Dutch Bowl Ten-Pro, Day 2

Sunday 15th May 2022

It was a difficult opening day for the Travelling Squad today as everyone lost their matches but there were lots of positives and learnings which we will take into the rest of the week.

We were up and out of the house by 8:15am this morning for the 25 minute drive to the main Kei-Fit tennis site in Gendringen. The tournament is using 3 sites this week; a 6 court indoor centre in Gendringen, a 4 court indoor centre in Lichtenvoorde and an indoor practice site in Dinperlo. All three are within a 25 minute drive of where we are staying and we also have use of an outdoor club in Gendringen which we used for our pre-match warm-up this morning. We warmed up at 9am, then hit from 9:15am until 10am where all of the players were in good spirits and hitting the ball well.

At 10am we left the main site and drove over to Lichtenvoorde where Rhys was scheduled for an 11am match in the U13 age group.

Rhys went on court just before 11am to face Davin Schoonderbeek from Holland and from the beginning it was obvious it was going to be a tricky match. Davin was quite tall and hit very flat which made things difficult on a fast indoor carpet court. Rhys took a *2-1 lead in the first set but at that point Davin played some good tennis to break back, hold and break again to take a firm 4-2 lead. Rhys was unable to come back from that and ended up losing the first set 6-2.

Despite his best efforts in the second set, Rhys struggled to neutralise his opponent’s aggressive flat game and he ended up going down 6-2, 6-2. It was a tough first match and Rhys was disappointed with the loss but it was in the age group a year up and also they are playing the U13s in a box format so he’ll have another match in that group tomorrow.

At around 12:30pm both Arundhati and Isla went on court to face their first round opponents in the U12 age group. Arundhati faced Danha Castillo from Holland and Isla was up against Loes Vervecken from Belgium.

Arundhati had a really tough first set where her older and stronger opponent dominated her from the back of the court and barely gave her a chance to get into the match. That resulted in her losing the set 6-0 but, like with all of the Ten-Pro events, I can come onto the court at the end of each set and talk to the players for 2 minutes. So with a few words of encouragement and a little tactical switch, Arundhati went back out and competed hard. She tested her opponent a lot more and played much more aggressively but unfortunately went down 7-5.

Isla’s match was very close against another older opponent; she went 3-0 down in the first set but soon found her level and fought back to being on serve at 3-4. Unfortunately she could quite turn the set around and ended up losing it 6-4. The second set was another close one with Isla playing some very aggressive tennis. She led 3-1 before Loes fought back and eventually they were in a tie-break which Isla lost 7-2.

Both Arundhati and Isla played some good tennis and learned a lot in their matches so, despite the losses, they definitely improved their games.

We then had a few hours break to get some food, debrief the players and relax before Arundhati went on for her U11 1st round match at 4:30pm. Being her own age group we were all very positive about her chances but unfortunately she came up against one of the strongest 2011s that we’ve seen so far in Wiktoria Szychowka from Poland. Arundhati once again worked  hard and tried to implement different tactics after the first set but Wiktoria was too strong and ended up winning 6-0, 6-0.

So the day ended with zero wins and four losses but everyone (parents included) learned a lot and enjoyed the challenges they faced.

After leaving the club around 6:15pm we went straight to the Mu Café for a really nice Italian meal before going back to the house to get some rest!

Schedule for tomorrow:

Ben Weisel (ISR) vs Rhys Roberts (GBR) – 1st on at 8am

Sara Kralle (GER) vs Isla Smith (GBR) – not before 9:30am

Arundhati Ajit (USA) vs Celya Talbi (MAR) – not before 9:30am

Rhys Roberts (GBR) vs Rj Lourenco Da Encarnacao (NED) – not before 2pm