Dutch Bowl Ten-Pro, Day 9

Sunday 22^nd May 2022

It’s Final’s Day!

The goal of any player at the start of a tournament is to be involved in Final’s Day and, as this was Rhys’s first international event abroad, it was a big achievement for him.

I was up early at 5:30am to string rackets for Isla and Rhys and then get the car packed up so we could check out of the house we’d been renting this week. Everyone else joined me around 6:30am and by 7:15am we were ready to go.

Once we arrived at the club we warmed up outside and then hit from 8-8:45am. Everyone was in good spirits and hitting the ball well when we finished so all that was left to do was have a team photo before we got ready for Isla’s singles match.

At just after 9am Isla went on to face Wiktoria Szychowska from Poland in the U11 3^rd / 4^th place play-off. Arundhati had played Wiktoria earlier in the week so we knew what to expect and we also knew that she had also only lost a couple of matches all week so it was going to be a tough match. Isla was very up for it though and wanted to make amends after a disappointing match yesterday.

The first 3 games went to sudden death deuce with Wiktoria winning the first one and then Isla winning the next two but, at *2-1 serving, Isla started to get a little frustrated and ended up losing the next 9 points in-a-row. To her credit, she then fought hard to hold serve and break to regain a lead (both on sudden death deuce points!). However, following a very close game she was broken straight back after … another sudden death deuce game! Things were looking extremely close at 4-4* with both girls playing to a very high level but Isla managed to  break and then hold at *5-4 after the 7^th sudden death deuce game of the set – people say tennis is about fine margins but 7 sudden death deuce games out of 10 is ridiculous!

The second set was just as close as the first; both girls were raising their levels and making things very difficult for their opponent. There were 3 more sudden death deuce games right at the start of the set but this time is was Wiktoria that one 2 out of the 3! From then on the games went with serve until 4-4* when Isla broke and then played a very good service game to hold to 15 to win the match 6-4, 6-4.

It was a great match and one that Isla was very pleased to come through with the win.

Between Isla and Rhys’s match we had the traditional ‘Trip Quiz’ which was scored over 3 rounds; ‘The Tournament’, ‘Knowing Your Surroundings’ and ‘Tennis Rules’. The parents got involved too which was great and after a close fought contest it was Isla that came out on top and received the first prize of a big bar of Oreo Milka chocolate!

Rhys went on court at 12:30pm to play the very in-form Rafael Pagonis from Greece who had earlier won the U11 event. Rhys was really up for his first international tournament final and showed it by breaking his opponents serve in the opening game but Rafael stuck straight back by winning the next 3 games in a row with some fierce hitting off his forehand side. At 2-3* Rhys played a calm but aggressive game, creating chances to ‘ghost in’ when his opponent was stretching and managed to get the break back. Unfortunately Rafael once again responded brilliantly to win the next 3 games in-a-row to take the set 6-2.

When I came on court at the end of the set Rhys was a little frustrated with the way he was playing but I said most of the set was down to what his opponent was doing rather than any mistakes he was making. We agreed to change a couple of things tactically but most importantly try and accept the opponent’s good shots rather than get frustrated by them.

The first two games were very close but Rafael manged to take both of them and soon Rhys found himself 0-4* down. It was then that something clicked in Rhys’s head and he played a superb 5^th game of the set; he was calm, composed, thinking clearly and implementing the tactics that we had talked about and that led to him breaking Rafael’s serve comfortable. At this stage I thought a huge comeback was on the cards but, after Rhys lost the next game on sudden death deuce point, it was going to be extremely difficult. At 1-5* Rhys managed to break serve but Rafael broke straight back once more to win the match 6-2, 6-2.

Full credit has to go to Rafael; he played a superb final and was by far the best player in the draw this week.

After the final we had a little wait before the trophy presentation but then finally the players got their hands on their hard fought silverware!

Once everything was finished we packed up the last few things into the car and then got on the road for a long journey home.

It’s been a great week away at another international tournament and all three players and both parents have been a pleasure to work with. Everyone (including myself) has learnt a lot and hopefully we, as parents, can support the players in implementing what they have learnt over the last 9 days.

A big thanks as always has to go to the companies that support International Travelling Coach; Adidas, Babolat, The Soto Tennis Academy in Spain, The Bromley Cricket Club and The Jon White Sports Injury Clinic.