Saturday 21st May 2022
We had a slightly more civilised start to the day today with our first match going on at 10:30am but a rather late finish with Isla’s match not going on until 6:45pm!
After 5 consecutive 5:30am starts I was rather pleased to be able to sleep in until 7am this morning! We were all up and out by 8:15am and on the practice court warming up by 8:45am for our pre-match training session. Throughout the week the players have all trained really well and, rather than just do a standard 30 minute pre-match warm-up, they’ve tended to want to make more of a training session of it which has included some drills and also some point play.
Arundhati was first up today against Marith De Jong from Holland at 10:30am and her challenge was to keep up a high level of hitting against a slightly weaker opponent. During the first set Arundhati played some good tennis but when we talked about it at the end of the first set, she said wanted to raise her level to how it had been against some of her tougher opponents earlier in the week. This is often a challenge for players back in the UK who I’ve seen coast through easy first round matches but then not be at a high enough level to compete with stronger players at semi-final / final stages of events.
After winning the first set 6-1 Arundhati did raise both her intensity and her level of play during the whole of the second set. This resulted in losing more games than she did in the first set but she also hit many more winners including 3 volley winners and 2 drive volleys. In the end she came through her final match of the week 6-1, 6-2 which tops off a great 8 days of competing at a high level.
Once we had debriefed, we all went back to the house for the afternoon to rest and get some lunch. While we were there we saw that a horse riding completion was taking place on the farm so we went to check it out:
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Huge horses and these were just the ponies!
At 4:50pm Rhys was next on to face Atharva Batra from Holland and he faced a similar situation to Arundhati; a slightly weaker opponent but an opportunity to not only improve but also be ready for his U12 final tomorrow.
The first set was solid with Rhys doing what he needed to do to take it 6-1. But, after our chat at the end of the set, he really raised his focus and energy in the second set which resulted in a higher level of play, more patterns which enabled him to win points at the net and also more variation which he might need tomorrow in the final. In the end Rhys won 6-1, 6-1 and that match brought his U13 tournament to an end.
After a little confusion as to whether Isla and her Polish opponent, Oliwia Kadzielska, were going to play on the carpet or the hard we eventually went on as the last match of the day onto the indoor hard courts at 6:45pm.
Isla hadn’t hit on the indoor hard all week because it was only being used for the older age groups so initially she expected the ball to be coming through but it actually held up a lot more than the carpet. It took her a good 2-3 games to get used to it and by this stage Oliwia was already well into her stride. At *0-3 down Isla looked like she was struggling but when the girls played each other earlier in the week it was Isla that was 3-0 up in both sets before Oliwia fought back. Isla continued to fight hard but eventually lost the first set 6-2 so it was my job at the end of the set to try to get her to reset and go again in the second set.
To her credit Isla played a much better second set; she was much more positive both in terms of her tennis and her attitude and she pushed her opponent a lot more. Oliwia is a great competitor though and, despite going 3-1 down, she responded superbly to Isla’s change of play and fought back to win the second set 6-3.
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Isla attacking her forehand in the second set
Overall Isla was a little disappointed with the match but I think if she had started the match like she did in the second set then we might have been able to push Oliwia into a third!
So, our penultimate day comes to an end and, after 23 matches, we are standing with 12 wins and 11 losses – let’s hope Isla can add to that tomorrow in her 3rd / 4th place play-off and Rhys can come away with the U12 title!
Schedule for tomorrow:
U11 3rd / 4th place play-off:
Isla Smith (GBR) vs Wiktoria Szychowska (POL) – not before 9:30am
U12 Final:
Rafael Pagonis (GRE) vs Rhys Roberts (GBR) – not before 12:30pm
