grade 4, Day 5

Monday 5^th May 2014

A straightforward match for Toby today saw him through to the 2^nd round of the Main Draw where he’ll face the no.2 seed tomorrow.

I woke this morning at 5.30am to the heart-breaking news that Elena Baltacha had died of liver cancer yesterday. I have known Bally for many years and had been at many of the same tournaments that she played while she was on her way up the rankings to the top 50 in the world. One of my favourite memories of Bally was when I came on court after the first set of a doubles match that her and Naomi Cavaday were playing on centre court at the Eastbourne WTA event. In WTA events you are allowed to call your coach on at either a chance of ends or the end of the set and, after losing the first set 7-6, the girls called me on. As I was explaining to them what they needed to adjust in the match, Bally’s passion and willingness to listen was so intense that it actually made me laugh out loud and I completely forgot what I was going to say! She was an amazing person, a true fighter and a perfect role model for any up and coming player – she will be missed by everyone that ever had the fortune to have met her.

Toby and I had breakfast at 6.20am and then got the 7am shuttle bus to the club. Like yesterday, we were at the club very early but we would have missed our practice session if we had got the later 9.30am bus. After warming up, Toby had a good hit with his doubles partner, Brandon Levendale, from 8 – 8.30am before the first matches went on court.

We knew we would have a bit of waiting around today, but after going through all of our preparations for the match we saw that the first match on Toby’s court was almost finished. The next match was over pretty quickly too and even though Toby’s match had a ‘not before 11am’ time, both him and his opponent agreed to go on early at 10.45am.

We knew nothing about Clemens Roeber apart from the fact that he was from Namibia and he was unranked. As is the case with many events in Africa, the qualifying draw can often be tougher to get through compared to many of the opening matches in the Main Draw and that was definitely true of Toby’s match today. Toby started a little slowly and even though he broke in the 1^st game, he gave up his serve cheaply in the very next game with 2 double faults and 2 unforced errors. It’s often tough to raise your own level when you’re not getting into much of a rhythm in a match but to his credit Toby stayed focussed and won the next 11 games in a row to take the match 6-1, 6-0.

Following the match I took toby through a long cool down and stretching session before we got a lift back to the hotel from the president of the Namibian Tennis Association. Over lunch we discussed the match and both agreed on the positives and the areas that we wanted to work on before the next round.

Our regular routine this week has been to get back on court in the afternoon after Toby’s matches and today he wanted to do the same to work on a few specific areas. So, at 3pm we got the bus back to the club and went straight on court to warm up with Brandon. Before the boys hit, I decided that we would do a quick 5 ball fan sprint to get them nice and sharp. I explained that 15.5 seconds was very quick, 15.5-16.5 seconds was good and anything over 16.5 seconds wasn’t quite good enough! Toby went first and put in a 16.77s and Brandon was all over the place on his sprint missing one of the pick-ups and ending up with 18.22s. The boys then challenged me to do better and were convinced that I would be slower because I hadn’t warmed up and was in my running shoes! I then put in a steady 15.89s . . . not bad for someone almost 20 years older than them!!

Toby and Brandon working on their doubles specifics this afternoon

The boys managed to get over their disappointment of me beating them and put in a good training session for an hour. We covered the areas that Toby wanted to work on, then worked on some doubles specifics before their 1^st round match tomorrow and finished with some open point play.

Once we had cooled down and stretched out we got the bus back to the hotel via the supermarket to stock up on some water . . . just the 25 litres worth – should do us for a few days!!

We had another good dinner at the hotel tonight where Toby finally got the chicken pasta that he’d wanted for the last few days. There was then just a enough time for Toby, Sophie, Brendon and I to discuss who had the best taste in music (definitely me!) before it was time for an early night.

Boy’s Doubles Draw

Schedule for tomorrow:

(q) Toby Huffer (GBR) (UNR) vs (2) Kris Van Wyk (RSA) (268) – 3^rd match after 8.30am (not before 11am)

Toby Huffer (GBR) & Brandon Levendale (ZIM) vs Tino Yannick Dahlem (GER) & James Roelofse (RSA) – 5th match after 8.30am (not before 1pm)

Namibia U18 ITF Grade 4, Day 4

Sunday 4^th May 2014

It was another good day at the Central Tennis Club today as Toby came through a potentially tricky match to secure his place in the Main Draw.

We met for breakfast this morning at 7am and then took the 7.30am bus to the club. We again had the option of the getting the 8.30am bus but if it had been late then we wouldn’t have had enough time to warm up before our 9 o’clock practice session.

Once we had gone through our physical warm-up we took to the court and had a good 30 minute match warm-up session which today, as we knew a little about Toby’s opponent, was based around the tactics he was going to use. We also knew that the Sun could be a factor in the match as it was directly behind the court and by the time Toby would go on for his match it would be in a very difficult position. With that in mind we changed ends a few times during the session so that Toby was fully prepared for his match.

At 9.30am the first round of matches went on so Toby and I went off to start to prepare his game plan and goals for his match. The match before Toby’s was very close and lasted almost two hours but eventually it was time for Toby to take to the court to face Alosha Chikanda from Zimbabwe.

Toby started the match very well and even though we knew that Alosha had a good heavy forehand, Toby dealt with it with ease. Toby quickly took a 2-0* lead and was dominating the points from the back of the court with very good accuracy. During the break before Toby’s match we had watched some of the other last round matches and we both agreed that the best players are managing to control the ball at this altitude by really committing to every ball they hit – and that was exactly what Toby did at the start of the match! Alosha held serve at 2-0* but Toby continued to keep the pressure on with some very good serving and good hitting from the back of the court to take the next 4 games in a row.

Toby stretching to return Alosha’s serve during the 1st set

Toby didn’t start the second set well and 4 unforced errors in his first service game saw him fall 0-1* behind. He responded professionally though and won the next 4 games in a row to take a commanding 6-1, 4-1 lead. At this stage it was looking as though the match was done and dusted but Toby took his foot off the gas a little and at the same time Alosha decided he would produce his best tennis of the match! The following two games went against Toby and at 4-3* he started to play without the same freedom that he had in the first set and a half. The next game was very important and to his credit Toby managed to settle himself well to break straight back to go *5-3 up. Toby then played a solid service game and, despite not being able to convert on his first 2 match points, he took the 3^rd and let out a big “Come on!” as he secured his place in his first U18 ITF Main Draw.

After the match we had a brief chat and then Toby cooled down and stretched out before the bus came to take us back to the hotel for lunch.

At 3pm we headed back to the club and had another very good hour on court to work on some specific points that had come up from the match. We were joined on court by Courtney Lock who is the number 1 seed this week and has just returned from playing Grade 1 events in France and Italy. It was great for Toby to train with Courtney and it gave him an excellent opportunity to gage the level of someone who is close to the top 200 in the world.

Toby and Courtney training together this afternoon

After the boys were finished they both cooled down and had a good stretch out before we got the bus back to the hotel.

At dinner tonight we were joined by Sophie, Luke (her father) and Brandon Levendale from Zimbabwe. We had a good meal despite the waiter struggling with every order that we placed and it was great to share stories about places and tournaments that we had all been to.

Once we were finished Toby and I went through today’s match in detail and started to prepare for his next match tomorrow.

Boy’s Singles Main Draw

Schedule for tomorrow:

(q) Toby Huffer (GBR) (UNR) vs Clemens Roeber (NAM) (UNR) – 3^rd match after 8.30am (not before 11am)

Namibia U18 ITF Grade 4, Day 3

Saturday 3^rd May 2014

It was a good start to the first tournament today as Toby came through his opening match in qualifying to move one match away from the Main Draw.

It was a very early start this morning with Toby and I meeting for breakfast at 6.20am and then getting the first bus to the club at 7am. Even though Toby was scheduled for the second match on court, we had to get the earlier bus in order to make our 8am practice session.

We went through our physical warm-up from 7.30-8am and then had a good practice session for half an hour. The time that we’ve spent on court over the last 3 days has really enabled Toby to become well acclimatised to the conditions and our hit this morning was one of the best that we’d had since we arrived. By the time Toby had warmed up everything he was feeling very confident and ready for his match.

While the first round of matches were on court Toby and I went through his pre-match sheet so that he had a clear game plan and also had specific goals for the match. At 10am the referee told us that Toby’s match was going to be moved to another court so we had 15 minutes to warm up before he went on court to take on Sam Bencheghib from France.

The first game of the match was a little edgy from both players but as soon as Toby broke Sam’s serve and then held to take a 2-0 lead he looked much more confident. Sam then played a good game to hold serve but Toby upped his level and started to dictate the points from the back of the court which lead to him holding and breaking to take a 4-1 lead. By this stage Toby was in full control of the match and he kept the pressure on his opponent to take the next two games and the first set, 6-1.

Toby continued to play well in the second set and even though he ended up taking it 6-0 there were some tight games with Sam competing hard throughout the match. Overall it was a good performance from Toby and, after having difficult qualifying matches in the three ITFs in Nairobi in February, it was great to see him get his first ITF singles win on the board!

After Toby had cooled down and stretched out we headed back to the hotel to get some lunch and watch Tottenham lose – sorry Toby!!

Many players might have decided to take the afternoon off after a first round match but Toby shared the same opinion as me that; an opportunity to practice is an opportunity to improve. We went back over to the club at 3pm and then had a very good session on court for just over an hour. The whole session was point based to get Toby ready for his final round of qualifying match tomorrow and he once again raised his level from this morning. After losing the match tie-break on Friday I had to get some revenge (which I did!) but I had a feeling that Toby was saving his best level for our final tie-break and he took me down 7-5. Many coaches might say that they wanted to boost their player’s confidence and so let them win but in this case Toby just played too well!!

Dinner tonight was again a recommendation from Toby but I’m very pleased to say that the Lasagne was nowhere near as spicy as the curry yesterday! During dinner we talked through the specifics from Toby’s match and went through his post-match sheet before setting up the game plan for his next match tomorrow.

We were then finally able to get on the internet (as it’s been down all day) which gave us a chance to catch up on everything Facebook / Twitter / Snapchat related!

Schedule for tomorrow:

Alosha Chikanda (ZIM) (UNR) vs Toby Huffer (GBR) (UNR) – 2^nd match after 9.30am

Namibia U18 ITF Grade 4, Day 2

Friday 2^nd May 2014

Today was our first full day of training here in Namibia and Toby put in two great sessions which has prepared him very well for his first round qualifying match tomorrow.

There wasn’t a practice court booking system in place this morning so we decided to get up early and get to the club just after 9am to try to get a court before all the other players turned up! After warming up on court I took Toby through a footwork session which included some specific movement exercises, some medicine ball work and finally some speed work.

Toby working hard in the footwork session this morning

Toby and I then trained for just over an hour with the focus again being on adjusting to the altitude and getting more of a feel for the ball at a match level. Toby was hitting the ball well and as the session went on he became more confident to commit to the shot without the worry of the ball flying through the air took quickly and going long. Towards the end of the session we spent some time working on Toby’s serve and return as we knew that they would be fundamental in his match tomorrow and then we ended the session with a match tie-break. I’ve been instructed to make sure I state the result of the tie-break so here it is … Toby won 10-5 – but I’m going to make sure I get revenge later in the week!!

Once we had cooled down and stretched we got the shuttle bus back to the hotel to get some lunch and relax.

At 2.30pm we headed back over to the club to warm up for our second session of the day. Toby had another very good hour on court and, after warming up with Matthew Astell from South Africa, they played a lot of points to make sure they were both ready for their matches tomorrow.

Toby serving against Matthew during the points this afternoon

At 4.15pm we headed off court to cool down, stretch out and sign-in for qualifying. The shuttle bus was then supposed to pick us up at 5pm to take us back to the hotel but, because it got delayed coming back from the airport, we had to persuade one of the tournament staff to give us a lift back!!

Dinner tonight was again at the hotel restaurant and on Toby’s recommendation I decided to go for the chicken curry – what he didn’t tell me was that it was pretty spicy!! Once we were finished (and I had put the flames out!) I checked my emails to find the draw and order of play had been sent through from the referee:

Boy’s Qualifying Draw

Schedule for tomorrow:

Toby Huffer (GBR) (UNR) vs Sam Bencheghib (FRA) (UNR) – 2^nd match after 8.30am

Namibia U18 ITF Grade 4, Day 1

Thursday 1^st May 2014

It’s was a long 20 hours of travel but we finally arrived in Windhoek, Namibia today for the next stop on the ITC calendar.

After negotiating the London Underground on day 2 of the strikes I finally got to Heathrow to meet Toby Huffer at around 6pm. I spent last Friday on court with Toby and his coach, Marten Renstrom, at Dukes Meadows high performance centre which gave me the chance to get to know Toby and also speak with Marten about the areas he would like me to focus on with Toby at the two tournaments.

After we checked in we got some dinner and then boarded the 11 hour flight to Johannesburg. Luckily we managed to get some exit seats which meant we were both able to get some sleep – I think I managed to get a little more than Toby though as I was passed out for almost the whole flight!!

Once we arrived in Johannesburg we had a 4 hour stopover before our final 2 hour flight to Namibia. It then took us almost 45 minutes to clear a very busy Customs but once we finally got through we were met by the tournament bus driver who took us, and Sophie Gerits and her father from Belgium, to the tournament hotel.

