Luxembourg U18 ITF Grade 5, Day 1

Friday 6th November 2015

It was an early start for Toby Huffer and me this morning as we left London at 6am for the 6 hour journey to Luxembourg.

The last week has been a bit of a rollercoaster as originally we were planning to go to Russia for the Main Draw of the U18 ITF Grade 5 but due to numerous issues with obtaining a visa (despite spending most of the week on the phone to the Embassies in London and in Moscow) we were eventually granted a wildcard into the Qualifying draw of Luxembourg by the ITF and the tournament.

After a quick 30 minute train ride on the Eurotunnel we drove through France then Belgium before entering Luxembourg. The drive from Calais was only 4 hours and despite a lot of typically British drizzle it was actually a nice alternative to the normal flights that we get to tournaments.

When we arrived it took us a while to find where the tournament site actually was as the National Tennis Centre is tucked away down a small road but once we found it we were pleasantly surprised by the centre. It is laid out well with 4 courts on one side and a stadium court on the other with a café in the middle. The tournament staff seemed to be on the ball too which was always nice to see!

We drove over to the supermarket at around 2pm to get some lunch and then headed back to the tennis centre to get warmed up for our 4.30-5.30pm practice session. Toby trained with Tommaso Rossin from Italy and they had a very good session on the stadium court.

The first 15-20 minutes were spent just getting used to the indoor court, the balls and the fairly hot conditions and then after that we did a couple of drills before finishing with some serve and return points. The practice schedule at indoor tournaments is always packed so it was definitely worth getting there early today to book the court for an hour before the crowds arrived!

At 5.30pm we left the court to sign-in and then drove to the official hotel for the week which is about 15 minutes away in Petange. We then got changed and headed out for dinner at a small Italian restaurant called ‘Verzino’.

The food was excellent at the restaurant and good value for money but I almost fell off my chair when I saw that we were charged €6.80 (about £5) for a 750ml bottle of water – definitely would have been cheaper to buy a glass of wine or a beer! Last time I paid that much for water I was in Nobu in Mayfair!

While we were at dinner the draw came out:

It was then back to the hotel for an early night having woken up this morning at 4.45am!

Schedule for tomorrow:

Alexandre Smith (FRA) vs (WC) Toby Huffer (GBR) (1572) – 6th match after 9am