Saturday 2nd July 2011
A good start to the trip today as we won 2 out of the 3 matches and the sun was shining all day!
It was an early start today with everyone up and out by 6.45pm and warming up at the tennis centre by 7am. Everyone trained from 7.30 – 8am except Athena as she’s still recovering from being ill; it was a good 30 minutes, all the players managed their time well and the three players competing were fully prepared for their matches.
Nicole was first on at 9am taking on Helen Rabot. She started the match well finding a good level of hitting but it was just a little too inconsistent, especially when serving. At 4-4 the girls were on serve but there had been a total of 6 breaks of serve in the 8 games – both girls were breaking easily but just couldn’t hold. At 4-4 Helen broke and then put together 4 good points to take the first set 6-4. The second set was much more one sided as Helen significantly reduced her unforced errors from 21 in the first set to 12 in the second whereas Nicole’s errors remained almost the same in each set resulting in Helen taking the set 6-1.
We had a bit of a break in the middle of the day which gave Gaby and Mia a chance to train indoors and also gave the others a chance to get some lunch and watch some of the other players.
Centre Court at The Craiglockhart Tennis Centre
Cameron was next up taking on Russell Graham from Scotland. It was a great match from both players; Cameron was being very aggressive and using his leftiness to great effect and Russell was playing a strong counter-punching game which made life difficult for Cameron. The first set started with Cameron going 3-1 up and then 5-2 up before Russell held and broke to make it 5-4. Cameron reacted well to this and immediately broke back with a solid game to take the set 6-4. In the second set Cameron significantly reduced his unforced errors (from 28 to 15) and upped his winners (from 11 to 14) which was the main reason why he raced to a 4-0 lead before closing out the set by holding his serve at 5-3.
Anouska had a long day of waiting around as she had a bye in the first round but she was able to get away from the site for a few hours in the middle of the day and get back to the house which hopefully helped her to prepare for her match. She went on against fellow Kent girl Rebecca Finch at just after 5.40pm and from the start it looked as though it could be a long match. Rebecca took an early 2-0 lead before Anouska fought back with some clever tactics and it was back on serve until Anouska broke at 5-4 to take the set 6-4. Anouska will admit it wasn’t the prettiest tennis but it was very effective and she stuck to her pre-match game plan throughout which gave her a healthy 5-2 lead in the second. At 5-3 she was serving for the match and dug deep to maintain her focus and belief to take the match 6-4, 6-3.
Anouska finished around 7.30pm so after over 12 hours at the club it was time for a quick cool down and then straight back to the house to get some food and relax for a while before everyone retired to bed for an early night. It was a long day but good to get 2 wins out of 3 to start the trip.
Schedule for tomorrow:
Cameron Hawkins (GBR) (UNR) vs Piers Herfet-Jones (GBR) (UNR) – 1st round at 9.30am
Mia Smith (GBR) (UNR) vs Jodie Burrage (GBR) (UNR) – 2nd round after 9.30am
Anouska Newman (GBR) (UNR) vs Ella Taylor (GBR) (UNR) – N.B. 1.30pm