As the altitude here in Windhoek is around 1,600 metres it is important that we get as much time as possible on court before qualifying starts on Saturday. So, with that in mind we checked in at the hotel at 4pm and then went straight to the club to get a good hour of practice with Sophie before the sun went down.

Toby and Sophie training this evening on centre court

While we were on court we had a few visitors including a mean looking wasp, a huge centipede and this:

An Armoured Cricket (apparently!)

After training Toby cooled down and stretched out before we headed back to the hotel to get some dinner and relax after a very long day!

USA U18 ITF Grade B1, Day 7

Thursday 10^th April 2014

It was another good day in the Desert today as Katie fought a tough opponent and intense heat and humidity to take out the 6^th seed and advance to the Quarter-Finals.

Another early start saw us have breakfast at 6.45am before packing up to check out of the house. We arrived on site at the tennis centre at 7.45am and then reviewed some of the analysis of the match yesterday so that we could use it, along with the plan for today, to be ready for the match. After going through her physical warm-up, Katie hit with Mia for about 35 minutes during which time we focussed on some of the pre-match specifics including changing pace and spin to not let her opponent get into a rhythm. Katie was hitting the ball great and by the time we left the court at 9am we were both really happy with the level she had produced.

At 9.40am Katie went on court to face 6^th seed Raquel Pedraza from America and, having watched her play yesterday, we were fully prepared with our game plan to expose her weaknesses. Katie started the match very well; her 1^st serve percentage was high, she was controlling the points from the back of the court and absorbing the pressure when Raquel took the ball on. At 3-0* up Katie was in complete control but Raquel raised her level of consistency to hold serve and then break Katie to leave the set on serve at 3-2*. Katie responded very professionally to this and stepped up more in the next game breaking Raquel for the second time. Katie then stuck to the game plan but kept increased the pressure on her opponent to win 2 out of the next 3 games and finished the set on a big ace!

Katie serving over the mountains!

The second set was a real war of attrition with both girls giving it everything they had for an hour and 40 minutes! Firstly Katie took a 3-1 lead with a combination of solid tennis and a lot of errors from her opponent but then Raquel’s mindset changed and she stopped missing while at the same time hitting 5 winners in 2 games to level the set at 3-3*. Once again this didn’t faze Katie who responded immediately by breaking back with 4 winners of her own in one game! The rollercoaster continued in the next two games but this time it was Raquel who was the one dictating the play with 5 more winners resulting in her taking a *4-5 lead. Katie then showed great determination by holding serve at *4-5 and *5-6 and on both occasions Katie was just 2 points away from losing the set! The tie-break was epic . . . both girls were going toe-to-toe with each other and some of the rallies were very brutal. Katie raced to a 4-0 lead and then led 6-3 before Raquel fought extremely hard to save 3 match points. Katie again maintained the belief in her game and, after getting a mini-break at 6-6*, she stayed disciplined and eventually won another long rally to take the match 6-3, 7-6(6). I was exhausted just watching so I can only imagine how Katie felt!

After the match I went straight up to Katie to congratulate her on a very mentally tough performance and, after a bit of treatment from the physio, we got into the air-conditioned gym to cool down and stretch out. I was really proud of how Katie handled the situation as she was not only fighting her opponent, but also the heat and humidity and she did it all extremely well to record her first victory over a top 75 player.

The afternoon was spent relaxing / recovering and then, as it is my last night before I fly home tomorrow to get ready for the London Marathon on Sunday, we all headed out for a lovely dinner.

There will be no Blog tomorrow but I will be posting the results on the Facebook page so to keep updated please click here and like the page.

Schedule for tomorrow:

(11) Katie Swan (GBR) (112) vs Francesca Di Lorenzo (USA) (UNR) – 2^nd match after 10.30am, not before 12.30pm

USA U18 ITF Grade B1, Day 6

Wednesday 9^th April 2014

It was another good match for Katie and a great player’s party / coach’s reception today at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden.

An early start saw us have breakfast at 6.45am this morning and then get to the club to warm up on court at 8am. Katie then hit with Olivia Hauger from 8.30am until matches started at 9am and once again Katie’s level was very good throughout. Even though it was just a match warm-up we still talked about the goals for the match during the session and in particular focussed on service placement to set up the point.

Once we were done we headed back to the house to relax for an hour and get some food before getting back on site for 10.30am. Katie’s match wasn’t scheduled until 11.30am so we had lots of time to talk through the pre-match sheet and go through a good warm–up before she went on court for the match.

After a bit of a delay Katie went on to face Karina Traxler at 12.15pm and, after a solid first game (which saw Katie break Karina), she really upped her level to match the quality of hitting that she found against Kaitlyn last week. Katie dictated almost every point in the first set and hit a total of 14 winners on her way to winning the set 6-0. Her serve was working very well and, even though her 1^st serve percentage wasn’t that high, when it did go in it didn’t often come back!

Katie attacking Karina’s 2nd serve during the 1st set

During the second set Katie continued to dominate the points and put into practice all of the work we had done over the past couple of weeks on patterns of play. Karina held serve in the first game of the set but that was to be the only game that she would win as Katie won the next 6 games in a row to take the match 6-0, 6-1 in just over an hour.

After a quick debrief Katie went into the gym to cool down and stretch out while I headed to stadium court 3 to watch her next round opponent. Just as I arrived at the court the girls were finishing the second set and, as they ended up splitting sets, I was able to watch the whole of the third set which saw 6^th seed Raquel Pedraza come through 6-3, 1-6, 6-1.

From 3pm until 3.30pm Katie and I were back on court for a light hit with Mia Horvitt and then it was time to go back to the house to get some food and get ready for the player’s party.

The evening was very well organised and had two objectives; 1) get the players together to have dinner and unwind after a tough day’s competition and 2) get the coaches together for the USTA coaches reception and award ceremony. It was only really open to USTA coaches but when I was in Carson last week I asked if I could join in and I’m very pleased that they let me! Firstly we all had dinner together and then Patrick McEnroe took to the microphone to talk about the tournament and also introduce some of the legendary award winners. Then, one by one Jerry Baskin, Nick Bollettieri, Robert Lansdorp and Jack Sharp were presented with a Team USA Coaching Legend Award. They then individually gave a 5 minute speech on their coaching philosophy and told some stories about their own coaching careers. Nick and Robert were absolutely brilliant and gave very motivating speeches and then, just as I thought the evening would finish, Patrick McEnroe got all four of them up to do a question and answer session with the audience:

Jerry Baskin, Nick Bollettieri, Partick McEnroe, Robert Lansdorp and Jack Sharpe before the Q&A session

I felt very privileged to attend the evening and afterwards had a good chat with Patrick and Nick. It would be great if other federations would do the same at some of their higher grade ITF events as it really does help the coaches to develop and learn from the very best.

The evening finished at 8pm and then Katie and I headed back to the house to relax and pack up as we must check out tomorrow.

Schedule for tomorrow:

(6) Raquel Pedraza (USA) (72) vs (11) Katie Swan (GBR) (112) – 1^st match at 9.30am

USA U18 ITF Grade B1, Day 5

Tuesday 8^th April 2014

We had a mixed day today as, on one hand the training that Katie put in was of a very high quality, while on the other hand, Katie and Usue were knocked out in the doubles against a very good pair.

As the tournament split the draw Katie only had doubles today so we took advantage of having a free morning to get some good quality training in. The first round of matches were scheduled for 10am this morning so we got to the site at 8.30am and then warmed up to get ready to hit with Mia Horvitt from 9-10am. While Mia was warming up, Katie and I did some reaction ball work and then the girls had a really good hour’s practice which involved some specific drilling and some point play. Mia was happy for me to lead the session so we went through everything we needed to so that Katie’s was fully prepared for her next singles match.

At 10am the matches started so I headed straight to court 8 to watch Katie’s next round opponent play her first round match. On that court Karina Traxler played qualifier Rebekah Anderson and, after a close first four games, Karina took the first set 6-2. I made a lot of notes on both players during that first set and, once it was completed I was confident that Karina would go on to win the match, so Katie and I headed back to the house to get some lunch.

When we returned at 12.15pm we were informed that the girl’s doubles would not be before 2.30pm so we relaxed for a while in the player’s lounge and then went on court with Usue Arconada to get the girls ready for their doubles match. Both Katie and Usue were hitting the ball very well during the 30-40 minute session and Katie looked much more confident in the areas we had worked on this morning.

At 3pm Katie and Usue went on to face Francesca Di Lorenzo and Sofia Kenin and, even though Katie and Usue were the number 1 seeds, we knew that it was going to be a tough 1^st round match.

During the first 5 games Katie and Usue played some good doubles and moved well but just struggled to finish first volleys whereas Francesca and Sofia were very consistent at the back of the court and very sharp at the net. Even though each game was close, Katie and Usue found themselves 0-5 down but continued to work hard and, after breaking Sofia and Katie holding serve, they started to build some momentum. Unfortunately Francesca then held serve to take the first set 6-2 but I was confident that our girls would be able to turn the match around in the second set.

Katie serving during the 1st set

At *1-3 in the second set it wasn’t looking too good but Katie and Usue managed to raise their games and found some really good energy to win the next 3 games in a row and take a 4-3 lead. Usue was broken at *4-4 but we broke Sofia straight back to level the set and then it went with serve until the tie-break. By this stage it the set could have easily gone either way but it was Francesca and Sofia that played the better breaker and went on to take it 7-2.

Despite the loss there were some very positive parts of the match; Katie moved well during the first set and served very well throughout but Francesca and Sofia played a very high quality match throughout.

After the match Katie went into the gym to cool down and stretch out while I completed one of my last 3 training runs before the London Marathon on Sunday. We then headed back to the house for dinner and a relaxing evening to prepare for Katie’s 2^nd round single match tomorrow.

Schedule for tomorrow:

Karina Traxler (USA) (896) vs (11) Katie Swan (USA) (112) – not before 11.30am

USA U18 ITF Grade B1, Day 4

Monday 7^th April 2014

It was a good start to the Easterbowl in Indian Wells today as Katie overcame a tricky opponent to win through to the 2^nd round of the singles.

We started the day with an early breakfast before heading over to the club at around 8.30am. Even though Katie’s match wasn’t scheduled until 1pm we only had the opportunity to practice until 10am when the matches started so we decided to warm up at around 8.45am and then hit with Mia Horvitt from around 9.10 – 9.45am. Katie was looking very good in the practice and has continued to build on the work that we did in Carson last week.

After the session Katie and I headed back to the house to have lunch, relax and most importantly get out of the heat while the first round matches started. We then made our way back to the club at 12pm to prepare for Katie’s match and as we got into the car we were greeted by this:

Hot, hot, hot!!

As soon as we got on site I went straight to the referee’s office to check the situation with the Heat Rule and was immediately told that it had been in since 10am this morning! The Heat Rule is not just based on temperature (but that is a major factor) but it does mean that players can have a 10 minute break between 2^nd and 3^rd sets where they can leave the court, see the trainer etc. but cannot speak to their coach.

At 12.30pm Katie and I sat down and went through the plan for the match and set specific goals before she went through a thorough warm up. Then at 1pm she went on stadium court 3 to face Alexandra Letzt from California.

The match started with 5 breaks of serve; Katie took the lead three times but on the first two occasions she was broken straight back in the next game until at *3-2 she played a very good service game to hold and take a commanding 4-2* lead. She then backed up her hold by breaking Alexandra and then hit 3 winners in her next service game to take the set 6-2.

Katie built on the momentum that she had created in the first set by braking Alexandra in the first game of the 2^nd set and then went on to take a 5-1 lead with some very smart play. Just when it looked as though the match was almost over Alexandra raised her level; she held serve at 5-1* and then after breaking Katie her confidence increased significantly. Katie continued to fight hard and earned a match point at 5-3* but Alexandra played some impressive tennis to peg Katie back to *5-4. Katie responded very professionally to Alexandra’s fight back and, after a close service game, she held to take the match 6-2, 6-4. It was a good win for Katie and she showed a lot of character in that 2^nd set, especially as it was very hot on court.

After the match we went straight back on court to work on a few specific areas of Katie game for 10-15 minutes and then it was straight into the gym to cool down and stretch out in nice air-conditioned comfort!

We left site at 4.45pm and went back to the house where Katie went through a good recovery session in the swimming pool. We then had another great meal thanks to Nicki, before settling in for the NCAA basketball Finals followed by watching The Blind Side.

Girl’s Doubles Draw

Schedule for tomorrow:

(1) Usue Arconada (USA) & Katie Swan (GBR) vs Francesca Di Lorenzo (USA) & Sofia Kenin (USA) – Time TBC

USA U18 ITF Grade B1, Day 3

Sunday 6^th April 2014

It was another very good day of practice today as we put the final touches to our preparations before main draw starts tomorrow.

As qualifying was still going on at the club we decided to head back over to The Vintage Club this morning to guarantee a practice court for our session. We arrived there at just before 9am and, after warming up, Katie went through a short 10 minute ladder footwork session to sharpen her up before we hit. Katie and I then had a very good hit for 30 minutes before we moved courts to hit with Carol Finke from 10 – 10.45am. Even though Carol lost in qualifying yesterday, she was really good to train with and it gave Katie a chance to drill and play some practice points against another girl.

