Dubrovnik Dub Bowl, Day 3

Tuesday 12^th July 2022

It was another good day of training and competition in Dubrovnik today and despite it being quite a long one, we did still manage to celebrate my birthday a little bit!

It was another bright and early start for the team as we were at the main tournament site by 6:45am but everything seems to be a little easier at that time in the morning when the sun is shining and it’s already 22°C!

Isla and Taylor went through their individual physical warm-ups and then we did some movement drills in the speed ladder before they got on court at 7am to start hitting. Both of their levels of play have improved hugely in just two days and that is because the clay court teaches them so much. I’ve said in the past that the clay court is like an assistant coach because if the players do not adapt quickly to it then they can really get stuck in the wrong positions playing the wrong types of shots!

As the players were not on until much later in the day we decided to train for a full hour and not only go through a standard warm-up but also work on a few specifics that came from their matches yesterday.

We finished training when the matches started at 8am and then, after a brief trip back to the apartments to get some more breakfast, we headed over to the tournament’s second site (Tenis Klub Dubrovnik) to get ready for their matches.

Taylor went on court at just after 11:30am to face Samuil Pironkov from Bulgaria. Taylor had been hitting well over the past couple of days but today he found it quite difficult to maintain a high level of consistency against a good aggressive baseliner. Taylor was broken in the first game and then had a very close second game which he lost on a sudden death deuce point. I was thinking at this stage that the set could be over very quickly but, to his credit, Taylor fought hard in the next game to hold serve (after another sudden death deuce point). Unfortunately Samuil stepped up his level and fired off 4 winners in the next two games to take the set 4-1.

The second set was much more one-sided and even though Taylor was trying to play the right way, he just wasn’t able to execute like he did yesterday and he ended up losing 4-1, 4-0.

It was a tough loss but, in the same way as Isla’s match yesterday, he will definitely learn a huge amount about how to play and more importantly how to respond in certain situations from this match.

We then had a long wait at the club with very little to do until Isla went on court at just before 4pm to face Ageha Ogana from Japan. We had seen Ageha play yesterday and so we had a good gameplan and Isla had specific goals that she wanted to achieve during the match. Isla started off very strong and despite losing the first game on a sudden death deuce point, she responded perfectly to win the next 4 games in a row to win the set 4-1.

After the first set Isla was in full control of the match and by being so, I wanted to see her level push on a little more but that was difficult for her to do today. She was a little wary that her Japanese opponent could raise her level and so she played it a little too safe in the second set despite dominating it 4-1.

When Isla was 2-1 up I sent Taylor off to warm up and then as soon as Isla finished we went straight on court to do some training. The three of us had a really good 45 minutes where both Taylor and Isla found much higher levels of hitting than during their matches. By the time we were kicked off the court by the local club programme, they were both much happier and were feeling much more prepared for their final group matches tomorrow.

We celebrated my birthday with a team dinner next door to the club and then we got a taxi back to the apartments at 6:30pm. It was then time for a phone call home to talk to my wife and son before preparations started for tomorrow’s matches!

Schedule for tomorrow:

Taylor Daniel (GBR) vs Gustavs Gutans (LAT) – 1^st match on after 8am

Raya Markova (BUL) vs Isla Smith (GBR) – 7^th match on after 8am