Sunday 6th July 2014
Toby had another close 3 set singles match today but even though he put in a good performance, he unfortunately came off second best!
As it was Sunday the breakfast at the B&B didn’t officially start until 8.30am so we helped ourselves to cereal, toast, yoghurts and juice and then left to get the bus at 7.45am. That gave us enough time to get over to Craiglockhart and warm up ready for our 8.30am practice.
Originally Toby was going to hit with me for the session but Main Draw number 2 seed Tom Wright was available and looking to train so I got bumped! Toby and Tom had a very good pre-match hit and after Toby had warmed up everything there was still 5 minutes left so the boys played some points. That gave Toby a chance to work on the things we had discussed after his match late last night but weren’t able to get back on court until this morning.
At 9am the 1st round of matches went on court so we relaxed and got some food while making sure we kept track of the scores on Toby’s court.
As the first match on court 5 finished we went back over the details from Toby’s match yesterday and then put together our game plan for today. We had watched Angus Bradshaw play the whole of his 1st round match so we knew what to expect and also knew that Toby needed to raise his level from yesterday.
At 12pm Toby and Angus went on court and, like the 3rd set yesterday, the first 5 games all went against serve! Toby was the first to hold and in doing so he took a 4-2* lead by playing some aggressive tennis from the back of the court. Unfortunately Angus responded well and raised his level while Toby became a little more passive which resulted in Angus winning the next 4 games in a row to take the 1st set 6-4.
Apart from a period of a lot of unforced errors in the last few games of the set, Toby hadn’t done a lot wrong and once he realised that he couldn’t afford to give Angus cheap points he suddenly took control of the 2nd set. At 3-3* Toby broke serve, held with 4 out of 4 first serves and then broke again to take the set 6-3 and leave him with stats of 9 winners and only 8 unforced errors in the whole set – a big improvement from 8 winners and 25 unforced errors in the 1st set!
I knew the 3rd set was going to be a real battle and Angus came out firing in the first game after a toilet break. Toby matched him for the first couple of games but then Angus’ strength showed as his winner count increased significantly and he raced to a 5-1 lead. Toby kept fighting though and held and then broke for the first time in the set but Angus broke straight back with 3 winners in the final game to take the match 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 in just over 2 hours.
Despite the disappointment of the loss Toby was pleased that he had raised his level from yesterday and knows exactly what he needs to do now to be ready for the Queenswood ITF which starts next Saturday.
Once Toby had cooled down and stretched out he got some food and we headed back to the B&B. While Toby watched the tennis I went for an hour long run in the pouring rain to keep up with my training for the Great North Run. I only managed to get lost twice (!!) but eventually found my way back to the Canal by the tennis centre and then back to the B&B in time to watch the end rest of the Men’s final from 5-5 in the 4th set.
We’ll head back to London tomorrow morning and then get straight back on court on Tuesday to prepare for Queenswood next weekend.
