Colombo U18 ITF Grade 4, Day 3

Sunday 13^th October 2013

We had another great day of preparation today despite another wet start and Alex and Holly are all set for main draw to start tomorrow.

The players had a lie-in this morning following a few days of getting up early, but when we met for breakfast at 8.30am we realised that it rained overnight and so we knew the clay courts would be out of action. We called the tournament referee to check the situation with the courts but he said that they would not be fit to play on until at least midday so I gave the players the option of either resting for the morning or training on the court at the hotel. Holly decided to rest while Alex wanted to train so at 10.30am we went into the gym to warm up for the session.

Alex and I went on court at 11am and spent just over an hour going through a few specific goals to tighten up his game before we went into a lot of points. Even though there was a swirling wind and we had the hotel generator going off behind the court, it was still a very beneficial session.

When we were done we returned to the apartment to shower and change before heading down to the pool restaurant for a really good buffet lunch. The selection of food was fantastic; there was a meat station, pasta station plus a lot of local food and then the dessert selection was probably bigger than at dinner – shame we didn’t try it though! The highlight of the meal though had to be watching Alex do his forfeit when he lost at cards:

We headed over to the club at 1.30pm and after our routine visits to the physio we went on court at 2.45pm. Even though we had one of the back courts booked for practice we managed to get on the match courts for around an hour which was great preparation for the players. Holly Hutchinson and Charlie Ridout joined us which meant that I could spend the whole time with Alex and Holly rather than hitting from the other end of the court. The aim for the session was for both players to get a good feel for the ball and get used to the courts again which they did really well.

At 4pm our time was up on the court and even though we had another court booked for practice, Alex and Holly felt as though they were ready for their matches tomorrow so we finished our training for the day. We headed back to the hotel and then went to the pool for a recovery session before having a thorough stretch out.

Alex was up for a bit of revenge over dinner after his wet forfeit earlier in the day but as it turned out he lost two games, I lost one and Holly lost zero – she must be hooking!! That meant Alex and I had to wear our napkins as bandanas on our heads for the entire meal and then Alex had to skip around the restaurant while thanking all the staff before we left!!

After dinner we returned to the apartment to watch a bit of TV before everyone had an early night to prepare for the matches tomorrow.

Schedule for tomorrow:

(SE) Roma Chandiran (IND) (UNR) vs Holly Horsfall (GBR) (1460) – 2^nd match after 9am

Alex Hagon (GBR) (1331) vs Jeffery Hsu (TPE) (1160) – 3^rd match after 9am (not before 11.30am)