Guadeloupe U18 ITF Grade 4, Day 3

Wednesday 10^th April 2013

It was a very long but successful day today as 3 wins out of 3 saw the both girls advance into the ¼ finals of the singles and the semi-finals of the doubles.

We had our earliest start of the trip today as we met for breakfast at 6.30am and then got a taxi to the courts at 7.20am. We could have waited for the shuttle bus at 7.45am but that would not have given the players enough time to go through their physical warm up before hitting at 8am. As Georgie and Mia both had matches today they hit together from 8-8.30am while Alex started his strength and conditioning programme for the week.

Both girls were hitting well and looking confident throughout the session and once they had finished their pre-match warm up they completed their match analysis sheets while I went off to get some water. When I returned I talked through Georgie’s match plan with her and then at 9am she went on to face Morgan Bernabe from Martinique.

Georgie got off to a great start and was well into her rhythm after she broke Morgan’s serve in the first game of the match. She then went on to dominate most games during the first set and didn’t allow her opponent to get going as she flew through the set 6-0.

Georgie continued where she left off after the first set and went on to increase her level as she progressed through the second set. There were a couple of tight games towards the end of the match as Morgan produced some big backhand winners but Georgie went on to take the second set 6-0 with 14 winners and 12 unforced errors.

As soon as Georgie finished, Mia was straight on the same court to take on Arki Truscott from Australia. I met Arki for the first time a couple of months ago in Nairobi and having seen her play yesterday we knew exactly what to expect. Mia broke in the second game to take a 2-0 lead and found a very good level from the back of the court. Mia has struggled over the past couple of weeks to find the balance between being aggressive and maintaining her consistency but today she found it from the start of the match. Mia was broken when serving at *3-1 but immediately broke back and went on to take the opening set 6-2.

Mia then raced to a 3-0 lead in the second set but, like last week, a bit of negativity crept in and it was soon back on serve at 3-2*. Despite being broken at *4-2 and *5-3 Mia reacted well on both occasions and continued to hit well from the back of the court to eventually take the match 6-2, 6-4.

It was a big win for Mia after coming close to gaining a singles win in the last two weeks and hopefully it will give her a big boost before the ¼ final tomorrow.

After Mia had finished we had a quick chat and then got some lunch with Georgie and Alex. We then got the 12.30pm shuttle back to the hotel so that the players could get away from the tournament site and relax for a while before the girl’s doubles match this evening.

As Mia and Georgie were scheduled 2^nd on after 4pm we needed to get the 3.45pm shuttle back to the tennis centre in case the match before theirs finished very quickly. As it turned out we had a little wait before the girls went on which gave us a chance to go over some details from last week and set some goals for the match.

Mia and Georgie finally went on just as the sun was setting at 5.30pm to face Madison Harrison (USA) and Arki Truscott (AUS). It was a chance for Mia to get some revenge over Madison after she left a lead slip against her last week but it wasn’t a great start as Mia was broken in the first game. Both girls stayed positive though and played some very good doubles to brake twice in the next 3 games to take a *3-1 lead. Mia was then broken for a second time but despite the scoreline looking close it always seemed as though our girls were playing the better doubles. After Georgie held at *3-3, the girls then broke Arki’s serve for the second time and Mia held to take the set 6-3.

With the momentum definitely going our way, Mia and Georgie broke Madison in the first game of the second set but then over the course of the next couple of games the wheels started to fall off! Mia was broken at *1-0, then after Georgie was broken at *1-2 both girls stopped communicating and things got very edgy. Madison and Arki went on to win the next 3 games to take the set 6-1 in a complete turnaround of the first set.

To Mia and Georgie’s credit they raced out of their chairs at the start of the match tie-break and showed they were not giving this one up. The energy levels were much higher and both girls encouraged each other which made a massive difference to their belief in winning the third set. The match tie-break went with serve (apart from a couple of 1 point mini-breaks) until 5-4* when Mia and Georgie took both points off Madison’s serve to take a 7-4 lead. Mia then served well and Georgie moved well at the net to take the next two points before Arki threw in a double fault to give our girls a 6-3, 1-6, 10-4 win.

Both Mia and Georgie were relieved to come through the match and get their first doubles win of the trip but hopefully they have now learnt that they need to continue to play together as a team and remain positive in order to get the job done quickly!!

We were told by the referee that Mia and Georgie’s semi-final opponents may have to pull out tomorrow as one of them has had a death in the family but that will be confirmed in the morning.

After the match we had dinner at the club and then had a very squashed bus journey back to the hotel to have an early night before another early start tomorrow.

Schedule for tomorrow:

Nanette Nylund (FIN) (1833) vs (3) Mia Smith (GBR) (764) – 1^st match at 9am

(1) Georgie Axon (GBR) & Mia Smith (GBR) vs Luna Meers (BEL) & Yasmine Xantos (AUS) – To Be Confirmed