Katie lunging for a volley against Carol this morning

After the session we headed back to the house for some lunch and to relax before going over to the tournament site at just before 2pm for our afternoon session. By the time we left the temperature had really started to rise and as we started to warm up on court was around 90°F (about 32°C).

From 3-4pm Katie had a really good session with Mia Horvit; both girls found a very high level from the back of the court and then transferred that level into points for the last 25 minutes of the session. It was an ideal session to have before the tournament starts tomorrow and gave us some more very valuable time on the slower match courts at the Tennis Garden.

Once we finished the session we went straight into the gym to cool down and stretch out and then we had a bit of time to check out the rest of the tournament site. As we walked around we didn’t realise just how big it was – there are a total of 29 courts with 2 of them being huge stadium courts and even though the centre was built in 2000 specifically for the BNP Paribas Open, it is also a members club. There was also a big art festival on site over the weekend; some of the work was absolutely amazing (in particular some photos by Ian Ely) and some things were a little strange!

By 5.30pm we left site and headed back to the house to relax before dinner. We then had a long evening of waiting for the draw to come out – in the end I headed back to the club only to find out that one of the qualifying matches was still going on at 8.15pm! Eventually the draw came out at around 9pm and here it is:

Girl’s Singles Main Draw

Schedule for tomorrow:

Alexandra Letzt (USA) (1126) vs (11) Katie Swan (GBR) (112) – Not before 1pm

USA U18 ITF Grade B1, Day 2

Saturday 5^th April 2014

It was another good training day today as we spent the morning at the prestigious Vintage Club and the afternoon back on site at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden.

Due to the qualifying of the Easter Bowl starting today, all of the courts had matches scheduled on them this morning so at 9am we headed a few miles down the road to The Vintage Club. The club is very exclusive and the views are absolutely stunning:

The view from the entrance of The Vintage Club

Another stunning view looking out towards the mountains

Katie and I warmed up at around 9.30am and then went through a movement and speed session for 10-15 minutes before finishing with a little medicine ball work. We then had a great session for around an hour and a half where we continued with the work we started yesterday evening. We added in some points towards the end of the session where Katie made me work extremely hard to just stay with her in the rally!!

After the session we headed back to the house to get some lunch and then at 2pm (just when the temperature was really starting to heat up!) we headed over to the tournament site for our second session of the day.

Katie trained with one of her friends from Wichita, Sam Beren, on one of the smaller stadium courts this afternoon which meant she had another opportunity to practice on the tournament surface before she plays on Monday. Katie and Sam warmed up and then played some points which gave us a great chance to work specifically on Katie’s serve and return.

The pros were here a few weeks ago … now it’s time for the next generation.

Once they had finished Katie and I did some specific on court work for around 20-25 minutes to reinforce the work we did this morning and then we headed straight to the gym to go through her tournament fitness programme. By 5pm we had finished the programme, cooled down and stretched out which ended another very good training day.

We had just over an hour before dinner, so, while Katie got stuck into some school work, I hit the roads for a pretty tough 7.5 mile run. The programme I’m following should be tapering down now as there is only 8 days to go until the marathon but it still seems to be hard work!

I still need more sponsorship so please donate – www.justgiving.com/robslondonmarathon2014 – THANK YOU!

After another excellent dinner from Nicki, we all chilled out while watching the NCAA Final Four basketball and then it was an early night all round to make sure we’re ready for a final day’s preparation tomorrow.

USA U18 ITF Grade B1, Day 1

Friday 4^th April 2014

It was a day of learning, driving and training today as our attention shifts to getting ready for the Easter Bowl U18 ITF Grade B1 which starts on Monday.

This morning we had breakfast, packed up and left the hotel at 8.30am to go to the tournament site so that we could watch some of the ¼ final matches. We wanted to watch Kaitlyn McCarthy play Kelly Chen so that we could learn from yesterday’s match and also check out some of the other girls who might be playing next week in Indian Wells.

At around 12pm we left Carson for the 2 and a half hour drive through the mountains to Indian Wells and even though everyone talks about Indian Wells being in the middle of the desert I didn’t quite realise that it actually would be!! We saw some amazing scenery as we drove from the city, through the mountains, past a huge wind farm, along some sand blown roads and into a town surrounded by mountains!

The drive from LA to Indian Wells

When we arrived we met up with Katie’s mum, Nicki, who is joining us for the week so we’re really looking forward to some home cooked meals!

At 5pm we headed over to the Indian Wells Tennis Garden which is less than a mile from where we are staying, but we were told straight away that there were no courts available for practice this evening. I’m not one to easily take no for an answer so we went into the gym to warm up and then at 5.45pm I managed to sweet talk a member into letting us use one of the courts he had booked! I did say that we were only looking to practice for 20-30 minutes but an hour and a half later, with the sun setting behind the mountains, we were still on the court training!

Not a bad view from court 1

After the session we went back into the gym to cool down and stretch out before heading back to the house at just before 8pm for a lovely home cooked dinner.

USA U18 ITF Grade 1, Day 6

Thursday 3^rd April 2014

It was a good performance from Katie today in her Last 16 match against 8^th seed Kaitlyn McCarthy but unfortunately for us the America played at a very high level throughout and went on to win 6-2, 6-1.

As Katie was scheduled to play in the 2^nd round of matches today we were up early to have breakfast at 6.45am and then got over to the site to warm-up just before 8am. Today was the first time we were actually able to practice on the match courts as earlier in the week all the matches had been starting at 8am which meant that any training after that time had to be on the college courts. Katie once again hit very well during our warm-up session and we’ve now got into a very solid routine of what we go through in practice before she plays matches.

Once the match before Katie’s had finished a long 1^st set we sat down to talk through the tactics for her match and also set some goals. Then at 11am Katie went on court to face 8^th seed Kaitlyn McCarthy from America.

We knew a little about Kaitlyn and knew that Katie would have to be on her game and dictate the points in order to go through a good opponent, but I don’t think either of us were expecting such a close first game of the match! It lasted over 15 minutes and saw both girls play at a very high level – it actually took 7 winners from Katie in that game alone to break Kaitlyn’s serve and take a *1-0 lead. In the next five games Kaitlyn really increased the pressure on Katie with some very accurate hitting despite Katie continuing to play at a very high level. Unfortunately those 5 games went against us and even though Katie kept fighting and competing hard, she eventually lost the first set 6-2 after 1 hour and 5 minutes. The set was probably the best I’ve seen Katie play in a match but Kaitlyn just played the big points better.

Kaitlyn serving against Katie in their Last 16 match today

In the 2^nd set Katie maintained her aggressive play and produced some great tennis in the first two games but from 1-1* Kaitlyn stepped up the pressure again. She went on to win another 5 games in a row with probably the best level of tennis I’ve seen from any of the girls this week to take the match 6-2, 6-1 in 1 hour and 45 minutes – normally you’d expect a 2 & 1 scoreline to be over in 50-60 minutes which just goes to show that the match was a lot closer than the score suggests.

Katie was obviously disappointed to lose the match but we both agreed afterwards that she had played some of her best tennis and now if we can increased her consistency at that level in the next few days then she’s going to be a real threat next week in Indian Wells.

After cooling down and stretching out in the gym we got some lunch and then watched some of the other Last 16 matches. Sofia Kenin against Claire Liu was a very close match which Sofia ended up winning 6-4 in the third, but 13 year old Claire is definitely one to keep an eye on over the next few years.

After the matches we headed back to the hotel to relax and pack our bags ready to move on tomorrow. I also managed to get a 30 minute interval session in and it suddenly dawned on me that there is now only 10 days to go until the London Marathon – please support the amazing charity that I’m running for by donating here – www.justgiving.com/robslondonmarathon2014 – THANK YOU!

This evening we had an early dinner and then went through the analysis of the match before heading to Yogurtland for frozen yoghurt – as I’m in training I managed to resist getting one but I was very jealous of everyone’s yoghurt and topping masterpieces!!

Tomorrow we head to Indian Wells to start preparing for the USTA Easter Bowl U18 ITF B1 which starts for Katie on Monday.

USA U18 ITF Grade 1, Day 5

Wednesday 2^nd April 2014

It was another good day here in California as Katie stormed through to the Last 16 in the USTA International Spring Championships.

I think I’ve finally (after 5 days) got over my jet lag and this morning, for the first time, it was my alarm that woke me up at 6.30am rather than my body! After finalising the preparations for Katie’s match today, I met her downstairs for breakfast at 8am where she decided to go for the hotel’s buffet breakfast while I tucked into the tournament breakfast box.

Once we arrived at the tournament site we found out that some overnight rain had delayed the start of play but we still decided to warm up at 9.30am before getting on court at 10am for our pre-match hit. Katie’s level in the session this morning was probably the best I’ve seen her hit the ball all week; she was very focussed and the intent she had on each ball was excellent – I had to work very hard just to keep up with her!!

After the session we went to the main stadium to shower and change and I was able to sneak out onto the main football pitch to get a quick picture of the LA Galaxy home ground:

Pitch side at the home of the LA Galaxy

After lunch we watched some of the other 2^nd round matches before it was time to prepare Katie for her match. We discussed the tactics for the match based on how we had seen her opponent play on Monday but a big factor that we needed to take into consideration was the strong wind that was blowing across the whole site. Katie then went through her physical warm up and, after a few movement drills to get her sharp, it was time to play!

At 3pm Katie went on court 6 to face Elysse Graci from America and from the very first game it was obvious that Katie had adjusted to the windy conditions better than her opponent. Katie held serve well and then played some very solid tennis to win the next 5 games in a row to win the set 6-0 with the loss of just 3 points. In her previous match Elysse had played well in the wind but today she really struggled and it didn’t help her that Katie was ready to take on anything that dropped a little short.

Katie taking on her forehand during the 1st set

The second set was a closer affair even though the score line doesn’t show it. At *2-0 Katie’s serve was under pressure following 2 big forehand winners from Elysse but after Katie managed to hold serve she raised her level in the very next game to stay on top. By this stage Katie was 6-0, 4-0 up and even though Elysse continued to work hard, Katie closed out the next two games to take the win 6-0, 6-0 in just under 50 minutes.

Once Katie had finished we had a quick debrief and then it was straight down to the gym to cool down on the bike and then stretch out. By the time we had finished it was around 5.30pm so we decided to head straight back to the hotel to have a well-earned dinner at 6pm.

After dinner we sat down to go through the match in detail and also start our preparations for the next match tomorrow.

Schedule for tomorrow:

(11) Katie Swan (GBR) (109) vs (8) Kaitlyn McCarthy (USA) (83) – 2^nd match after 9am (not before 10am)

USA U18 ITF Grade 1, Day 4

Tuesday 1^st April 2014

Katie and Chloe had a tough doubles match today as they came up against a strong team in the first round.

Having not quite got over the jet lag yet, I was wide awake at 5.45am this morning so I decided to hit the gym for one of my last 7 runs before the London Marathon on the 13^th April. I then met Katie at 8am for our ‘boxed breakfast’ which consisted of a carton of milk, a carton of orange juice, a box of cereal and a bagel – not really an ideal breakfast for the players (or the coaches!!).

Shortly after we had finished breakfast we headed over to the tournament site to watch some of the other first round matches and then at 10am we walked over to the college courts to get ready for our morning session. After going through a thorough physical warm-up I took Katie through a footwork and movement session for about 20 minutes to keep her sharp and maintain her fitness while she’s on the road. We then had a very good training session from 11-12.15pm where we focused on the learning points from yesterday’s match and also the tactics that we want to implement in her 2^nd round singles match tomorrow.

Katie working hard during the footwork session

Once we were finished we were both pretty hungry (the breakfast this morning hadn’t really done the job!) so we went straight back to the tournament tent for some lunch. The lunch that the tournament are providing is better than breakfast but it just consists of a sandwich and either some potato or pasta salad – luckily it’s self-service so you can have as much potato or pasta salad as you can fit on your plate!

Most of the afternoon was then spent waiting for the matches before Katie and Chloe’s to finish – they were scheduled for 6^th match on but 5 out of the 6 matches went to 3 sets!! Before Katie went on court we went through the goals and tactics for the match and then at just after 5pm it was game time.

The wind had been picking up all day and by the time Katie and Chloe Ouellet-Pizer (USA) went on court to face wildcards Francesca Di Lorenzo (USA) & Caroline Dolehide (USA) the conditions were very difficult.

The first 6 games went with serve and even though Francesca and Caroline were playing some strong doubles, Katie and Chloe were holding their own and working hard to stay in the set. At *3-3 Chloe was broken following a sudden death deuce game, Francesca held well and then Katie was broken, again to sudden death deuce, which saw the girls lose the first set 6-3. There wasn’t a lot between both teams during the first set but when it came to the big points Francesca and Caroline just managed to edge them.

