Tuesday 3rd May 2011
It was a tough day on court today as Devan took on 9th seed Clementina Riobueno De Paola from Venezuela.
It was the same start to the day as it’s been for the past few days; 7.45am breakfast, 8.50am leave the hotel, 9.10am physical warm up and 9.30am pre-match warm up. Devan was hitting the ball great from the back of the court in the warm up but unfortunately we got interrupted after 15mins by the local senior ladies team who needed the court for their squad session!! We managed to get on another court to finish the warm up and everything was looking good leading into the match. We then went through our pre-match talk and set up our goals for the match as well as set the game plan based on the match we saw her opponent play yesterday.
The girls went on around 12pm and from the start it was obvious it was going to be a tough match up for Devan. Clementina had raised her level from yesterday and was finding a much better depth and weight on her forehand which was really kicking up off the clay and making it difficult for Devan to take control of the point. Devan had improved her level from her first round match and was being more aggressive but struggled to find the consistency that she needed to be effective against a tough clay courter. At 0-3 Devan did well to break back but couldn’t hold on to the break and Clementina held and broke again to take the first set 6-1. In the first three games of the second set Devan found a really good level but her opponent matched her shot for shot and just played the bigger points better. Devan kept on fighting hard and at 0-3 she held for the first time and then held again at 1-4 but just couldn’t do enough on her opponents serve to get the break back. Unfortunately Devan played a cheap game at 2-5 to go down 6-1, 6-2 but credit has to go to her opponent who only missed 16 balls in the whole match and was obviously very comfortable and confident on the clay.
While Devan was cooling down, showering and stretching out I checked out some of the other girl’s matches to make some notes ready for Devan to meet them over the next two weeks. When Devan was done we left site and to get some food and then later in the afternoon, once the match had been digested by both of us, we went through it in detail. Devan responded well to the feedback and what’s great about this trip is we can now work on areas of her game over the next few days in preparation for the next event and then continue that work through the second week and into the third week as well.
Tomorrow storms are forecast over Florida so it’s going to be an early start to get a good couple of hours in on court and then the plan is to head to the beach in the afternoon for a fitness session on the sand.
