Liverpool U18 ITF Grade 5, Day 2

Saturday 15^th November 2014

As Alex had a Bye in his opening singles match it was down to Toby today to join him in round 2 but first he had to get passed a tough opponent in Aidan McHugh from Scotland.

We all met for breakfast this morning at 6.45am and then left the hotel at 7.30am to take the relatively short 20 minute across Liverpool to the tennis centre. We were one of the first to arrive this morning but as it got closer to 8am the courts started to fill up and so the boys were relegated to the side of court 2 to finish their physical warm-ups. At just before 8.20am Toby and Alex took to court 4 to go through a very good pre-match practice session where both of them found a good level and by 9am Toby felt well prepared for this match.

Between when we finished the practice and when Toby went on for his match we got some food, relaxed and played a little table tennis before going through Toby’s pre-match preparations and warm-up.

Then at 11.50am Toby went on court to face Aidan McHugh from Scotland. We didn’t know anything about Aidan before the match but as the match progressed it was obvious that the 14 year old was a very good player and during the match I was told that he’d won almost everything there was to win at a British U14 level!

As the 1^st set started to develop Toby matched anything that Aidan threw at him and raised his level on numerous occasions when the games started to get close. Both boys were playing at a very high level throughout the set and apart from a very close game at *4-4 neither of them looked as though they were ever going to lose their serves. As the set moved into a tie-break it was very hard to find anything between either player but it was Toby that got a mini-break on the second point and then managed to extend his advantage to take a 5-2 lead. Aidan managed to claw back a couple of points but Toby stayed strong and continued to play some very aggressive tennis to eventually take the first set 7-6(4) after an hour and 15 minutes.

Both boys had a toilet break at the end of the set and when they returned it was Aidan that got out of the blocks the fastest while Toby seemed to struggle to find his first set form. Aidan broke in the second game and went on to hit 8 winners and only 6 unforced errors in the set to take it 6-0 despite Toby having game points in the first two games.

The start of the third set was more like the first set with both boys matching each other from the back of the court; Toby was 40-15* up on Aidan’s serve in the opening game but Aidan then reeled off 5 winners in a row before Toby responded well with a good service game of his own. Toby was broken when serving at *1-2 but each game was still very close and if Toby could have converted his game point at *1-4, *40-30 then the score line might have been a lot closer. Unfortunately Toby lost the advantage in that game and Aidan played a very good service game to hold and take the match 6-7(4), 6-0, 6-1.

Toby was obviously disappointed with the result but he competed hard throughout and there’s never any shame in losing to a player who maintains a high level like Aidan did over a match lasting just over 2 hours and 40 minutes.

After Toby and I debriefed the match I was back on court with Alex for his second training session of the day from 3.30pm until around 4.15pm.

Alex trained this afternoon with Sam Ferguson and the session was mainly point based to prepare both boys for their 2^nd round matches tomorrow. By the time Alex finished he was striking the ball great and looking forward to getting stuck into the tournament tomorrow!

Once both Toby and Alex had cooled down we headed back to the hotel to change and relax for an hour before dinner. We then headed into Liverpool at 6pm for dinner at Nandos and then it was straight back to the hotel for an early night.

Schedule for tomorrow:

(3) Alex Hagon (GBR) (1771) vs George Hutchings (GBR) (UNR) – 3^rd match after 9am

Winner to play a 2^nd match after rest.