Dubrovnik Dub Bowl, Day 2

Monday 11^th July 2022

We had a really good first day at the Dubrovnik Dub Bowl today which started with an early morning practice, ended with the Opening Ceremony and had a couple of matches in-between!

We woke up this morning at 5:45am to the sound of very strong winds but once we walked down to the courts at 6:30am the wind had died down and was replaced by a beautifully clear and calm morning. Isla and Taylor went through their own physical warm up together and then just before 7am we started our practice.

At most international tournaments there is a booking system for practice but here it is just ‘first come, first served’ so it was important that we arrived early to secure a good pre-match warm up before the matches started at 8am.

Isla and Taylor hit for around 45 minutes and it was clear that the hour and a half session yesterday had really helped them to get used to the courts as well as their movement on the surface. Both of them hit well and by the time we came off court they were ready for their first group matches.

Between 8am and when Taylor went on at around 10:30am we went back to the apartments to get some food and then met back up at the club to go through the preparation for their matches. Isla and Taylor have a ‘player pack’ that they need to complete throughout the week which includes pre and post-match analysis sheets, trip goals, morning and evening check lists and also warm-up and cool down routines. This is not just to give them extra work to do but to help them take ownership of their training and assist them when they reflect on their matches.

Taylor’s first match was against Luka Juric from Croatia and, having not seen him play before, we had no idea what to expect! Despite this being Taylor’s very first international match, he looked very confident walking on the court and as soon as the match started he broke Luka’s served comfortably. Taylor then had a bit of a shaky service game of his own but after being broken he responded by winning the next 3 games in a row to take the first set 4-1.

Taylor continued to be aggressive from the back of the court in the second set and kept the momentum going to win the first two games of the second set. At 2-0 with Taylor serving, Luka raised his level and played his best game of the match to break serve. Taylor wasn’t fazed though; he broke straight back and then held serve on a sudden death deuce point to take the match 4-1, 4-1.

Once Taylor had cooled down, stretched out and got some food to eat, he completed his post-match sheet and then we debriefed together.

It wasn’t too long after Taylor had finished that Isla was on for her first match against Noemi Nogradi from Hungary. From the warm-up it was very obviously that Noemi was a good player but it was Isla that started the stronger out of the two players as she broke Noemi in the first game. She then played an excellent service game of her own to hold and take a 2-0 lead. At this stage Noemi changed her gamestyle a little and started to give Isla a little less pace while also moving her a lot more around the court. Because of this the rallies became much longer and, with temperatures reaching almost 30 degrees, it was starting to get very tricky on court for Isla!

The level for the rest of the first set remained high from both players; Isla was dictating play with some heavy hitting from the back of the court but Noemi was very effective in neutralising Isla’s shots and then adding pace when needed. This resulted in Noemi winning 4 games in a row to take the set 4-2.

The pattern continued in the second set and, even though Isla was playing some excellent tennis, she just couldn’t find a way to finish the points off. Noemi took a 2-0 lead in the second set and then really raised her level to fire off 6 winners in the next 2 games to take the match 4-2, 4-0.

Despite the result, it was a very positive performance from Isla and one that she will definitely learn a lot from in terms of playing on clay and also playing a girl who is very solid on the surface.

After the match Isla cooled down and stretched out and then we went back to the apartment to get ready for dinner and then the Opening Ceremony.

All of the players met at the tennis centre at 6:45pm and were introduced to the main court country by country. Sometimes the opening ceremony at these events can be rather long-winded and boring for the players but they did it well here and by 7:15pm we were leaving for an early night.

Schedule for tomorrow:

Taylor Daniel (GBR) vs Samuil Pironkov (BUL) – 4th match on after 9am

Ageha Ogawa (JPN) vs Isla Smith (GBR) – 7th match on after 9am