Dutch Bowl Ten-Pro, Day 3

Monday 16th May 2022

What a difference a day makes – yesterday we went 0 for 4 and today we went 4 out of 4!

It was a very long day for the team today as we were up at 5:30am, out of the house by 6:30am and on court warming up by 7am.

It’s always nice to be the first at the tennis centre and, to be able to get a full court to warm-up on, is essential if you want to feel as though you’re prepared for your match.

After our practice session from 7:15am until 8am, Rhys was straight on for his U12s 1st round match against Ben Weisel from Greece. Rhys was really keen to get off to a good start today after the disappointment of yesterday and he immediately broke and held to take a 2-0* lead. His attitude during the first set was superb and, even though his opponent was a tricky player, Rhys played positive tennis and dictated throughout to take the set 6-2.

My interventions at the set break were very minimal; keep up the superb attitude, try to use a few cross-line combinations and keep accepting any mistakes you might hit. Rhys did all three really well and ended up winning 6-2, 6-1.

Arundhati was next on court 2 to play Celya Talbi from Morocco and about 15 minutes later Isla took to court 3 to play Sara Kralle from Germany. Just like Rhys, both Arundhati and Isla had a bit of a point to prove after their losses yesterday and I have to say they both went about their matches in a superb fashion.

Arundhati took control of the match within the first 2 games; she was consistent, working her opponent from side to side and giving very little away cheaply. She continued this until the end of the set which she won 6-1. When I came on court I gave her a little challenge to see if she could stay up the court a little more and also increase the number of winners she hit from the back of the court. She did both very well in the second set and ended up winning 6-1, 6-2.

Isla was up against a younger but awkward player who defended well when under pressure and gave you very little pace to play with. In the past this would have been Isla’s worst nightmare but she’s worked very hard in the last couple of months on how to play different game styles and today she played very aggressive but smart tennis to win the match 6-0, 6-0. The score line definitely did not do Sara justice as there were at least 3 or 4 sudden death deuce games and many more that were close.

With 3 wins out of 3 we had a short break of couple of hours which gave the players a chance to fill out some of the work in their Travelling Squad Player Pack before Rhys was back on at 2pm to play Rj Lourenco Da Encarnacao from Holland.

After an early start to the day we were looking forward to Rhys getting on there and getting the job done ‘quick-smart’ but I think Rhys wanted to make us suffer!! He raced to a 3-0 lead playing the best tennis I’ve seen from him so far but then a few loose games combined with Rj raising his level result in Rhys finding himself 3-5* down receiving. To his credit, he stayed very calm and composed and that helped him fight back to win the next 4 games in a row to take the set 7-5.

When I came on at the end of the set it was Rhys that was doing most of the talking and he knew exactly what he needed to do in the next set. Putting into practice the things he wanted to do, he played a much better second set; he was varying his game, being patient from the back and shaping the ball much better which made it much more uncomfortable for his opponent. After winning some big sudden death deuce points at 3-2, 4-3 and 5-3, Rhys went on to win the second set 6-3.

Following Rhys’s match I debriefed all of the players individually and then at around 4:45pm we left to find some dinner. We all decided that we wanted to mix things up from the usual Italian food so we went to a Chinese buffet but after we found out that it was going to cost €35 each we decided to go back to the Italian for pizza, pasta and some salad!

Schedule for tomorrow:

Oliwia Kadzielska (POL) vs Isla Smith (GBR) – 1st match at 8am

Tomasz Kowalczyk (POL) vs Rhys Roberts (GBR) – not before 11am

Julie Vulsteyke (BEL) vs Isla Smith (GBR) – not before 2pm

Rhys Roberts (GBR) vs Bobbi Platenburg (NED) – not before 3:30pm

Emilia Henningsen (NOR) vs Arundhati Ajit (USA) – not before 3:30pm