Wednesday 5th December 2012
It was another long hot day today at the Mombasa Sports Club today and after Mason had a disappointing 1st round loss last week he’s definitely making up for it this week with another good performance against a good player.
As Mason was 2nd on today after 9am we all met for breakfast at 7am and went over to the club for an early morning warm up. The team was a little split today as I hit with Mason to prepare him for his match from 8.30 – 9am, Holly hit with one of the Russian girls to prepare herself for the consolation event and Mia had a long warm up and stretching session before seeing the physio about her back.
Everyone was done by just after 9am and as I had a feeling that the match scheduled before Mason’s could be over very quickly we immediately sat down after the hit to go through his pre-match talk. Mason was very positive and quite rightly so after how he’s been training and competing in the last week so we reiterated the specific goals to keep him focused before we went on.
The match before Mason’s was over in 50 minutes so at 10am he took to the court to face 8th seed Frederik Oervad from Denmark. We now know Frederik well after spending the last two weeks with Dave’s Euroelite team so Mason knew he’d have to show the same kind of fight as he did last week and as Mason put it on his pre-match sheet “keep him out there all day”!
The first 5 games all went with serve and both players were looking in control during their own service games but Mason played a loose game at *2-3 to get broken for the first time. He then did well to break back but another service game of only getting 2 / 6 first serves in and not taking control of the point early enough meant that Frederik could serve for the first set at *5-3. Frederik held serve comfortably to love to take the set and then won the next two games to lead 6-3, 2-0 before a big turning point occurred in the match.
Mason had been a little tight with his hitting and wasn’t quite dominating the points like he did yesterday but at *0-2 *0-30 something clicked in his game and suddenly things started to look up. Mason had been fighting hard throughout the first set but now he had more spring in his step after holding serve and then breaking to level the set at 2-2*. Frederik then held but that was the last game that he won in the set as Mason took the next 4 games with some very consistent play that his opponent didn’t have an answer for.
Mason serving during his hard fought 3rd round win
As they started the third I had the sense that all of the momentum was now with Mason and the winners that Frederik had been hitting in the first set were now being dealt with while at the same time Mason was increasing his winner count. Mason won the first 4 games of the 3rd set and despite a wobble at 4-0 when he was broken and Frederik held Mason managed to get back on track and take the next two games to seal an extremely hard fought 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 win in 2 hours and 40 minutes. Mason was very pleased at the end and I was extremely pleased with how much desire and heart he showed to turn a match around even when he wasn’t playing his best tennis. Hard work should always be a given but when it’s combined with the kind of fight and determination that Mason showed today then in my opinion the player cannot lose whether the scoreline goes their way or not.
After a good cool down and stretch out we went back to the hotel for Mason to relax in an air-conditioned room before we had some lunch.
At 2.30pm we were back at the club for Mia to warm up for her practice session of the day with her doubles partner while Holly went on court a little later for her 1st round consolation match against Yashvi Radia from Kenya. I was very pleased that Holly chose to do the consolation for extra matches as she could have said that her tournament is over and that there would not be any purpose in playing but she made a very professional decision. Holly played well in the match and even though it was a very comfortable 4-0, 4-1 victory she went about her business with the right attitude and developed her game during the match.
Mia courtside keeping up with her school work
At 4.30pm all of the team (including Mason who had not played this afternoon) went over to the cricket pitch to have a full cool down and stretch out before we headed back to the hotel at just before 5.15pm.
We met the Euroelite girls and Dave for dinner tonight which meant it was a “card-free” meal which, after the forfeits of the last two nights, I’m sure Mia and Holly were very happy about!!
Schedule for tomorrow:
(6) Mia Smith (GBR) (782) vs (2) Elizabeth Kapari (GHA) () – 1st match at 9am
(12) Mason Recci (GBR) (1017) vs (2) Joshua Luck (RSA) () – 1st match at 9am
Mia Smith (GBR) & Shannon Wong Hon Chan (MRI) vs Matabe Akoachere (CMR) & Natsumi Okamoto (JPN) – 3rd match after 9am (not before 12pm)
Felipe Cunha Silva (POR) & Carlos Donat (ESP) vs (5) Sacha Modica (GBR) & Mason Recci (GBR) – 4th match after 9am