The start of the second set was a little flat; the strong wind meant that it had got quite cold and that made it even more difficult to get going. At *1-2 Katie and Chloe upped their levels and, after Chloe held serve well, they broke Caroline for the first time. At that stage I really thought that it was going to be a big turning point in the match but unfortunately Francesca and Caroline played a very good game on Katie’s serve to break her to love. Once they had that break back they increased their play again and won the next three games (two to sudden death deuce) to take the match 6-3, 6-3. Overall there were 5 sudden death deuce games in the match which shows how close it was – unfortunately Katie and Chloe only won 1 of those games!

Despite the loss there were lots of positives from the match including Katie raising her doubles level in the second set to move across the centre line 13 times (10 / set was our goal) and also finish 8 first volleys (8-10 was our goal). It was just a shame for our girls that they came up against a strong pair today who played good doubles throughout.

The match finished at 6pm and after a quick debrief with Katie we headed straight to the gym so that Katie could cool down and stretch out to maximise her recovery before tomorrow’s singles match.

We then went straight back to the hotel and straight into dinner which was thankfully the best meal of the day – chicken, mash potato and fresh vegetables – finally a hot meal!!

Schedule for tomorrow:

(11) Katie Swan (GBR) (109) vs Elysse Graci (USA) (275) – 4^th match after 8am

USA U18 ITF Grade 1, Day 3

Monday 31^st March 2014

It was a very good start to Katie’s tournament today as she fought very tough conditions to win her 1^st round match.

We started the day with breakfast at 7.30am and, following the problems with dinner last night, we managed to get a full buffet breakfast rather than just the normal ‘boxed’ breakfast due to the tournament supplying us with the wrong tickets!!

We then headed over to the site at 8.15am and started our physical warm-up on court at 9am. As always, it is the player that should dictate the pre-match tennis warm-up before their match so that they feel comfortable and ready to compete. That meant that my role this morning was mainly just a hitter but Katie and I did talk about specific tactics that we wanted to implement in the match as the session went on. Katie looked very good on the practice court and after about 35 minutes she felt ready to go.

As the two matches before Katie’s dragged on a little (the first match, which was finished in straight sets, took 2 and a half hours!) she didn’t end up going on until just before 12.45pm to face Jenna Friedel and by that time the wind had really started to pick up.

As I said yesterday, I’ve known Jenna since she played against Mia Smith and Georgie Axon in Guadeloupe last April but when she started the match it was obvious she’d improved a lot since then. The first two games went with serve as both girls played some very solid tennis but then it was Katie that raised her level first to hold well and take a 2-1 lead. Jenna responded straight away to level the set and then the next game ended up being the most important game of the set. Katie raised her game once again to start to produce the same level that we’d seen on the practice court over the last two days and, even though she was broken to love, it was only because she missed the final shot of the rally 4 times by a matter of centimetres. Because she knew that she was playing the right way she responded very professionally and that led her to break back in the next game, hold and then go 40-15 up on Jenna’s serve at 4-3*. Jenna fought back with some big hitting of her own to hold serve but the momentum was definitely with Katie who went on to hold serve to love and then break to love to take the first set 6-4 in an hour.

Katie’s ‘Good Year’ continues!

That set from Jenna was the best I had ever seen her play and as the second set began I got the feeling that while Katie’s confidence increased, Jenna’s dropped a little. The second set ended up being quite one sided and saw Katie win 5 games in a row from *1-1 to take the set 6-1. During that set Katie only lost 3 points on serve and one of those was a random miss-hit to double fault on match point!

It was a very good start to the tournament and both Katie and I were very pleased with the level she played at against a very tricky opponent in very windy conditions. After the match Katie went off to shower and change while I headed to court 10 on the other side of the site to watch Katie’s next round opponent.

Following that match we both headed to the gym so that Katie could have a good cool down and stretch out. By the time we had finished in the gym it was around 4pm and the doubles draw had been released:

Girl’s Doubles Draw

At 5.30pm Katie and I met in the lobby of the hotel to go through her match in detail and then at 6.15pm we headed to the hotel restaurant for a well-deserved dinner – thankfully the hotel was ready for us tonight!

After dinner Katie got stuck into some Algebra while I updated the website with new pictures and the doubles draw – check out the Facebook page and give it a ‘Like’ – only 6 more needed to hit 600! www.facebook.com/itctennis1.

Schedule for tomorrow:

(WC) Francesca Di Lorenzo (USA) & Caroline Dolehide (USA) vs (8) Chloe Ouellet-Pizer (USA) & Katie Swan (GBR) – 6^th match after 8am (not before 3pm)

USA U18 ITF Grade 1, Day 2

Sunday 30^th March 2014

Happy Mother’s Day to all the British Mum’s out there!

We had another very good training day today as we put the final touches to our preparation before main draw starts tomorrow.

As Katie had a long 19 hour day yesterday we decided that she would have a bit of a lie in today and so we met at breakfast at 8am. We then headed over to the tournament site and went through our physical warms up and a few footwork drills before getting on court at 10am. Once again Katie produced a very high level of training and she really built on the areas of her game that we had discussed yesterday. We spent the first 45 minutes hitting together where she warmed up and then went through some specific work based around her aggressive gamestyle before finishing the session by playing some points with Emilie Francati from Denmark.

Once we were done we headed over to the main football stadium to shower and change and then headed off site for lunch at Panera Bread – the food was pretty good but the portions were a little small for us!!

For our afternoon session we were once again joined by CiCi Bellis and, like yesterday, we knew that we were going to have a very good hour of practice with her. Katie and CiCi worked very hard together and it was great to see two girls putting everything into their training for the whole of the session. The format of the training today was almost identical to yesterday; the girls drilled for around 30-40 minutes at a very high level and then we finished the session with a service game each from either end of the court to get used to the windy conditions.

Katie looking strong behind her return of serve today against CiCi

Once we had finished Katie and I sat down on the grass behind the practice courts to discuss the session in detail and also talk through the main areas we want to focus on tomorrow in her first round match. We then headed to the Velodrome to go through a light fitness session that is part of Katie’s fitness programme when she is on the road. I always find that a major difference between the juniors and the pros is the amount of physical training they do when on the road a tournaments – juniors tend to view their training as just on court hitting balls and the stretching whereas the pros know that they need to keep maintaining their strength and conditioning even when playing high level events. Even though the session for today was reasonably light it was still a very beneficial session and was an important part of Katie’s preparations for this week.

After the session we cooled down and went through a thorough stretching session to make sure that Katie would recover well for tomorrow. By the time we had finished in the gym it was around 5pm and, after checking that sign-in and everything had been completed, we headed back to the hotel.

We were both pretty hungry tonight and were looking forward to the hospitality buffet dinner but due to a mix up with the hotel and the tournament there wasn’t any meals arranged!! Rather than wait two hours until they sorted something out we headed across the road to Chipotle (along with half the players!) to have a very good meal there! During dinner the draw came out and Katie plays Jenna Friedel from America who I know well from the events in the Caribbean last year.

Girls Singles Main Draw

Schedule for tomorrow:

(11) Katie Swan (GBR) (109) vs Jenna Friedel (USA) (193) – 3^rd match after 8am (not before 10.30am)

USA U18 ITF Grade 1, Day 1

Saturday 29^th March 2014

It was an excellent first day of preparation here in Carson, USA today and despite Katie having to wake up at 2am local time to get a flight to LA, she worked extremely hard on and off the court.

My trip began yesterday as I left London for the 11 hour flight to Los Angeles but Katie Swan, who lives in Wichita, Kansas, had a very early start this morning to get a 6.30am (4.30am Los Angeles time!) flight out here.

I met Katie at the airport at just after 7.30am and then we headed straight back to the hotel so she could check in and get some breakfast! We then headed over to the USTA training centre for western USA which is also the tournament site for the week. The site is huge and includes the StubHub Centre which is where the LA Galaxy plays their football (not soccer!!) games.

At just after 10.30am we headed into the USTA gym which is located at one end of the cycling track in the Velodrome – very impressive:

One of our offices for the next week!

We went through an extended warm up to try and get the 3 hour flight out of Katie’s system and then spent the next hour going through firstly a footwork session, and then finished with some speed work to get Katie really sharp.

Katie going through some footwork exercises in the gym

Katie worked really hard in the session and it’s obvious that her hard work and excellent attitude are two of the main reasons why in the last 12 months she’s gone from having no ranking to now being a few places outside the top 100.

After lunch it was time for our first on court session and because all of the 19 USTA courts were being used for matches we have to use the college courts which are around a 7-8 minute walk away. It might seem like a short distance but a sign like this one makes it a little more difficult!!

Err . . .

From 2-3pm Katie and I had a really good session; she adjusted well to the conditions and even though the first session at a new tournament venue should be spent just getting used to the surface, balls, environment etc. Katie did all that within about 10 minutes! That left us a good 45-50 minutes to go through a lot of the areas that we had talked about over lunch which were based on notes I had made from watching her play in South Africa recently. Katie worked very hard throughout the session and found a superb intensity which in turn transferred into a very high level of hitting.

Shortly after our session we were back on court from 3.30 – 4.45pm with CiCi Bellis from San Francisco. CiCi is currently the 2^nd highest ranked 1999 year of birth player in the U18 ITF rankings (Katie is currently 8^th!) and so I was really looking forward to another high level session. The girls didn’t disappoint; after warming up we went through some drills and the level the girls produced would have easily been comfortable at a $10k / $25k tournament. After around 40 minutes of drilling the girls decided to play a couple of service games each to finish the session. Once again the standard was very high and at 2-2 the players could not be separated (I think Katie edged it though … but I am biased!!!).

Katie serving against CiCi during the points this afternoon

When we were finished we headed back to the gym to cool down and then I took Katie through some stretching and injury prevention work to make sure she recovers well from all of the training. While we were doing that the cyclist were training on the track and it was amazing to see not only the abled-bodied athletes train but also some of the Paralympic team – one athlete only had one leg and I’m sure he was going twice as fast as I would have been able to go with two!

After a quick shower and change at the hotel we went off to dinner at Benihana’s where the food was very good. We weren’t able to get a table where the chef cooks everything in front of you as it was very busy on a Saturday night but it was still a fantastic meal.

My day wasn’t quite finished there though and after talking through the plan for tomorrow with Katie I headed to the gym at 9.45pm for a 7.5 mile run! There are now just 2 weeks to go before the London Marathon and this year I’m running for the amazing Make-A-Wish UK. If you are able to support me and help to put a smile on the face of a child with a life-threatening illness please click on the link below – THANK YOU!

South Africa U18 ITF Grade 2 (week 2), Day 5

Wednesday 12^th March 2014

One win and one loss today saw the end of our tournament here in South Africa but there have been lots of learning points and Ben has developed well over the two weeks.

Under normal circumstances, as soon as one of the players has lost in the singles on one of my trips they treat the rest of the week as a training week alongside their doubles matches. That means that if they just had one doubles match in the day, they would train for at least an hour and a half on the court and also go through their normal strength and conditioning programme off the court. However, due to the injury that Ben has sustained to his arm it has not been possible for him to do a lot of training and it was important that he saved his arm for his doubles matches.

With that in mind Ben had a lie-in this morning while I got up early again to get another run completed at the gym. It was a hard one today; 15 miles on a running machine can never be classed as enjoyable but raising money to help very sick children helps to motivate me every day – please sponsor me – www.justgiving.com/robslondonmarathon2014.

I met Ben at 10.30am at the club and, as he had missed breakfast at the hotel, he wanted to have an early lunch to make up for it. We therefore headed over to Beef Boys Grill at 11.30am and had a good lunch of chicken breasts and baked potato before walking back to the club. We then warmed up at 1pm and went through some movement and speed work before we started hitting.

Ben working hard during a fan drill (not hard enough though as I beat him!)

We then hit for around 25 minutes but due to the tightness and pain in Ben’s right forearm we had to make sure that the session remained light. When we were done Ben released the muscles in his forearm again and then iced it to try and reduce the inflammation. Up until that time in the day the weather had been really nice . . . but then the rain came down for the next 45 minutes!

Luckily there was quite a bit of wind today and the sun came out immediately after it stopped raining so by 4.30pm the courts were completely dry.

After warming up, Ben and David went on court at 4.45pm to conclude the match that they started on Monday and they didn’t waste any time in finishing the match off! They broke Michael straight away and then David held serve well to win the match 6-4, 6-1. Ben’s arm was a little sore on returning but fortunately he didn’t have to serve.

As Ben and David were already warm they decided to go straight into the next match which, like last week, had been changed to short sets up to 4 games due to the weather. This week in the ¼ finals they faced 3^rd seeds Lloyd Harris and Brandon Laubser from South Africa and before the match I was very confident that Ben and David would come through it with a win. However, from the opening game the South African’s played very well and Ben and David didn’t quite find the form they did last week. To all of our surprise in the second game of the match Brandon walked to the back of the court and then was violently sick all over the court! Due to the mess the boys had to change courts and when they restarted Ben and David broke back to level the set. Ben served in the next game and was also broken but Lloyd finally held serve first to give them a 3-1* lead. David then held serve after another close game and then Brandon, who had recovered extremely well from being sick, held to take the first set 4-2.

Ben and David in their 1/4 final vs Lloyd and Brandon – how many tennis balls can you see??

