Dubrovnik Dub Bowl, Day 8

Sunday 17^th July 2022

It’s Final’s Day!

After a long week of training, competing, learning, fun, a few tears but lots of improvement from the whole team it’s always nice to be involved in the event on Final’s Day (even if it is to play a semi-final first!).

We had a bit more of a lie-in this morning as the finals didn’t start until 9:30am which meant that we could practise for an hour beforehand. With that in mind we left our bags all packed up in the apartment and got down to the courts for just after 8am to make sure we secured a practice court.

Isla had a really good session this morning; she was looking extremely sharp at the net and was serving very well so we finished around 9:15am so we could sweep the courts ready for the finals. We knew there would be a little bit of waiting around today so I left Isla at the club to watch the singles final while I walked back up to the apartment to get the bags and meet the owner to check out.

Isla and Amina went on court at 10:30am to face Mariia Shybanova from Ukraine and Antonia Zielinska from Poland. Isla and Amina broke serve in the first game and were 1-0, 30-0 up serving when their opponent’s levels suddenly went up a few gears and soon they found themselves 1-3 down. A little like in yesterday’s 1/4 final, Isla and Amina then started to play much more aggressive tennis to win the next 2 games and lead 4-1 in the tie-break but Mariia and Antonia were not about to roll over. They won the next 5 points in a row to take a 6-4 lead and have 2 set points but once again Isla and Amina showed great character to fight back at take the breaker 9-7.

It was a big turnaround both at 1-3 down in the set and at 4-6 down in the tie-break and Isla and Amina continued the momentum they had built up to take the second set 4-1. It was their best doubles win of the week so far against a very good pair but we knew that the opponents in the final were going to be even tougher as they would include one of the girls that made the singles final.

After the match we had quite a bit of waiting around to do as the tournament decided to do the singles presentation before the other girl’s doubles semi-final. That meant that the other semi didn’t go on until around 2pm and then the final didn’t start until almost 4pm.

In the final Isla and Amina were set to face Raya Markova from Bulgaria (who Isla beat in the group stages of the singles) and Sakino Miyazawa from Japan (who Amina had lost to yesterday in the semi-final).

Isla and Amina started very well, breaking Raya in the opening game but then a sudden death deuce point went against them on Isla’s serve and soon they found themselves 1-3 down. They then broke Raya again to stay in the set but Sakino was becoming more and more dominant both at the baseline and at the net. Isla served at *2-3 but another sudden death deuce game went against them and that led to them losing the first set 4-2.

In the second set Sakino was unbelievable; she not only controlled her territory at the net extremely well but she also covered the majority of Raya’s side of the court too! It was quite something to watch, especially from a 10/11 year old and that really made the difference in the final.

Raya and Sakino went on to win 4-2, 4-1 and, even though I didn’t think Isla and Amina played their best match, it was very difficult to play well against such a good doubles player like Sakino.

So that brings another international tournament trip to an end. Isla and Taylor have had a great week where they’ve played a combined total of 14 matches in 7 days and I know they’ve learnt a huge amount about playing on clay. They’ve also seen some of the best 10/11 year olds in the world compete and so hopefully they can use that knowledge to develop their games when they return home.

 

The next international tournament trip will be after September as we have lots of domestic events over the summer in the UK. As always a huge thank you to everyone that has and continues to support the travelling squad, especially Adidas, Babolat, Soto Tennis Academy, Bromley Sports Club and Jon W Sports Injury Clinic. A special thanks also to Halo Hydration for supporting the players this week with much needed supplements for their drinks.