Saturday 16th July 2022
We had another good, although rather long, day at the Dubrovnik Dub Bowl today but, like with most tournament trips, when you get towards semi-final’s and final’s day there’s always a few curve balls that get thrown at you!
Normally when you get towards the end of a tournament week courts open up for practice as there are less players involved in the event. However, today there were 43 matches scheduled with the first ones starting as normal at 8am. That meant that, even though Isla was scheduled in the 9th round of matches, she still needed to practise at 7am if she wanted to get a hit in before she played.
Despite Taylor being out of both of his events he was still very keen to train early in the morning so we all met as normal at 6:45am and were on-court hitting by 7am. Our focus during the practice was obviously doubles specifics so, once both players had warmed up, I mixed in to set up different doubles situations. By 8am Isla was very happy with her level so we finished and swept the court ready for the first round of matches.
As I said earlier, once we get to the end of the week things logistically get a little tricky. Often I will book both accommodation and flights for the evening of semi-final’s day so that:
1) the players /parents save a little money if they have lost earlier in the tournament
and
2) they are not waiting around without matches to play until a flight on final’s day
The downside to this is an example like today; if Isla was to play and lose we could in theory get our scheduled 9:05pm flight back to London. But we would have to check out of the apartment at 10am and then have nowhere to store our bags etc. or have anywhere to relax away from the tournament site. So I decided we would extend the apartment for 1 night and then wait to see what time the players go on for their doubles before I decide if I’ll change the flights – lots to consider!!
It was therefore a long day of trying to relax at the apartment, watching some of the semi-final singles matches and at the same time trying to judge when they would go on for their doubles. At 5:15pm we said goodbye to Taylor and Lex as they got a taxi to the airport and then at just after 6pm Isla and Amina took to the court for their doubles quarter-final match against Korana Barisic & Ana Marija Rebic from Croatia.
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Warming up before the 1/4 Final
As expected, the Croatians had lot of vocal support but it was Isla and Amina who got an early break to lead 2-1 in the first set. They were playing some excellent doubles together and both girls were controlling the net which was one of the main differences between the two pairs. Isla and Amina took the first set 4-1 and played superbly well to take a 3-1 lead in the second set but then things started to change!
At 4-1, 3-1 sudden death deuce Isla missed a volley and suddenly the Croatian crowd erupted! The next game also went to sudden death deuce and once again it went the way of Korana and Marija so within a 2-3 minute period the momentum of the match had completely turned.
The tie-break was always going to be a tough one but Isla raised her level from the beginning and Amina followed suit. They got back to the level they played at in the first set where the baseliner was hitting aggressively and setting up their partner at the net which led to them taking 3 points in a row at 3-3 and then securing the match 4-1, 4-3(4).
Both girls were very happy after the match and all the waiting around and making changes to flights / accommodation was worth it!!
After a week of being part of a team it was a much quieter dinner tonight as it was just Isla and I but we were both very happy with Isla’s performance and now our attention turns to Final’s Day (well … semi-final’s first!) tomorrow.
Schedule for tomorrow:
Mariia Shybanova (UKR) & Antonia Zielinska (POL) vs Amina Nurmakhan (KAZ) & Isla Smith (GBR) – not before 10:30am
Winner to play the Final later in the day.
