Monday 22nd August 2011
We were up bright and early at 6.45am this morning and down to breakfast for 7.15pm. Breakfast officially wasn’t due to open until 8am but we as we needed to start warming up at the club at 8.30am we decided to risk it! The chefs were fantastic and got out the cereals, yogurts and made us some toast so we had enough to start the day 🙂
After physically warming up for 30 minutes Cameron and Mia took to the court at 9am for their pre-match hit. Both of them had to hit with other players that the tournament arranged as there are only 4 practise courts but neither of their practise partners turned up!! So I hit with Cam and Mia hit in a three with two other girls. By 9.30am they were both warm so they got some food and then changed into their match kit ready for when they were called.
Both of them were scheduled to play 2nd round on after 9.30am. Normally this isn’t a problem even if they are playing at different ends of the club but today Mia was scheduled on court 3 and Cameron was scheduled on court 1 . . . at Great Missenden Tennis Club!!
Mia played a good first set against a tricky opponent; she was taking the ball on well and moving up the court to take time away. She took a 3-1 lead but stuttered a little as Celine stopped missing as much and started to make life a bit more difficult. After being broken at 3-1 Mia responded but breaking, holding and breaking again to take the set 6-2. With that I was straight off down the road for the 7.5 mile journey to the other club to watch Cameron.
When I arrived Cameron was 5-2 up and he quickly took the next game to take the set. He was playing well and using the slow macadam courts to his advantage – no-one likes to play a lefty, especially one who can really rip the ball and make it kick up and off the court like Cameron does! The second set was a bit of a strange affair as Cameron was in full control for the whole of it but he just couldn’t hold serve!! He broke to go 1-0 then the next 8 games went against serve until Cameron finally held at 5-4 to take the match 6-2, 6-4. It ended up being a bit of a grind but Cam got their in the end and claimed his first junior international ranking.
As Cam was in the middle of his second set Mia called me to say she’d won 6-2, 6-1 – good news al round and we were 2 from 2!
It was then straight back to Halton and a quick break for some lunch and a debrief for both players before Mia was back on court with Emily Smith for their doubles. They were seeded 4 this week but they came unstuck against a German and a Russian who were just more focussed, more motivated and a little tougher than our girls. It was a disappointing 6-2, 7-6(4) loss but hopefully lessons will be learnt and areas will be improved.
Cameron was straight on after Mia and his match was very similar to Mia’s, in fact I’m still trying to work out how him and his Swedish partner managed to win the match!! Their British opponents played much better doubles but Cameron and Dag stuck in their when the going got tough and pulled out a 5-7, 6-4, 10-7 win.
I’ve said it before but I really think coaches need to spend more time working on doubles tactics in training so that players know what their doing when it comes to competition. There are far too many players standing in the wrong positions, not moving, not dominating the net and not communicating with each other. In these events, and in ITFs, doubles points go towards your singles rankings; in fact it’s actually possible to get to top 100 U18 ITF just on doubles wins! You have to win some big events but it is possible to do it!
We were finished quite late this evening so the players showered and changed at the club and then we headed straight out to Aylesbury again for dinner. We managed to get a voucher for Prezzo so we ate their and saved a bit of money!
Schedule for tomorrow:
(7) Marco Ferrandia (GER) (978) vs Cameron Hawkins (GBR) (UNR) – 2nd on after 10am
(4) B Cassar Torregiani (MLT) & M Cassar Torregiani (MLT) vs Dag Gudmundsson (SWE) & Cameron Hawkins (GBR) – 4th on – N.B. 3pm
