Saturday 5th July 2014
We were the first at the tennis centre this morning and the last to leave tonight but it was all worth it as Toby fought very hard to come through his Qualifying 1st round match.
To secure a practice court this morning we got up early and got the 6.48m bus from outside our Bed and Breakfast which got us to the tennis centre at just before 7am. As we started to warm up on the court the Groundsman shouted across from Centre Court to tell us that we were too early to be using the courts! In 15 years of travelling to international tournaments I’ve never been told that before!
We were eventually allowed to use the court at 7.30am and Toby and I had a very good 30 minute practice session to get him prepared for his match. We then left the site at just after 8am to get the bus back to the B&B and have a well-deserved breakfast.
Most of the morning and early afternoon was spent at the B&B as we had a ‘not before’ time of 3pm for Toby’s match. At 12.30pm had lunch at Zizzi’s and then made our way back to the tennis centre at around 2.15pm so that we would have enough time to go through our pre-match preparations before Toby went on court.
After a bit of a delay Toby eventually went on court at 4.45pm to face fellow Brit William Barrett. Toby started very well hitting 6 winners and 0 unforced errors in the first 3 games to take a 3-0 lead but then a lapse of concentration and an increased level from William saw the set levelled at *3-3. Toby then played a good 2 games to hold and break to take a 5-3 lead and even though he was broken while serving for the set, he broke straight back to take it 6-4.
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Toby and William warming up on Centre Court
Toby raced to a 2-0 lead at the start of the 2nd set and it looked as though he was going to go on to take the set 6-0 but William fought back to win the next 3 games in a row. From that stage the set became very scrappy; both boys were struggling to find a consistent enough level from the back of the court and both were finding it difficult to hold serve. William eventually took a 5-3 lead but Toby worked hard to save a set point a 4-5* and despite levelling the set at 5-5, he went on to lose the next 2 games and the set 7-5.
The 3rd set was much the same as the 2nd but this time the first 8 games of the set went against serve!! Both Toby and William were returning well but just couldn’t find enough first serves when it really mattered and the number of double faults from both players increased significantly as the set went on. As the match time reached 2 hours 30 minutes Toby decided enough was enough and at *4-4 he played one of the best games of the match to hold serve for the first time in the set. He continued to find a good level in the next game and on his first match point he made no mistake taking the match 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 after 2 hours 40 minutes.
It wasn’t a great match from either player but Toby managed to dig deep and get through it which gives him another chance to improve tomorrow in the next round.
After sweeping the court and collecting the balls Toby left the court just after 7.30pm! We then cooled down and had a very good stretch out while debriefing the match before getting the bus back to the B&B.
We needed a quick dinner tonight so we headed to Nandos for some chicken and rice and then went back to the B&B for an early (ish!) night.
Schedule for tomorrow:
Angus Bradshaw (GBR) (UNR) vs Toby Huffer (GBR) (UNR) – 3rd match after 9am
Winner to play in the Last Round of Qualifying after rest.
