Tuesday 4th December 2012
It was the hottest day of the trip so far today as temperatures reached close to 40°C and for two of our team it was a successful day while for the other one it was not!
After an 8.30am breakfast we got to the courts at 9.30am and straightaway began the physical warm up for our 10am practice session. Originally Mason was going to warm up with me but as Isaac Stoute needed to also warm up for his match they ended up hitting together – saved me a work out! After half an hour all three of the team were hitting well and ready for their matches, now it was just a case of waiting until the 3rd round of matches on their courts.
The whole team + Isaac warming up together this morning
Having finished the practice at 10.30am there was a long wait due to a lot of the matches before ours going to 3 sets. That meant that the players had to plan what time they would eat and also make sure that they stayed hydrated as the temperature was really starting to heat up.
Holly was first on out of the team at around 1.30pm to face top seed Nikita Dawda from Kenya. Nikita is a tricky player and despite not having a huge amount to her game she is very competitive and works hard so Holly knew she’d have to play smart and structure the points well. Holly played a fantastic opening game by stretching Nikita wide in each rally and earning either the short ball or the drive volley which she then put away but after that game the smart tennis dried up. To go from 1-0 up to 6-1 down Holly hit 25 unforced errors in 6 games and Nikita only actually hit 2 winners / forcing shots. It was completely the opposite of how we said we were going to play but to Holly’s credit she fought hard in the second set and started to make some in-roads into the match.
Holly was broken at *1-1 and despite starting to play smarter and more consistent tennis she just couldn’t manage to get the break back. She was then broken again at *2-4 but played her best game of the match to break straight back to *3-5, unfortunately she couldn’t build on the previous game and ended up going down 6-1, 6-3. It was a disappointing match but one that I think Holly will really learn from and it will help her in future events when she comes up against that type of gamestyle.
Mia had started while Holly was in the middle of her 2nd set and when I occasionally looked over during Holly’s change of ends I witnessed some of the best tennis I’ve ever seen from Mia; she seemed to really be up for the match and looked like there was no way she was ever going to lose it! Mia was 3-0 up in the 1st set but Vicky Geurinckx from Belgium fought back to 3-2 before Mia twisted on a wide ball and hurt her back. When I moved over to sit behind her court she was in quite a bit of pain but managed to get the lead to 5-3 before she called on the physio. After some treatment she came out and held serve to take the set 6-3 – apparently the physio put some ultra-hot cream on her back but it obviously did the job!
During the 2nd set Mia continued to really work hard and a few of the games went on for at least 10 minutes as neither player was willing to give up a single point without a fight. Mia broke in the second game and then again at 3-1* after a 7 deuce game with some exceptional hitting. When Mia wants to she can be very tough to beat and today was one of those days where she wasn’t going to leave the court until she had won the match! She took the next two games to seal a very good 6-3, 6-1 win. After the match she went straight to the physio and then cooled down and changed before joining me to support Mason for his singles match.
All of the games had been overlapping which really kept me on my toes; Holly and Mia where on at the same time, then Holly finished and Mason started and finally when Mia was done Holly went on that court at 4.15pm for her doubles. Somehow I managed to keep track and make notes on each match but Mason did do me a favour by playing superbly well to beat last week’s semi-finalist 6-0, 6-1. I have been saying all week that Mason could do some damage this week and today he got his campaign off to a flyer. He dominated from the start and, unlike last week, he looked very confident all the way through the match. He was serving much better and controlling the baseline with consistently aggressive tennis as he took the first 11 games of the match while Keshav Vellodi from the USA did not know what had hit him. Mason dropped the 12 game of the match but served it out in style and was a very happy boy indeed at the end!
Mason wasn’t done there though and after the match he went straight back on court with Sacha Modica for another 30 minutes of excellent drilling. While Mason did that I moved across 2 courts to watch Holly and Hannah Brett take on top seeds Nikita Dawda and Valentina Kulikova.
Holly and Hannah started poorly and immediately went 5-0 down before finally getting a game on the board but that was all they did get in that set as Nikita and Valentina took it 6-1. Holly and Hannah showed good fight though at the start of the 2nd set and they broke in the second game to take a 2-0 lead. They then held onto the break until *3-2 when Hannah was broken and it was looking like that could spell the end of the match but both girls dug deep and played some good doubles to get a break back when it really counted to take the set 6-4.
By now the WIN Tennis boys were starting to find their voices and we all had a good feeling about the match tie-break. Unfortunately Nikita and Valentina played well in the breaker and once they got a lead they didn’t let up resulting in them taking the match 6-1, 4-6, 10-7.
Holly and Hannah during thier tight 3 set loss to the number 1 seeds
Holly was very disappointed to lose twice to Nikita in one day but in both matches she fought hard and unfortunately just came up short. Holly is now done for the 2nd week but she will sign in for consolation tomorrow to get some extra matches in while Mason and Mia are still competing.
We found out just before Holly’s doubles that Mia and Shannon had a walkover against the 4th seeds due to one of them being injured so once Holly was done we all headed over to the cricket pitch for a long cool down and stretch out to end the day.
Dinner tonight was just as eventful as last night with some trolley service for Holly and some interesting pictures for Mia!!
.jpg "Holly with her trolley and Mia with her new friend!")
Holly with her trolley and Mia with her new friend!
Schedule for tomorrow:
(8) Frederik Oervad (DEN) (860) vs (12) Mason Recci (GBR) (1017) – 2nd match after 9am
