Saturday 24th May 2014
After a successful week in Podgorica last year where we ended up winning the doubles title, it was great to be back again and to prepare for U18 ITF Grade 5 at the Eminent tennis club.
I met Holly Horsfall and Camille Verden-Anderson at Stansted airport this morning at the ridiculously early hour of 5am and, after successfully negotiating the Ryanair check-in desk (not an easy task with so much baggage!) we ended up clearing security just before 6am. We then got some breakfast and boarded the packed plane ready for our 3 hour direct flight to Podgorica. For me the flight went very quick but then I did sleep for probably 2 ½ hours of it!
When we arrived in Podgorica we collected our bags and then were met at the airport by Sasha, the hotel manager, who I had got to know last year. He took us straight to the official tournament hotel and then after checking in we unpacked and met at the hotel restaurant for lunch. Holly Horsfall’s memory of what was on the menu and what we ate last year was phenomenal, I just wish I’d listened to her and asked for tomato sauce with my chicken tagliatelle as there was way too much of the creamy sauce!
After a quick trip down the road to the supermarket to stock up on water, we got a taxi to the tennis club at 2.30pm and then got on court to start our warm-up by 2.45pm. Even though everyone was still tired from the early start and the long morning of travel we had a really good hour and a half of training.
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Holly (left) and Camille (right) working hard on their volleys this afternoon
We practised this afternoon in a 3 so that the player on their own always got a quality ball coming back and both Holly and Camille worked really hard throughout the session. Some players find it easy to get used to playing on red clay but others find it more difficult and that is why we made the decision to come out here early to get a lot of training in before the girls have to play their first match.
When we came off court we had a good stretch out and then were picked up by Sasha at 5pm to go back to the hotel.
Like last year, we will probably end up having dinner most evenings at the hotel as the food is of a good quality and is pretty cheap – tonight I had a very nice (and big!) Mexican chicken and rice and it came to €7.50! During dinner Holly got the ball rolling on the forfeits and we introduced Camille to our daily games of ‘Chase the Ace’ – I’ve got a funny feeling that the forfeits are going to get a lot worse as the week goes on!!
Once we had finished dinner Holly and Camille went back to their room to complete some school work and then relax while I went to see a physio to try and alleviate some tightness in my neck that I’ve had for a couple of days.
We’ve got a full day of training planned for tomorrow and then we’ll wait to see if Camille will be in qualifying or if she has (more than likely) moved up into the main draw.