In the second set the South African’s continued to dominate and even though the first two games went against serve they went on to take the second set 4-1. Both Ben and David were very disappointed when they finished but Ben said that he was really struggling with his arm and that really affected his serve.

Once Ben had iced his arm, he cooled down and stretched out in the gym and then, as it was almost 7pm, we walked over to the restaurant for dinner.

After dinner we headed back to the hotel to change our flights and get ready to leave tomorrow.

It’s been a good two weeks of competing, learning, improving and dealing with difficult situations both in terms of the altitude / conditions and dealing with injuries. Overall Ben has worked hard and despite some difficult draws he has remained positive and got some good results in the doubles.

My next trip will be to the U18 ITF Grade 1 in Carson, USA at the end of March, so until then . . .

South Africa U18 ITF Grade 2 (week 2), Day 4

Tuesday 11^th March 2014

It was a hard fought match for Ben today and despite being a break up in both sets he unfortunately couldn’t convert his chances.

The later start time today meant that we could get the shuttle bus at 6.45am and have breakfast at the restaurant at 7am. We then walked over to the club and at 7.30am started to go through our own physical warm up so that we were ready to hit from 8 – 8.30am. As we watched Isa play yesterday, and played a practice set with him on Sunday, our warm up was based around what Ben would need to do to beat him. I mixed in a lot of higher balls as Isa has a very spinny forehand and also sliced a lot to Ben’s forehand as we knew that Isa rarely drives his backhand. After also warming up volleys, serves and returns Ben felt good and was ready for the match.

Due to the courts being a little wet the match didn’t start until 9.45am but as soon as it did Ben played a good game to break Isa’s serve to take a *1-0 lead. Ben was broken straight back in the next game and even though the next 3 games went with serve I felt as though the tactics Ben was using were excellent. He was much more aggressive than in his previous 2 singles matches; hitting 5 winners in the first 4 games and he was also prepared to move up the court whenever he got the chance. However, at *2-3 Isa raised his level considerably and started to produce a lot more winners from the back of the court. In response to that, Ben tried to hit a little more aggressively but it lead to too many unforced errors and at the next change of ends Ben was 5-2* down.

The rain then started and play was suspended which gave me a chance to talk to Ben. I explained that tactically he was doing the right things and his hitting level was very good so neither of those things needed to change. What did need to change was his consistency at the level he was playing at and Ben totally agreed.

At just after 11am the courts started to dry out so Ben and I went on court to hit a few balls so that he was completely warm when the match restarted and then at 11.30am play resumed. Ben lost his serve in the next game to lose the first set 6-2 but we both knew that the score line didn’t reflect how close the set actually was.

In the second set Ben again had an early advantage when he broke Isa at 1-1* and at 2-2* but on both occasions he couldn’t hold on to his serve in the next game. From 3-3* until *5-6 the set went with serve and despite Ben having numerous break point opportunities we wasn’t able to convert any of them due to the high level that Isa produced on the big points. Ben showed a lot of character throughout that period and not only did he deal well with not being able to convert his break points but he also saved a match point when he was serving at *4-5. At *5-6 Ben had a service game that he will want to forget; first an unforced error from the back of the court and then 3 double faults in a row handed Isa the match 6-2, 7-5.

Even though it was the best match that Ben had played on the trip, both of us know that he has got a higher level within him and maybe the determining factor with all of Ben’s matches has been how well he has been able to deal with the balls and the altitude. Most of the other players have found it difficult to play their games but Ben has really struggled with his serve and also his forehand following his forearm injury.

Once we had eaten lunch we walked back to the club and literally as we entered the clubhouse a heavy downpour started. After about 30 minutes of continual heavy rain the referee decided that the courts would not dry out and so he cancelled play for the day at 3pm.

While most of the players raced to try and get the 3pm shuttle bus back to the hotel, Ben and I went straight into the gym to make the most of the time we had this afternoon. Ben went through a good strength session and then had a long stretch out while I did some intervals on the running machine to keep my marathon training up to date. We both then got the 5pm bus back to the hotel to relax before dinner.

I’d been looking forward to tonight’s dinner all day as I remembered how good the chicken pie was last week and we weren’t disappointed even though the pasta that accompanied the chicken pie was not the best!

Once we got back to the hotel both Ben and I tried to get some work done but once again the internet is not working! Normally it’s ok once all of the players have gone to bed so hopefully I’ll be able to get the Blog online then.

Schedule for tomorrow:

Ben Stride (GBR) & David Volfson (CAN) vs Hubert Badenhorst (RSA) & Michael Copeland (RSA) – To Finish (6-4, 4-1*), Not Before 1pm

Due the possibility of David having 2 singles matches tomorrow there is only 1 doubles match scheduled.

South Africa U18 ITF Grade 2 (week 2), Day 3

Monday 10^th March 2014

It was a very good day today as Ben won his first round singles and is currently a set and 4-1 up in the doubles when rain stopped play.

We had our earliest start of the trip this morning when Ben and I met for breakfast at 6.15am. Due to the early start we had to have breakfast at the hotel rather than at the restaurant as breakfast only started there at 7am and that wouldn’t have given us enough time to warm up. The hotel breakfast was still good and it meant that by 7am we were at the club warming up for our 7.30am practice session.

We only had a short training session on court as we didn’t want to aggravate Ben’s arm before he played his match. We still went through everything that Ben needed to and included some specific work on Ben’s groundstrokes. The only thing we really cut short was the amount of serving and returning we did as that was the area that caused Ben the most discomfort.

After talking through Ben’s goals and tactics for the match, he went on court at just after 8.30am to play lucky loser Hubert Badenhorst from South Africa. Ben’s tall opponent looked a little dangerous in the warm up but after the first 3 games went with serve, Ben got a break and then took control of the set. Ben was hitting well from the back of the court and anytime that Hubert came into the net Ben passed him with excellent accuracy. The only bad game that Ben played in the set was when he served for the match at *5-1 but he responded professionally and broke straight back to take the set 6-2.

The second set was a little closer but I always felt that Ben was in full control of the match. At *1-1 a few too many unforced errors cost Ben his serve again but he again responded well and took the next 4 games in a row to lead 5-2*. The games up until that stage had been quite close so it was no surprise when Hubert held serve and then went break point up on Ben’s serve in the next game. Having worked on Ben taking his time between points and ‘re-setting’ after unforced errors over the past week, I was really pleased to see him do that in a match and I think that helped him to save the break points and close out the match 6-2, 6-3.

Having only had 1 singles match last week it was good to get through the first round this week and I’m sure as the tournament progresses Ben’s performances will get better and better.

Following his singles match I did want to get Ben straight on the practice court to work on a few specific areas but his arm was a little sore so we thought it was best to see the physio instead. We then watched the majority of his next round opponent’s match which saw Isa Mammetgulyyev come through a very close match with 7^th seed Xander Veys from Belgium. We trained with Isa yesterday and the boys had a very close practice set so we’re feeling confident going into the match tomorrow.

After a good lunch of chicken wraps and salad, we went back to the tennis centre to get ready for Ben and David’s first round doubles match. Ben saw the physio again to get his arm warmed up and strapped and then we hit for about 10 minutes just to test it out – Ben was actually hitting a great ball and he said his arm felt much better.

Boy’s Doubles Draw

At 1.30pm Ben and David went on to face Hubert Badenhorst (again!) and Michael Copeland from South Africa. Ben and David started unbelievably well and won the first 14 points in a row with some very good returning and very sharp volleying. They were in full control at *5-1 up but all of a sudden Ben was broken and then their opponents started to gain a bit of momentum. At 5-4* it looked as though Hubert and Michael were going to level the set but, for a third consecutive time, Ben and David won the sudden death deuce point to take the first set 6-4.

At the start of the second set the rain started to fall lightly but all four players were happy to continue so Ben and David didn’t waste any time in taking a 4-1 lead. They were back to playing like they did in the first five games of the first set but then the rain go a lot heavier and the referee stopped play.

As soon as the rain came down the referee announced that there would be no play before 4.30pm but soon after that the rain continued to get heavier so play was cancelled for the day. Rather than waste the afternoon, Ben and I went straight into the gym; I had a good run on the running machine while Ben did some light weights and then both of us had a long stretch out.

The rain was still pouring down as we waited for the 5pm bus back to the hotel but luckily we managed to get on the first bus back – it’s becoming a bit of a scrum-down to get on the shuttle buses this week but we seem to have our tactics sorted now!

At 6.15pm we headed off to dinner and even though neither of us was looking forward to chicken thighs and drumsticks, it was actually much nicer than last week – especially as we had some roast potatoes with it!

Schedule for tomorrow:

Isa Mammetgulyyev (TKM) (285) vs Ben Stride (GBR) (251) – 1^st match at 9am

Ben Stride (GBR) & David Volfson (CAN) vs Hubert Badenhorst (RSA) & Michael Copeland (RSA) – To Finish (6-4, 4-1*), Not Before 1pm

Winner of the Doubles to play either (3) Lloyd Harris (RSA) & Brandon Laubser (RSA) OR Tiago Cacao (POR) & Alessandro Ricci (CZE)

South Africa U18 ITF Grade 2 (week 2), Day 2

Sunday 9^th March 2014

It was the last day of training today before the main draw starts tomorrow and once again the hard work that Ben has been putting in on the practice court is showing in his performances.

To make sure Ben was fresh for tomorrow he had a lie-in this morning while I got up early to make sure we could book practice courts for the morning and the afternoon. Ben then met me at the club at 10.15am and after he had warmed up we went through a movement session for 15 minutes to make sure he was feeling sharp and ready to go for the training session. Jd Malan then joined us for the session which lasted just under an hour.

Ben carving into a slice backhand during the morning session

I always think that the player should dictate exactly what he / she does on the day before their match and after warming up, playing some points out of the hand and then finishing with a couple of service games each, Ben felt as though each area of his game was at the level he wanted it to be at.

Ben cooled down and stretched out after the session and then we headed over to Beef Boys Grill for our lunch. As hospitality didn’t start until this evening we were able to choose our lunch from the menu which we were both very happy about!

Our afternoon session started with a warm up at 2.40pm and then a very good point play session with Isa Mammetgulyyev from Turkmenistan at 3pm. Once the boys had warmed up they went straight into a set and even though Ben lost it 6-4 it was a very good throughout. His arm was a still feeling a slightly tight and so he was holding back on his serve a little bit but from the back of the court he was hitting very aggressively.

Ben and Isa mid-way through their set this afternoon

Once we were finished Ben saw the physio and then iced his arm before signing in for the main draw. We then cooled down and stretched out and, rather than waiting another hour for the next shuttle bus, we managed to get a lift back to the hotel with Dylan and his coach.

During the time we were at the hotel there was a massive thunderstorm that actually ended with huge hailstones coming down which set off car alarms in the car park! By the time we were ready to leave for dinner the car park outside the hotel and the main road was almost completely submerged in water!

Now that hospitality has started we’re back to not knowing what we will be served for dinner – tonight was beef stroganoff, I thought it was good but Ben wasn’t too keen!

When we arrived back at the hotel the draw had been done and the order of play was out but unfortunately the referee hasn’t sent it to me yet so I can’t upload it – here’s an unofficial copy!

Boy’s Singles Main Draw

Schedule for tomorrow:

Ben Stride (GBR) (251) vs (LL) Hubert Badenhorst (RSA) (895) – 1^st match at 8.30am

Doubles to follow in the afternoon after the draw has been made.

South Africa U18 ITF Grade 2 (week 2), Day 1

Saturday 8^th March 2014

It was a very good day of preparation today as Ben continues to improve and work hard on and off the court.

Over the last few days we’ve been up early each morning so, with the main draw only 2 days away, it was very important that Ben feels fresh and is well rested before he plays on Monday. With that in mind we decided that Ben would have a lie-in and would meet me at the courts after breakfast while I got up early and got in a good run for 1 hour 10 minutes.

At 10.30am we headed over to the school courts as all of the courts at the club were being used for qualifying. Ben then went through his physical warm up and then at 11am he went on court with his doubles partner, David Volfson, for a very good training session. The boys warmed up and then drilled for the first 25 minutes before going into a practice set to work on their games while playing under a bit of pressure.

Ben and David training today at the school courts

Ben’s serving was very impressive throughout the set this morning; his 1^st serve averaged 71% while the double faults that haunted him last week were reduced to just 1 in 5 service games. Ben was also much more aggressive from the back of the court and was only 1 winner short of our target of 10. After the set was finished David’s coach, Bruno, and I took on Ben and David in a match tie-break for the forfeit of ‘butts-up’. Bruno and I dominated the tie-break but somehow David and Ben managed to squeeze out an 11-9 victory – luckily their serves were off target on the ‘butts-up’!

Just as we were about to leave for lunch the French team decided to challenge us at some tennis football but it was anything but easy as the ball that Ben bought was more like a beach ball rather than a football!

While walking to the restaurant for lunch the Heavens opened and a huge thunderstorm came down but luckily by the time we had finished lunch and returned to the club the courts were almost dry.

