Colombo U18 ITF Grade 4, Day 4

Monday 14^th October 2013

Today was one of those days where the players can reflect on their training over the past few months and know that the hard work they’ve put in was definitely worth it. It was also a day when, from a coach’s perspective, I’m glad that I’ve got two very hard working and mentally tough players on the trip.

Breakfast this morning was at 6.45am so that the players had a bit of time to let the food digest before they warmed up at the club at just after 8am. After negotiating a couple of half courts to practice on, Alex hit with Kerim while Holly hit with Holly Hutchinson and even at 8.30am the temperature was already very warm.

All four players had a good practice and at 9am we went back to the clubhouse so that my players could complete their pre-match sheets and discuss their match goals and tactics.

At 11.15am Holly went onto court 4 to face Roma Chandiran from India and having played her last week in the doubles and, having watched Holly Hutchinson beat her last week in the singles, she knew exactly what to expect. Holly broke in the first game with some excellent play from the back of the court but in the following 4 games she completely lost her way and ended up hitting far too many unforced errors. At 1-4 Holly became a lot more aggressive and by taking the ball on more she actually became more consistent. That resulted in her winning 3 out of the next 4 games to get back on serve at *4-5. Holly then had a very close service game and ended up saving 2 set points before holding, breaking and holding again to take the set 7-5.

Holly continue to build on the momentum that she had gained in the first set and raced to a 4-0* lead in the second set. However, she then took her foot off the gas and allowed Roma to work her way into the set. That resulted in Holly losing the next 3 games but at *4-3 she refocused and worked very hard to take 2 of the next 3 games to take the set 6-4.

The match lasted just over 2 hours and it was a very hard fought battle from start to finish – Roma played very well and Holly had to dig deep in both sets in order to close out the match.

While Holly was 5-5 in the first set, Alex went on to face Jeffrey Hsu from Taipei on the court next to Holly. Jeffrey had won the doubles event last week so we knew it was going to be a tough match but Alex was definitely up for a battle.

After going 2-0 down Alex found his range and broke straight back before holding for the first time to level the set at 2-2. The set then went with serve but there were a lot of ups and downs in each game; Alex had to dig deep to hold onto his serve on a couple of occasions but he also put a lot of pressure on Jeffrey when he was returning. That resulted in Alex breaking at 5-5* and despite having to have treatment on a sore shoulder in the middle of the set he served it out well to take the set 7-5. The whole set was extremely close but Alex produced some world class shots when under pressure and fought very hard throughout.

At the start of the second set Alex got an early breakthrough and at 3-1* up he looked completely in control while his opponent looked like he was almost finished. However, at this stage it looked as though the heat had got to Alex; his level dropped significantly and Jeffrey took full advantage by winning the next 4 games in a row. Alex then found a way to break Jeffrey while he was serving for the set and that gave Alex a big lift resulting in him holding serve to level the set at 5-5*. By this stage both players were feeling the effects of the heat and after they both held serve we were into a tie-break to decide it. Despite knowing that Alex was feeling very tired he gave the impression that he was fresh and raced to a 5-0 lead in the breaker. Jeffrey tried to slow Alex down and was taking well over 20 seconds between points but Alex stayed very strong and ended up taking the tie-break 7-4 on his 3^rd match point.

Both Holly and Alex performed well today but more importantly they worked very hard throughout their matches and showed their opponents that they were not going to roll over when things got tough.

Unfortunately the doubles draw came out while Alex was on court and he and Kerim were one place away from getting in due to Kerim being in the singles main draw via a wildcard. They were 15^th team on the list and only 14 + 2 wildcards get accepted – hopefully they might get in as an alternate pair tomorrow.

Once Alex had come off court he saw the physio for some treatment on his shoulder and then we went back to the hotel. He then had an ice bath to help his recovery before we all got some well-earned lunch.

After stretching out, Holly and Alex spent some time relaxing in the swimming pool and then not before long it was time to get ready for dinner.

It’s going to be a long day tomorrow but hopefully both players will show the same levels of effort and determination that they showed today.

Schedule for tomorrow:

Alex Hagon (GBR) (1331) vs (8) Phillip De Bruyn (RSA) (878) – 1^st match at 9am

Holly Horsfall (GBR) (1460­) vs (2) May Wanvisa Thurakitseree (THA) (467) – 3^rd match after 9am

Holly Horsfall (GBR) & Holly Hutchinson (GBR) vs (3) Pei Hsuan Chen (TPE) & Fang-Hsien Wu (TPE) – 5^th match after 9am