Sunday 8th July 2012
It was a long day at the Ilkley Lawn Tennis Club today but after a cautious start we managed to get through it in one piece and live to fight another day!
Dave wasn’t scheduled until 2nd match after 1.30pm today so I thought I’ve leave him to have a lie in while I got up early to get the tournament shuttle bus to the club to get my daily run in. Dave then arrived around 11.30am and we went into the gym to warm up just before 12pm. Due to the amount of players that needed to practice and the fact that the tournament only had very limited indoor court time we were only scheduled for a 20 minute practice starting at 12.30pm. However we managed to get on court a little early so we actually got a full 30 minutes in. During the session Dave felt his right hip tighten up and by the end of the practice he was quite concerned about it so once we were done he went straight to see the on site physio. This week Nigel Smethurst is the tournament physio and, as he has a son who is ranked around 400ATP, it’s fair to say that he knows what he’s talking about when it comes to tennis injuries. Dave had a good session with Nigel who ended up working on it for quite some time and then strapped it up to protect it for the match.
After getting some lunch and watching the start of the Wimbledon Men’s final it looked as though the match before Dave’s was coming to an end so he warmed up for 15 minutes only to find that the match went to 1 set all!
Eventually Dave went on court to face Howard Scott at around 4.30pm and from the start he took control of the match and seemed to be moving without any pain. Dave broke in the first game and despite getting broken back straightaway he kept his composure to break again in the next game to take a *2-1 lead. Dave’s serving percentage wasn’t as high as normal and he seemed to be struggling to get up to the ball but his consistency from the back of the court ensured that he continued to hold his serve. He broke again at 4-2* and then served it out to take the first set 6-2.
In the second set Dave’s level from the back of the court increased and even though the scoreline was a little closer at 6-3 he was always in control of the match which meant he could work on developing his game throughout the set. It was a solid first round match and I was very pleased that the issue with his hip hadn’t caused him too much discomfort.
After the match Dave went straight to the physio to get some treatment and was advised to ice his hip for 10 minutes before showering and stretching to make sure it didn’t tighten up. Nigel then treated Dave and said that his hip hadn’t got any worse from playing the match which was a big positive – often if you can get through a match then it gives you another night to let the injury heal a little more and by the next day it is much better. Originally Dave was scheduled to have his 2nd round match at 9.30pm this evening but it was then changed to 10.30am tomorrow morning – another bonus for us!
From the club we headed out to dinner at 7pm with Lewis Burton and had a great meal at Piccolino’s in the town. We then headed back to the hotel where Lewis had a sudden impulse to go for a run! So, not wanting to leave him to run alone, I said that I’d join him at 9.30pm once my huge dinner had gone down a bit! Before the run I sat down with Dave and went through the match which included some initial planning for the 2nd round match tomorrow. Then at 9.30pm Lewis and I took to the road and ran up the steep hill to the Cow and Calf before heading across Ilkley Moor. It had rained heavily this afternoon and both of us were getting covered in mud as we ran up and down the Moor but is was well worth it as the view over the valley was amazing.
Thumbs up from Lew just before we got lost on the Moor!
After a few wrong turns we eventually made our way back to the road but at one point it did seem like a scene out of 127 Hours as we were literally climbing down rock faces to get back onto the right path!!
Schedule for tomorrow:
Dave Hodgetts (GBR) (UNR) vs (13) David Pel (NED) (1873) – 1st match on at 10.30am
