Czech Republic U18 ITF Grade 4, Day 2

Monday 18th January 2016

It was a disappointing day today as Toby not only lost in the first round of Qualifying but he also picked up an injury to his ankle which had a big impact on the way he played.

We met for breakfast this morning at 6.45am and then left for the 15 minute walk to the tennis centre at just after 7am. Since yesterday Toby and I have been having a little bet as to who will be the first one to fall over on the snow / ice on the way to the club and after slipping 3 times I was very lucky to stay on my feet!

When we arrived we went straight to the courts in the main building and warmed up for 30 minutes before getting on court for our scheduled 20 minute practice session. Normally players are allocated 30 minutes for practice but due to 62 players needing to warm up for their matches today, and only 6 courts available, they reduced the time to 20 minutes each. That amount of time was plenty for us though and by the time we finished at 8.15am Toby was feeling good and striking the ball well.

For the next couple of hours we relaxed at the club, watched some of the Australian Open and got Toby ready for his opening match. Then at 11.55am Toby went into the bubble on Centre Court to face Jiri Lehecka from the Czech Republic.

Toby started the match well and having struggled to hold his serve in his first service game of each set last week, I was pleased to see him come through a tight game at *0-1. Unfortunately he was broken at *1-2 and soon found himself *1-4 down but at that stage he dug deep and started to raise the level of his game. He held a very long 14 point game at *1-4 and then that boost of confidence helped him to assert his own game on his opponent which led to Toby hitting 3 winners in the next game to break back. After another good service game Toby levelled the set at 4-4* and even though Jiri held in the next game Toby’s momentum continued with 2 more games in-a-row to take a *6-5 lead. It was in the next game that Toby landed awkwardly from a first serve and felt something pull in his left Achilles. His serve was subsequently broken and despite leading 6-3 in the tie-break he ended up losing it 8-6.

At the end of the set Toby called the physio to the court and after 15 minutes of treatment and taping he went back out for the 2nd set – it should have only really been 3 minutes but the physio had to run to her car to get some more tape!

It was obvious that Toby was concerned about his ankle in the 2nd set and at *0-4 down things were not looking good. He continued to try his best though and managed to hold serve twice before eventually going down 7-6(6), 6-2.

It was a very disappointing result and I really felt for Toby as I know that, even after losing the 1st set, if he had been fully fit then he would have won that match.

After the match Toby iced his Achilles and then got some treatment from the physio who said that he needs to rest it and see how it is in the morning before making a decision on whether to stay for doubles or not.

We left the club at around 4pm and got some food before returning to the hotel to relax until we were hungry enough for dinner. It was then back to ‘Capua’ at just after 7pm for another nice meal.

We will see the physio again in the morning and then make a decision on whether we are staying to sign-in for the doubles or returning home to get some treatment there.

So if the Blog is not up by tomorrow evening then you know we’re not in Prague anymore!