Thursday 25th August 2011
In the 7 years I have known Cameron I have never seen him work as hard as he did today, every point he fought hard for and he kept believing all the way to the end of the match. Definitely a day he should be proud of – maybe it was all down to the Nando’s!!!
A later than normal start today as we had breakfast at 7.30am, warmed up in the gym at 9am and took to the indoor courts (due to the rain) at 9.30am. Cameron was second round of matches on so after fully preparing he was all ready to go just after 11.30am.
Cameron was going to write a little bit about the match here . . . in fact he started writing it and then got tight, just like he did at the end of the match (sorry Cam!!!!). Cam started a little poorly but Dan came out of the blocks very fast, it was obvious he’s full of confidence having just won U14 Nationals without dropping a set. Dan took control from the start, moving well and really taking his forehand on putting Cam under a lot of pressure. Cam was broken at 1-1, then again at 2-4 but despite breaking straight back he was broken again at 3-5 to lose the first set 6-3.
Cam’s response to his performance in the first set was very professional; he broke in the first game and then continued to step up the court more and be the more aggressive player throughout the set. He was broken back when serving at 3-2 but again responded well to take the next 3 games and the second set 6-3.
At this stage Dan’s unforced errors started to mount up but Cam was waiting too much for him to miss rather than going after the points. Cam was broken in the first game of the third but broke straight back and then the next 4 games went with serve. At 3-3, just like in the second set Cam gave up his serve too easily (the 3 double faults didn’t help!) but again like the second set Dan just couldn’t hold after breaking and Cam made it level again at 4-4. Despite having 3 match points at 6-5 Cam just couldn’t finish it off and it was on to a tie-break. With both players looking a little edgy Cam did well to be aggressive and not give Dan anything to attack. He took a 5-1 lead and on his 5th match point he managed to close out the match 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(3).
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It was a really hard fought win for Cam playing through the tightness and mentally performing well to win the breaker after having the match points in the game before.
Mia was courtside to watch some of Cam’s match but she’s also been working hard off the court on the physical side of her game; she did 2 x 30 minute bike sessions as well as a strength and stabilisation session in the afternoon so they both deserved an early finish to the day.
We went back to the accommodation at 4.30pm and while Mia and Cam chilled out I took to the road for an hours run to keep my training going for the Great North Run in September – follow how my training is going at https://itc-tennis.com/category/gnr-2011.
Schedule for tomorrow:
(3) Lucas Taylor (GBR) (238) vs Cameron Hawkins (GBR) (UNR) – 2nd round on after 10am
