Monday 7th February 2011
Great start to the tournament today with all 4 players taking a win in their opening matches.
Felix was up first and despite going 2-0 down in the first set he fought back very hard to win the next 5 games in a row and then close out the set 6-3. The second set didn’t go as well as the other boy stepped up his game and became a lot more aggressive than in the first hitting 13 winners and only 6 unforced errors to take the set 6-0. To his credit Felix kept fighting and with a strategic change of seating position from me (to directly behind the court beside his opponents coach!) he started to turn the tables. For a 14 year old Felix’s opponent was a strong boy physically but mentally he was weak and when his coach was prevented from coaching him (by me!) he didn’t know what to do. Felix regained his composure of the first set but this time didn’t give his opponent an inch taking the final set 6-0. Next up for him tomorrow is 3rd seed Isaac Stoute.
Farah started her match as Felix was going into his third set and both matches were almost over at the same time as Farah cruised past local wildcard Sonia Radia 6-0, 6-1. These kind of matches early in a tournament aren’t the best thing to have as, even though they are cheap points, it doesn’t prepare you the best for the next round. Farah however made sure that she developed her game during the match and even finished off match point with a serve and volley. Next up for her tomorrow is top seed Yasmin Ebada from Egypt.
Farah in 1st round action today
From Farah’s match it was straight to the practise court to join Devan and Beth warming up for their matches and it wasn’t long before Beth was on and off the court with a 6-1, 6-0 victory over Ivy Nafula Rahedi from Kenya. Again it was one of the matches that you would prefer to be a little tougher but Beth did very well to improve her game throughout taking on every return of serve and finishing the match with 68% of quality 1st serves in (we’re not mentioning the match point are we Miss Askew?!!).
As Felix had gone to 3 sets and the next match had taken a while Devan was made to wait around for her court to become available. It’s always tough to judge meals when you’re scheduled on around lunch time and as Devan was about to get something to eat the Referee decided to move her match to Beth’s court! We had enough time to go through her warm up, do some reaction exercises and then she was on. Devan started a little erratically but soon was in full flow taking the first 9 games in a row against a young Russian who was not going to go away without a fight. After a couple of tight games at the end of the second Devan came through it 6-0, 6-2 to secure her first singles win in an ITF. Devan will now meet Beth in the last 16.
Devan taking on a backhand
Devan finished her match at 3.45pm and as I hadn’t eaten since breakfast at 7am we went to get some lunch. Unfortunately they had closed it all down so it was a Cheese and Tomato sandwich for me and a Salad Roll for Dev, which was actually some salad wrapped in a lettuce leaf!
I then went through the post match analysis with each player before we were back on the practise court until 6.30pm – 11 hours at the club – and tomorrow is going to be much the same but I love it!!
Schedule for tomorrow:
Farah Abdel-Aziz (GBR) vs (1) Yasmin Ebada (EGY) – 2nd on after 9am
Felix Taube (SWE) vs (3) Isaac Stoute (GBR) – 2nd on after 9am
Devan McCluskey (USA) & Beth Askew (GBR) vs Emmanuelle De Beer (NED) & India Sanders (GBR) – 2nd on after 9am
(4) Farah Abdel-Aziz (GBR) & Michelle Onyancha (KEN) vs Ivy Nafula Rahedi (KEN) & Gloria Rotich (KEN) – 5th after 9am
Felix Taube (SWE) & Rishi Shah (GBR) vs Christain Barbera Martinez (ITA) & Isa Mammetgulyyev (TKM) – 5th after 9am