At 3.30pm Ben warmed up again and then went on court with Jd Malan from South Africa for his second on court session of the day. The aim of the session was to again work on the quality of Ben’s groundstrokes as well as focus a lot on his return of serve and he did exactly that. The boys drilled for around 15 minutes before going into some points from the back of the court. They then warmed up some serves and finished the session with 2 service games each which again helped both of them to work on all of the areas of their games under a bit of pressure.

By 4.30pm we were finished so Ben went off to see the physio to loosen up his arm while I had a good stretch out on court. We then headed back to the hotel to shower and change before it was back to Beef Boy’s Grill for a good steak dinner!

South Africa U18 ITF Grade 2 (week 1), Day 8

Friday 7^th March 2014

Today was supposed to be our rest day and we had planned to spend most of the time at a lion farm but due to a mix-up with the tour company and the tournament, the tour only lasted about 2 hours!

Due to the tour leaving the hotel at 9.15am we had to be up reasonably early (much to Ben’s disappointment!) at 8am to get over to the restaurant for breakfast and then back in time to leave. The journey to the lion farm was only about 30 minutes and at the time we thought that was a bit quick as the itinerary had said over an hour.

When we arrived we met one of the owners on the family run farm and he started off by handing each of us one of the 8 week old cubs to hold. He then showed us around the site and fed some of the older cubs some chickens that had been donated from other local farms. The guide told us that the adult lions will either eat one chicken per day or if they have a dead cow or horse donated then that will last them around a week!

Some of our pictures from the lion farm today

Next we saw the two cheetahs that they had and we were very impressed at how fast the female sprinted off with her chicken while the male tried to catch her! Lastly we were taken across one of the pens to where the male lions were kept and again were treated to watching them devour their food for the day.

Once we got back to the entrance we thought that we had more things planned for the day but our driver said that was it and that he would now take us back to the hotel . . . at 10.45am!! It later turned out that the tour that was advertised was to another farm that was much further away so now we’re waiting for most of our money back!

Ben and I decided to have lunch at 12.30pm and then as his arm was feeling much better we would have a light hit in the afternoon. Well, as it turned out our session at 3pm lasted all the way through until just after 5.30pm! Ben’s arm was feeling good and so we just kept working on his goals until he felt as though he was happy with all parts of his game. We worked a lot on keeping his arm loose on his groundstrokes as well as finding a better balance of pace and spin on his second serve before going into a lot of points with only second serves. We then finished off with some work on attacking short forehands to end a really good afternoon’s training.

After a reasonably quick turnaround at the hotel, Ben, Jazz and I headed to the restaurant for a well deserve dinner of curried chicken pasta – sounds a bit strange but it was actually pretty good.

After a hard week of training and competing we visited the local gelato shop after dinner where Ben and Jazz had a well-deserved scoop of ice cream . . . or 3!

Jazz and Ben not wasting anytime with their ice creams!

That brings our first week here in Potchefstroom to an end and now our attention firmly shifts to the next two days of preparation before the main draw of the 2^nd week starts on Monday.

South Africa U18 ITF Grade 2 (week 1), Day 7

Thursday 6^th March 2014

Due to the tightness in Ben’s arm we didn’t get to train at all on court today but we watched some good tennis and had a good workout in the gym this afternoon.

After a little bit of a lie in we got the 8.30am shuttle to the restaurant for breakfast before walking to the courts so that Ben could see the physio again and we could also watch Katie Swan play her semi-final against Hana Mraz from Slovenia.

Both players fought hard and had to come back from being down in both sets but Hana eventually came through the match 6-4, 6-4. It was looking as though Katie was going to level the second set after fighting back from 5-2 down but Hana played a good service game to close out the match.

Ben and I had lunch at 12pm and then the plan was to see how Ben felt with a racket in his hand to see whether we could train at 2pm but, as we expected, his arm was still very sore so we decided to hit the gym.

While I had a long run on the running machine, Ben completed 15 sets of interval sprints, did some lower body strength work and finished with a core and stretching session. When I was finished I joined Georgie Axon and Anastasia Mikheeva in the ice bath; the girls decided to go for 10 minutes straight while I decided to do some contrast bathing which involved 6 sets of 1 minute in the ice bath followed by 3 minutes in the warm swimming pool. I’m not sure whose was more difficult; the girls with the constant cold or me contracting the muscles and then getting pins and needles every time the fresh blood flowed back in once I entered the warm water!!

After showering and changing at the gym, we returned to the hotel and then headed next door to the supermarket to get some fruit and some chocolate milk to help our recovery. It was then back off to Beef Boys Grill at 6.15pm for a very nice lasagne dinner before relaxing at the hotel for the rest of the evening.

We’re going to see how Ben’s arm is in the morning before deciding whether he can train or whether he needs a complete rest day. If he rests we have the option of going to a local Lion Farm in the morning . . . but that is weather dependant!!

South Africa U18 ITF Grade 2 (week 1), Day 6

Wednesday 5^th March 2014

Despite winning one round of doubles and then losing in the ¼ Finals, it was a good day and Ben produced some of his best tennis since we arrived.

We were up early this morning to try to get a good practice session in before the forecasted rain came down and our timing could not have been much better! We warmed up just after 8.30am and then from 9-10.30am Ben had a really good training session with Dylan Foo-Kune. Ben found a much more relaxed swing from the back of the court and by doing so he increased his racket speed which resulted in him being able to control the more aggressive shots much better. Ben’s serve was also much more consistent which is just what we wanted before his 1^st round doubles match.

Just as the boys were finishing the session the rain started . . . and it just kept getting heavier and heavier!

At 11am we decided to have an early lunch and then head back to the hotel rather than just sit at the club watching the rain come down! It also gave Ben a chance to complete some school work rather than having to do it in the evening when he’s got less time and is probably more tired!

At 3pm we headed back to the club to watch some of the singles matches including Katie, Maia and Anastasia’s ¼ finals. Maia and Anastasia had tight 3 set loses but Katie played very well and blew the number 3 seed away with a 6-1, 6-1 win.

Once Ben’s doubles partner had finished his singles match he had a short break to get some food before both boys got on court to warm up for their doubles match. Once again Ben was hitting well and we felt very positive going into the match against the 4^th seeds.

At 6pm Ben and David Volfson from Canada went on court to face Courtney Lock from Zimbabwe and David Pichler from Austria. The first and the second set went by very quickly even though they were short sets up to 4. Ben served really well in the first set and after breaking serve at 2-1*, Ben served the set out to take it 4-1. However, in the second set the energy that Ben and David had in the first set dropped a little while their opponents were really fired up which lead to Courtney and David taking the set 4-1.

It wasn’t looking good at 0-2 down in the match tie-break but an unbelievable pass down the line from David following Courtney’s 1^st serve really turned things around. From that point Ben and David won the next 5 points in a row to take a 6-2 lead and eventually they closed the set out 10-6. It was a good match to watch and I was really pleased that Ben put in a good performance against a good doubles team.

30 minutes later the boys were back on court for their ¼ final match against Ben Fatael from Israel and Jd Malan from South Africa. The first set was a little flat from both teams but it was Ben and Jd that managed to hold serve first after 5 breaks in a row to take the set 4-2. Ben and David then raised their levels both on return of serve and also when moving and finishing at the net which resulted in them taking the second set 4-1 . . . on to another match tie-break!

During the 2^nd set Ben hit a big first serve at 1-1 and suddenly is right arm tightened up. He initially thought that he had been stung by an insect and as the set went on it got tighter and tighter. During the match tie-break Ben struggled with both his serve and his smash but despite taking a 7-5 lead the boys then lost 5 points in a row to go down 4-2, 1-4, 10-7. It was a tough loss and I thought Ben and David played the better tennis but, like always in tennis, it’s not over until the last point and Ben and Jd kept fighting until the end.

Straight after Ben finished the match he headed over to see the physio who said that he was very tight through his shoulders and forearm which was probably due to trying to hit more spin on the ball to control it at this altitude. After about 20 minutes of treatment we walked over to the restaurant to get some dinner at just after 9pm.

It was a long day today but both Ben and I were pleased with the level of tennis he produced in training and in his two matches. Hopefully his arm will be ok in the morning so that we can build on the good work he has been doing and get him fully prepared for his next match on Monday.

South Africa U18 ITF Grade 2 (week 1), Day 5

Tuesday 4^th March 2014

It was a long day of watching the rain come down and fitting in some training between the rain showers before once again the doubles got cancelled.

Whilst Ben had a lie in this morning I was up at 6am to get the first shuttle bus over to the university so that I could run before breakfast. Despite the running machine switching off after only 30 minutes I eventually managed to complete a full hour and cover just over 7.5 miles with the help of watching the Karate Kid on my phone!

Once I had stretched, showered and changed I walked over to meet Ben at the restaurant for a well-deserved breakfast at 8.45am. As the rain was still pouring down we took our time over breakfast and then headed back to the club to find that it wasn’t raining there and the courts were starting to dry out!

By 11am the matches were on and, after watching some of Ben’s first round opponent play his next match, we got on court at 11.30am to warm up for our 12pm practice session. We only had the court booked for half an hour but in the end we trained for just over an hour and a half and managed to work on all of the specific areas that we had talked about from Ben’s match yesterday. We worked specifically on developing more controlled aggression on Ben’s groundstrokes before moving on to focus on him moving forwards and then ended the session by working on his 2^nd serve. It was a really good training session and hopefully gave Ben a lot more confidence playing aggressively at this altitude.

When we left the court the rain started again and so we decided to head to Beef boys to get some lunch. The lunch, like the dinner, changes every day and today it was fish and chips but because neither Ben nor I are a fan of fish we arranged at breakfast this morning to get chicken instead!

The rest of the afternoon was spent wondering if the courts would dry out before the next rain shower came along, but at 3.45pm it poured down again so play was cancelled for the day.

Click here to see the video of what we get up to during the rain breaks!

That gave us a chance to get into the gym at the university and have a good workout for an hour before the last shuttle back to the hotel at 5pm. Ben went through some band work before joining me (and the Loughborough university cricket squad who are touring in South Africa) on the lifting platform to complete some lower body work. We both then had a good stretch out before going back to the hotel.

It was a fairly quick turnaround before we were back out for dinner which tonight was chicken pie, spaghetti and another mountain of salad! We then returned to the hotel and Ben got stuck into some of his college work while I sat down to update the website and reply to some emails.

Schedule for tomorrow:

Ben Stride (GBR) & David Volfson (CAN) vs (4) Courtney Lock (ZIM) & David Pichler (AUT) – 4^th match, not before 1.30pm

South Africa U18 ITF Grade 2 (week 1), Day 4

Monday 3^rd March 2014

It was a rollercoaster of a first round match today for Ben against the number 3 seed and, after over 2 and a half hours in hot and windy conditions, the result unfortunately didn’t go his way.

As Ben was scheduled for 4^th match on we had breakfast just after 8.30am and then walked the short distance from the restaurant to the club at around 9am. We then supported the four British girls that were all scheduled first on until 10.30am when it was time for Ben to get warmed up for his practice session. Ben and I hit from 11 – 11.40am and went through the normal pre-match routine of warming up groundstrokes, volleys, smashes, serves and returns whilst reinforcing the tactics that would be needed for Ben’s match. Ben was striking the ball well during the session and has been looking good since the first day we arrived here so we had high expectations for his first round match.

Before we left site to get some lunch we secured a ‘not before time’ from the referee to make sure that Ben wasn’t called for his match while we were away and then, after a good buffet lunch of either chicken or steak wraps, it was time to go back to the courts to get ready for the match.

At 1pm Ben took to the court to face number 3 seed David Poljak from Czech Republic. Even though we had trained with David yesterday and knew exactly what to expect, the first few games didn’t go as planned!

Ben (left) and David (right) warming up for their match on the 2nd court

Ben was 40-15 up in the first two games of the first set but couldn’t take his chances and eventually went *0-3 down. Ben then settled down, increased his first serve percentage and fought hard to hold, break and hold again to level the set at 3-3*. Ben then broke David at 4-4* and, whilst serving for the set at *5-4, he was*30-0 up but a few double faults cost him the chance to close out the set. The boys eventually went into a tie-break and again it was Ben that looked in control at 5-3* but David came back to win the next 4 points in a row to take it 7-5.

Ben was obviously disappointed with the result of the first set, especially as he felt he should have closed it out whilst serving at 5-4, but at the start of the second set he reset and straightaway raced to a 4-0 lead. A lapse of concentration leading to 3 unforced errors cost Ben his serve in the next game but after saving break points at *4-2 he eventually held on to lead 5-2*. David continued to make life difficult for Ben and after holding and breaking at 5-3 it was left to Ben to break his opponent again to take the set … which he did to Love!

Both boys took a break at the end of the second set either to get some cold drinks or to use the toilet and when they returned they had to deal with the introduction of new balls. There is a massive difference out here between using new balls and ones that are 10-15 minutes old but Ben played a good service game to take a 1-0* lead. David then held to level the set and then two changes had a massive impact on the outcome of the rest of the match. Firstly the wind picked up out of nowhere and secondly David completely changed his game plan and started to stay in the rally from the back of the court rather than look to finish points at the net. Both changes caused Ben to suddenly become a lot more erratic and after 17 unforced errors in 4 games he found himself 1-4* down. Ben tried to increase his level but by this stage David had rediscovered his confidence and started to take the ball on again which resulted in him finally taking the match 7-6(5), 4-6, 6-2.

