Guadeloupe U18 ITF Grade 4, Day 5

Friday 12^th April 2013

It was a heart-breaking day today as, following Georgie’s ¼ final win in the singles, the girl’s lost a very close doubles final after having 2 match points.

The players all had an extra hour in bed this morning as play started at 10am today. We met for breakfast at 7.30am and then got to the courts just before 8.30am to warm up. Georgie and Mia then hit together until just before 9.30am where they went through their normal routine to prepare themselves for their matches today. Following the session, Georgie and I went through some notes from her previous singles match and then discussed tactics and goals for today’s match. Georgie was feeling confident and at 10am went on court to face 5^th seed Anna Wierda from America.

Both girls were tentative in the opening games as they tried to work each other out and after they exchanged breaks in the first two games, Georgie broke and held to take a 3-1 lead. At this point Georgie relaxed more and started to dictate the play from the back of the court which saw her break Anna for the third time to take a *4-1 lead. Georgie then lost her serve in the next game but continued to fight hard and play some good tennis to break again and then hold to take the first set 6-2.

Georgie increased her level in the second set and had even more of a bounce in her step as she raced to a 3-0 lead. Even getting broken in the next game didn’t faze her and as the set went on her confidence grew more and more. She won the next 3 games in a row, including hitting 4 massive unreturnable serves at *4-1, to take the match 6-2, 6-1 and join Mia in the semi-finals tomorrow.

Following the match we had a quick chat then Georgie stretched, showered and changed before we headed over to the shopping centre next to the club for a traditional “Paul’s baguette!”. Once we arrived back on site lunch was ready so we sat down together to eat and then got the shuttle back to the hotel to relax for the afternoon.

We got back to the tournament site at 4pm to watch some of Georgie’s next round opponent play her ¼ final match and then at 4.45pm all 4 of us got on court for 30 minutes to do some doubles drilling to prepare the girls for their final.

Following the boy’s final, the girls went on court at just after 5.30pm to face number 2 seeds Jenna Friedel and Michelle Valdez. Our girls started well and after breaking Jenna in the opening game then went on to take a 2-0 lead. Jenna and Michelle fought back though to level the set at 2-2* and then after another exchange of breaks the set went with serve until *4-5. Mia and Georgie then saved 3 set points on Mia’s serve in the next game and after 2 more holds on serve we were into a tie-break. The set so far had been very close with neither pair really dominating and the tie-break was another close affair! Mia and Georgie trailed 1-3* but then stormed back to take the next four points in a row and eventually held their nerves to take it 7-5.

The second set was just as much a rollercoaster as the first – both physically and mentally (especially for me!!). We got a good break at 3-2* but Georgie was broken in the next game and then the games continued to be close until Georgie was again broken at *5-5. Mia and Georgie stayed positive despite falling behind for the first time in the set and broke Michelle immediately to take the second set to a tie-break. Just like in the first set the girls had a slow start and when they changed ends for the first time they were 1-5 down . . . well, that was the correct score but the chair judge had made a mistake earlier in the breaker and he called 2-4 – bonus!! We took full advantage of the help with the score and went on to win the next 4 points in a row to lead 6-4 with 2 match points! Unfortunately Mia and Georgie couldn’t convert either of them and despite saving set points at 6-7* and *7-8 they went on to lose the tie-break 11-9.

In their first round doubles match Mia and Georgie responded well to losing the second set and came out for the match tie-break with a real spring in their step but after failing to convert their match points today was a different story. Throughout the match tie-break they were both very flat and after a couple of mini-breaks at the start they found themselves 4-1 down. Jenna and Michelle had become quite defensive with their play which frustrated Mia and Georgie and resulted in them forcing too much. The tie-break eventually went against us 10-4 and it was definitely an opportunity missed to get a title this week.

By the time we had finished and the presentation had been completed it was around 8.15pm so we quickly got some dinner and then returned to the hotel to lick our wounds. We now turn our attention to the singles semi-finals tomorrow and hopefully the girls can put aside their disappointment from today and get through to the finals on Sunday.

Schedule for tomorrow:

(1) Georgie Axon (GBR) (612) vs Madison Harrison (USA) (UNR) – 1^st match at 9am

(3) Mia Smith (GBR) (764) vs (2) Jenna Friedel (USA) – 1^st match at 9am