Ben was obviously disappointed with the loss and felt as though he should have won the match after being up in the first set but credit has to go to David who fought very hard throughout and his first serve percentage and winner count were the real difference in the match.

Once Ben had cooled down, stretched out and eaten some food we started to prepare for his doubles match but at 4.45pm the rain that had been threatening for a couple of hours suddenly started. That saw the end of play for the day and once again it was a scrum down to get the shuttle busses back to the hotel – luckily Ben and Jazz managed to squeeze into one while I ended up getting a lift back to the hotel in the back of a pick-up truck!

By 6pm we were all very hungry so decide to get to the restaurant early for dinner but unfortunately it wasn’t the best meal tonight both in terms of size and quality! We can’t complain too much as it is free hospitality but hopefully it will improve as the week goes on!

Boy’s Doubles Draw

Schedule for tomorrow:

Ben Stride (GBR) & David Volfson (CAN) vs (4) Courtney Lock (ZIM) & David Pichler (AUT) – 4^th match after 8.30am

South Africa U18 ITF Grade 2 (week 1), Day 3

Sunday 2^nd March 2014

Today was a very good final day of preparation which actually saw Ben train with his first round opponent tomorrow – at least we know a lot about him now!

After an early start yesterday, today was more relaxed and we headed over to breakfast on the last shuttle bus at about 8.30am. The breakfast was pretty similar to yesterday; the Rice Krispies were still a bit strange and the scrambled egg was very yellow but all in all it wasn’t bad!

While Ben warmed up at around 10am I decided to have a good stretch out to try and loosen up some tight quads and hamstrings from the run yesterday. We then headed onto court to train with David Poljak from Czech Republic and the introduction of some new balls had both players struggling from the start. Around 15 minutes into the session the boys found their range and the quality of the drilling remained high throughout the session. For the last 25 minutes the boys played a couple of match tie-breaks; Ben won the first one with some excellent serving and returning but David managed to take the second one despite it still being close.

Ben returning David’s serve during the points this morning

As the tie-breaks were very serve dominated we decided to finish the session with some points off the ground which gave Ben more of a chance to get into a rhythm from the back of the court.

At 11.45am we headed over to the gym to cool down and have a stretch out and then soon after we walked to ‘Beef boys’ for lunch. Ben didn’t fancy the pork chops again after yesterday and I wasn’t too keen on the creamy pasta so we opted for one of the best meals we’ve had since we arrived which was just two grilled chicken breasts and a couple of baked potatoes – happy days!

This afternoon Ben decided that he wanted to work on some specific areas of his game and as that’s not always possible when you are hitting with another player, I stepped up to train with him. We ended up being on court for just over an hour and by the time we finished the session with some points Ben was hitting very well – I’m still annoyed though that I didn’t close out our up to 11 when I was leading 5-1!!

Jasmine Asghar arrived this morning from London and after a short hit with another girl she came on court to hit with Ben for 20-25 minutes. It gave Ben a chance to hit a few more balls and also gave Jazz a bit more time on court to get used to the conditions before her first round tomorrow.

Ben & Jazz helping each other prepare for tomorrow’s 1st round matches

Once Ben had signed in and we’d both registered for our meals for the week we got a lift back to the hotel with Huibre and Louise Botes which did us a massive favour as otherwise we would have been waiting for ages for the shuttles to go backwards and forwards.

Dinner tonight was the first time that the restaurant had laid on a buffet and Ben, Jazz and I thought that the food was good. Others however, did not which meant that they made the shuttle driver stop at McDonald’s on the way back to the hotel – I won’t name names but I have no idea how players can eat that kind of food the day before their first round match!

Boy’s Singles Main Draw

Schedule for tomorrow:

Ben Stride (GBR) (247) vs (3) David Poljak (CZE) (93) – 4^th match after 8.30am

Doubles 1^st round not before 3pm (the draw will be released after the sign-in at 12pm tomorrow)

South Africa U18 ITF Grade 2 (week 1), Day 2

Saturday 1^st March 2014

It was another good training day today despite the heavens opening at lunchtime and qualifying having to be suspended for the rest of the day.

As qualifying started today we had to be up early to make sure we were guaranteed a full court to practice on this morning. That meant a 7.15am meet in reception and then breakfast at 7.30am at ‘Fine Things’ restaurant. Some of the other players had told us that on previous mornings the breakfast had taken ages but I think now that the tournament has started the people at both the restaurants know what’s expected! Ours was pretty quick and after some scrambled egg on toast and some strange Rice Krispies we were feeling reasonable satisfied!

By 8.30am we were at the tennis centre warming up and preparing for our 9-10am practice session with Dylan Foo-Kune from Mauritius. Ben once again hit the ball well throughout the session and it gave him another chance to get used to the altitude both in terms of the bounce of the ball and also in terms of dealing with a higher intensity training session. Ben and Dylan warmed up for 30 minutes before going into some point play to get some match practice. They each played a couple of service games and after some strong serving and solid returning Ben took a 4-0 lead before the players for the 10am session arrived and took the court.

Ben taking on a forehand during the points

After cooling down and stretching out we had planned to get over to lunch for 11.30am but all of a sudden the rain came pouring down! While we waited for it to pass I decided to check out the North-West University gym which is just by the running track behind the courts. The gym was very impressive and, once we can register to use the facility on Monday, we’ll be making the most of it both for Ben’s maintenance programme and also for his recovery between matches – I’m not sure Ben’s going to be keen on ice bath though!

The gym at North-West University here in Potchefstroom – very impressive (and this is about 1/4 of it!)

Lunch wasn’t the best today; Ben had pork chops which were more bone than Pork and I had a very creamy chicken tagliatelle! Once we were done it was back to the court to prepare for our afternoon session with Jay Clarke but just after the boys had finished warming up the wind suddenly picked up and once again the courts got flooded by the rain.

We stayed at the club for a while to see if the rain would ease up but at around 3pm the tournament director cancelled play for the rest of the day and arranged for the mini-buses to take the players back to the hotel. While Ben got the bus back to catch up on a little sleep I decided to go for a little run to keep up with my marathon training. Do you remember those sports fields I told you about yesterday? Well one lap of the fields is 1.15 miles so after 5 of those and the distance from the club to the hotel I ended up doing just over 7.5 miles in 55 minutes – not the quickest average minute / mile but after training in England in the cold I was quite pleased to get through it at this altitude!

The rest of the afternoon was spent relaxing at the hotel and getting more supplies at the supermarket before going off to dinner at ‘Beef boys’ at 7pm. Dinner was much better than lunch and by the time we’d both finished both we felt rather full!

When we got back to the hotel Ben got stuck into some A-Level PE coursework while I replied to some emails and updated the website.

Final day of preparation tomorrow and hopefully the weather will be kinder to us – the week ahead isn’t looking good though!

South Africa U18 ITF Grade 2 (Week 1), Day 1

Friday 28th February 2014

We had a very long 28 hours of travelling and training but now we have finally settled in to our hotel for the next two weeks in Potchefstroom, South Africa.

After travelling across London during Rush Hour (much to the annoyance of the other underground users who had to squeeze in next to my two big bags!), I eventually got to Heathrow Terminal 3 at 6.45pm and met up with Ben Stride. Ben is based at the WIN Tennis Academy at Bisham Abbey and even though I’ve been to many international tournaments that Ben has competed in, this will be the first time that I will be working with him.

Once we had checked-in, we got some food and not before long it was time to board our flight to Johannesburg. The flight didn’t start well as we were stuck at the gate waiting for someone to move a broken down trolley cart but as soon as we got in the air everything went smoothly. I managed to stay awake to watch ‘Captain Phillips’ and ‘Prisoners’ which were both very good films before settling down to get a few hours sleep.

We arrived in Johannesburg just after 10am but after clearing passport control and collecting our bags we had to wait just over an hour before we could get on our shuttle bus as we had to wait for some of the other players to arrive.

A nice welcoming sign at Johannesburg airport!

I was actually looking forward to the 2 hour journey from J’burg to Potchefstroom as I wanted to check out some of the local scenery … unfortunately I slept the whole way!

When we arrived at the hotel we checked-in, got showered and changed and then walked to the supermarket next door to stock up on water and supplies. Then at 3.30pm we got a lift with another player to the North-West University where the tournament is being held.

The facility is very nice and I was really pleased to see a couple of big sports fields next to the tennis courts which will hopefully come in handy as I continue my marathon training (I’m sure the altitude will help too!).

At 4pm Ben and I warmed up and then had a really good training session for almost an hour and a half. Playing tennis at altitude is very different to playing at sea-level; for a start the balls are pressureless (Ben was very impressed with the cardboard box they came in!) and they move through the air much faster than normal. Players can also find breathing a little more difficult and can get more tired during training but Ben actually found it quite easy to adjust. He was striking the ball well and after the first 5 minutes of hitting a lot long he found his range both while hitting a heavy ball and also while hitting much flatter. We spent around 45 minutes drilling from the back of the court before moving onto volleys and smashes and finally finished the session with a lot of serving and returning.

We left the court at 5.45pm and straight away saw the familiar faces of Lucie Ahl and the GB girls’ team who had just finished training for the day. It was good to catch up with Lucie, Katie Swan, Georgie Axon, Maia Lumsden and Anastasia Mikheeva in the mini-bus on the way back to the hotel and after a quick shower and change we went out to dinner with the girls.

Being a Grade 2 ITF event, the tournament offer full hospitality for main draw players and even though the tournament hasn’t started yet, we still have all of our meals included in the hotel room rate. Dinner tonight was at ‘Beef Boys’ restaurant and the food was good – hopefully breakfast tomorrow will be better than the girls said today’s was!

It’s been a long 28 hours but it’s good to be settled in and feel comfortable with all of our surroundings … bring on training for the next two days!

Prague U18 ITF Grade 4, Day 5

Thursday 23^rd January 2014

It was a disappointing final day of competition today in the Safina Cup as Holly and Sean Lodzki from Israel lost a very close 1^st round doubles match.

We had another early start so that we could get to the club to practice but luckily the tournament director took my advice and scheduled the practice sessions in 20 minute slots. That meant there was plenty of space for everyone to warm up for their matches and less pressure to get a court before the matches started at 9am.

Holly hit with Anastasia from 8.20 – 8.40am and both girls hit well throughout the session. Marcel, Anastasia’s coach, had to leave at 8.30am to get a flight back to Edinburgh but it’s been good to spend the week with a coach who shares similar philosophies and beliefs to me.

After the session it was time for some school work for the players while watching some of the tennis from the Australian Open. I also had lots to do as my mobile phone decided to die last night and also my email account decided that it didn’t want to receive any emails people had sent me!!

During the day we tried to get on a practice court a few times but the club members had booked all of the hard courts so it was just a case of watching some of the singles matches and making sure we were well prepared for the doubles.

Holly and Sean went on court at 2.45pm to face Karolayne Alexandre Da Rosa from Brazil and Emilija Kravtaite from Lithuania. Despite the match starting quite slowly, and the energy level on the court being quite low from all 4 players, Holly and Sean broke in the first game and went on to take a 2-0 lead. Holly’s serve was then broken at *2-1and it looked as though the match was about to get a lot tougher. However, our girls responded well and won the next 4 games in a row to take the first set 6-2.

Holly lining up for a big forehand during the 1st set

During the 2^nd set Holly and Sean upped their levels and started to talk a lot more which helped them to play the best 2 games of the match to go from *2-1 up to *4-1 up. Unfortunately, when it looked as though they were in full control of the match, they took their feet of the gas and started to play a lot more within themselves. There was less movement at the net and as the cross court rallies became more frequent it was obviously that their opponent’s confidence was growing. Holly and Sean were broken 3 times in a row and ended up losing 5 games in a row to go down 6-4.

Even though our girls had lost the second set I always felt as though if they could try and find a more aggressive level again then they would take the match tie-break. By this stage though Karolayne and Emilija were much more animated and were making most the balls that they had missed in the first set and a half of the match. With the score at *5-5 in the tie-break everything was looking close but then Holly and Sean fell *5-9 behind. They continued to fight and managed to claw the score back to *8-9 but a good point from their opponents saw them lose the match 2-6, 6-4, 10-8.

It was a really disappointing end to the week as Holly and Sean were in full control of the match at 6-2, 4-1 up but as always there were lots of things to learn from the match and I know the loss will make Holly even more determined to improve her game.

After dinner we said goodbye to Alex who flew back home tonight and Holly and I will return to England tomorrow evening. We won’t be taking it easy tomorrow though as we’ll be up at 6am again to get to the club and train from 7.30-9.30am before the matches start.

Overall the week has been tough in terms of results but very positive in terms of the players learning, developing and understanding what they now need to go home and work on before their next tournaments.

Until next time . . .

Prague U18 ITF Grade 4, Day 4

Wednesday 22^nd January 2014

After Alex’s tough match yesterday, Holly had an even tougher one today as she faced number 1 seed Vendula Zovincova from Czech Republic.

Due to the referee deciding yesterday he would release the practice sheet before he released the order of play, it meant that all the courts were booked out within 10 minutes. The crazy thing was that there were actually only 40 spaces available for 64 players to book for practice – same old story at these lower grade ITFs!! Tomorrow they’ve taken my advice and just allowed 20 minutes for practice – not ideal but at least everyone gets a court.

Even though everyone had booked the courts we knew that some players wouldn’t turn up so we arrived at the club at 7.40am and warmed up until just after 8am. Alex managed to jump on court with one of the Czech boys but Holly and I waited until 8.30am when a court became free. Just as we started to hit Anastasia arrived so she took my place which meant that I could be at Holly’s end of the court for the whole practice session. Holly had been hitting great all week and again she had a really good 30 minute warm up to prepare herself for her match.

The next 3-4 hours followed the same pattern as yesterday morning; I got on with some work on the computer while Holly and Alex either watched some of the matches or watched Murray vs Federer. As soon as the match before Holly’s went on court we sat down to discuss tactics and then kept a close eye on the score so Holly knew when to start her physical warm up.

Holly went on at 1.45pm and even from the warm up we knew it was going to be a really tough match. I had watched Vendula train with Anastasia on Monday but in the match she was even more focused and determined and it was no surprise that she is ranked 159 ITF and in the 800s WTA. Holly knew she would need to step up to the baseline in every rally and keep her opponent under pressure, but that was very tough against a good player. Vendula broke Holly 3 times in the first set to take it 6-0 and even though many of the games were close it was always the Czech who played the big points better.

Holly fought hard throughout and in the second set she started to take a few more risks which gave her more opportunities to win games. Unfortunately she couldn’t capitalise on those chances until she was 0-4* down when she broke her opponent for the first time. A combination of a higher level of hitting and moving forwards to take Vendula’s time away worked really well. At *1-4 Vendula raised her level again to break Holly and then hold serve to take the match 6-0, 6-1. It was similar to Alex’s match yesterday in terms of they both played opponents who played a better version of their own games. Both were tough results to take but hopefully Holly and Alex have a clear understanding of what they now need to work on in their games to move up to the next level.

After Holly had some time to herself, we talked through the match and then I was really pleased that Holly asked if we could get back on court to do some more training to find the level needed. Holly trained with Anastasia (who was still waiting to go on for her match!) for 20 minutes and then with me for a further 20-25 minutes before it got too dark in the bubble – and there was no way the club would turn the lights on for us as we weren’t allowed on the court in the first place!!

Once Holly had cooled down and stretched out we went back to the hotel and then it was a quick turnaround so we could get out to dinner early.

At 7pm we walked into the Old Town to finally see the real Prague and we were all really impressed by the medieval buildings and narrow lanes that lead down to the river. We then walked across Charles Bridge and took some photos before heading back to the hotel at around 8pm.

The Prague Astronomical Clock (left) & The Church Of Our Lady Before Tyn (right) in the Old Square

Holly & Alex by the Charles Bridge (left) & the view of the bridge from the riverside (right)

Prague Castle from Charles Bridge

Alex fly’s home tomorrow so he won’t be competing in the doubles but here’s Holly’s draw:

Girl’s Doubles Draw

Schedule for tomorrow:

Karolayne Alexandre Da Rosa (BRA) & Emilija Kravtaite (LTU) vs Holly Horsfall (GBR) & Sean Lodzki (ISR) – 4^th match after 9am, not before 2.30pm

Prague U18 ITF Grade 4, Day 3

Tuesday 21^st January 2014

It was a very difficult opening match for Alex today as he came up against a player who had an almost identical game to his own, but just executed it better.

Holly Horsfall always takes a great deal of pride in the fact that trip after trip she never gets any forfeits for either misbehaving on court or being late when we arrange a time to meet. In fact she’s only ever been late once and that was on the very first day of her first trip in Austria last January . . . until today!

Alex and I were at breakfast this morning at 6.45am but after 5 or so minutes there was no sign of Holly. I thought it was very unlike her to be late so maybe she thought we were meeting at 7am for breakfast. However when she turned up at 6.56am barely able to open her eyes and hair like a bird’s nest we knew she’s overslept!!

We left the hotel at 7.20am and, after a quick stop at the local shop to get some water, we made our way via the Metro to the club. Alex and I then warmed up together until we got on our scheduled practice court at 8.30am while Holly hit with Frederica Sema. Alex had a really good 30 minute practice session and was feeling very positive by the time we finished our time on court.

Over the next 4 hours I got stuck into some planning for some upcoming trips while Alex and Holly relaxed, got some lunch and watched most of the Djokovic vs Wawrinka match.

At 12.45pm Alex warmed up and we discussed tactics for the match before he went on court at just after 1.15pm to face Czech wildcard Daniel Velek. During the warm up it was obvious that both players were hitting well and had similar gamestyles, so it was looking like it could be a close match. However, after a tight opening game that was 12 points long, Daniel seemed to settle into his rhythm first and after holding his opening service game, broke Alex to take a *2-0 lead. Alex continued to stick to his game plan as he was hitting the ball well but he just needed a little bit more on each shot to keep his opponent from getting a big strike in during the rally. At *0-5 Alex managed to raise his game and held serve but Daniel served well in the next game to take the set 6-1.

At the start of the second set I was hoping that Alex would take a few more risks in the rally to try and get on top but after losing his opening service game it was always going to be tough. The second set overall was better than the first and Alex managed to hit 5 times more winners, but in doing so his unforced error count also increased. In the end Alex went down 6-1, 6-1 to a player who was just physically stronger and hit at a higher level more consistently than Alex could. There were still a lot of positives to take from the match and I think it was great for Alex to come up against a player who plays in a very similar way to how he does – the goal now is for Alex to raise his level in every match / training session he has from now on.

After the match I had some lunch and talked through the match with Alex. His analysis was excellent and we shared exactly the same thoughts on how he played and how he needs to now develop his game.

As soon as I had finished eating Holly was chomping at the bit to get on court so, even though I could still feel my chicken pasta, we took to the court! We played in one of the bubbles for around 25 minutes and to be honest Holly was giving me an absolute lesson! Her level was superb throughout and in the points there wasn’t much I could do! We then moved over to the other bubble which has 3 courts in it and is being used for the tournament but this time it was my turn to dominate the points! Overall we had a really good session and Holly was feeling great about competing tomorrow.

We left the tennis centre at 5pm and after showering and changing at the hotel we left for dinner at 6.30pm. Dinner was once again at Coloseum; Holly stuck with her standard meatball pasta while Alex went for the Ecuadorian prawns and I had a really nice chicken breast with rosemary potatoes – everyone was a winner!

After the meal I decided we should have a little walk to explore the local area and we came across The Church of St Ludmila in Peace Square:

Holly and Alex in Peace Square

*Interesting fact* – the church houses the tomb of St. Wenceslaus (as in the carol “Good King Wenceslas”)

By the time we got back to the hotel the draw was out:

Girl’s Singles Main Draw

Schedule for tomorrow:

(1) Vendula Zovincova (CZE) (159) vs Holly Horsfall (GBR) (799) – 4^th match after 9am, not before 12.30pm

Prague U18 ITF Grade 4, Day 2

Monday 20^th January 2014

It was another good day of preparation today and Alex had the benefit of watching the whole of his opponents match before they play each other tomorrow.

The only practice courts available at the club were between 8-9am this morning so instead of getting up unnecessarily early we decided to join Anastasia Mikheeva and her coach, Marcel, at the Sparta Club for training this morning.

After negotiating the Metro and avoiding getting ripped off by an overpriced taxi, we arrived at the Sparta Club at about 9.15am. The club is a National Training centre and the court that we warmed up on had huge posters of the victorious Davis Cup and Fed Cup teams from 2011 and 2012 – not a bad motivator for Holly and Alex. Once we had warmed up we went into another tennis hall where we met Anastasia and Marcel. We then had a really good hour of drilling and point play where both Holly and Alex found really good levels throughout the session.

At 11am we were finished and so got a taxi back to the tournament site where we had some lunch and caught up on the action from the Australian Open. Due to there not being any practice courts available until 7pm we spent the rest of the afternoon watching different matches until Alex’s opponents went on court.

The match was won by wildcard Daniel Velek from the Czech Republic and throughout the match Alex and I talked and made notes on how we would play against him in the next round. After the match Holly and Alex went into the gym to go through their injury prevention programmes and then stretched out to end their training day.

Alex completing his band work while Holly goes through her core programme in the background

Dinner tonight was once again at Coloseum and it was another excellent meal; Holly and Alex stuck with the pasta while I gave the chicken pizza a try!

When we had finished dinner we went to the supermarket to stock up on some supplies for tomorrow and then headed back to the hotel to relax before having an early night.

Schedule for tomorrow:

(2) Alex Hagon (GBR) (821) vs (WC) Daniel Velek (CZE) (UNR) – 4^th match after 9am

Prague U18 ITF Grade 4, Day 1

Sunday 19^th January 2014

Welcome to the first Blog of 2014!

Last year was fantastic and hopefully this year will be even better as I try to help more players develop their games, gain more experience and increase their rankings.

For the first trip of the year I am joined by Alex Hagon and Holly Horsfall but the 7am meet at Gatwick airport this morning wasn’t necessarily something either of them had been looking forward to! Anastasia Mikheeva will also be joining the team on Wednesday but for now it is just the three of us!

Everything went smoothly as we left Gatwick and an hour and forty minutes later we arrived in Prague. For most of the flight I had my head down reading Court Confidential by Neil Harman which is a brilliant insight to the things you don’t necessarily read about on the Pro Tour – thanks Holly Hutchinson for a great Christmas present! However, as we started our descent I closed my eyes for a quick 10 minute nap and when I woke I had both Alex and Holly giggling at the pictures they had taken of me while I was asleep – cheers guys!

We were met at the airport and taken on a little tour of Prague before arriving at our hotel for the week. 15 minutes later we had all changed and were out the door walking to the Metro station to get a train to the club.

The I.Ceský Lawn Tennis Club is one of the most prestigious clubs in Prague and is situated on a little island in the middle of the city:

Unfortunately in 2002 a huge flood hit the city and the tennis club took the brunt of it:

After we arrived and had a look around the club, Holly and Alex warmed up and then had a really good training session for one hour on the permanent indoor courts. Holly has a few days to get used to the courts and the environment but as Alex is playing in Qualifying it was important that he found a good level as soon as possible. Within 10 minutes Alex was striking the ball very well and he maintained a high level all the way up until we played points at the end of the session … when he played even better!

Alex serving during our first training session today

At 5pm Holly had a 30 minute break before she was back on court for her last session of the day with Frederica Sema from Italy. While Holly trained, Alex signed in, cooled down and stretched out before joining us on court until the end of the session.

When Holly had cooled down and changed we headed back to the hotel to shower before it was time for dinner – I was very impressed with Holly getting ready in 20 minutes, normally the girls take forever!!

We had dinner tonight at Coloseum which is an Italian pizza and pasta restaurant just down the road from our hotel. The food was superb and so I think we could be going back there a few times this week!!

Just after we had finished dinner the draw was released; Alex is seeded 2 in qualifying and due to a bye in the first round he will now play his first match on Tuesday.

Boy’s Qualifying Draw

ABOUT I.t.c.

Since 2010 my aim has been to make it more affordable to travel to international tournaments with a coach. Over the past 20 years I have coached players at over 250 international tournaments ranging from U12 Tennis Europe events to a semi-finalist at a Grand Slam.

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Blog Archive 2014

Monday 17th November 2014

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Sunday 16th November 2014

Saturday 15th November 2014

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Friday 14th November 2014

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Sunday 12th October 2014

Saturday 11th October 2014

Friday 10th October 2014

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Thursday 9th October 2014

Wednesday 8th October 2014

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Tuesday 7th October 2014

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Monday 6th October 2014

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Sunday 5th October 2014

Saturday 4th October 2014

Friday 3rd October 2014

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Sunday 6th July 2014

Saturday 5th July 2014

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Friday 4th July 2014

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Saturday 31st May 2014

Friday 30th May 2014

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Thursday 29th May 2014

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Wednesday 28th May 2014

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Tuesday 27th May 2014

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Monday 26th May 2014

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Saturday 24th May 2014

Tuesday 13th May 2014

Monday 12th May 2014

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Sunday 11th May 2014

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Saturday 10th May 2014

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Thursday 8th May 2014

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Tuesday 6th May 2014

Monday 5th May 2014

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Sunday 4th May 2014

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Saturday 3rd May 2014

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Friday 2nd May 2014

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Thursday 1st May 2014

Thursday 10th April 2014

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Wednesday 9th April 2014

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Tuesday 8th April 2014

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Monday 7th April 2014

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Sunday 6th April 2014

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Saturday 5th April 2014

Friday 4th April 2014

Thursday 3rd April 2014

Wednesday 2nd April 2014

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Tuesday 1st April 2014

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Monday 31st March 2014

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Sunday 30th March 2014

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Monday 17^th November 2014

Sunday 16^th November 2014

Saturday 15^th November 2014

Friday 14^th November 2014

Sunday 12^th October 2014

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Thursday 9^th October 2014

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Saturday 29^th March 2014

Wednesday 12^th March 2014

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Thursday 6^th March 2014