Wednesday 20th April 2011
Dave took a tough loss today but responded very professionally and ended the day on a positive note.
It was another early start today, Dave was playing first match on at 8.30am so we had breakfast at 6.20am and then started are pre-match warm up at 7.10am at the club. The physical warm up for some players is often non existent but I think it’s very important and it’s worth getting up that bit earlier to make sure your body is ready to train as soon as you step on the court. Dave’s warm up included some skipping, a light jog, his dynamic stretches followed by his injury prevention band work and then some movement exercises to make sure he is sharp as soon as he hits the first ball. He hit this morning with his doubles partner; Samm Butler, who was also playing first on and they had a solid hit for 30 minutes until 8am. Dave then got ready before we went through the plan for the match and set some pre-match goals.
The match didn’t start well as Zvonimir Podvinski from Croatia broke Dave in the first game and then again at 3-1 to go on to take the set 6-2. Dave hadn’t really got going and it looked as though he didn’t have a clear plan for each point he played. At the end of the set he took a toilet break and it seemed to refocus him as he came out fighting harder and more prepared to stay in the point. The second set went with serve until 4-3 when Dave got the break and played a great service game to take the set 6-3. The third followed a similar pattern to the first as Dave sat back a little more waiting for Podvinski to miss but the opposite happened and he actually hit more winners in the first 3 games of the third than he did in the whole of the second set! After 25 mins Dave found himself 5-1 but he wasn’t about to give up yet! He fought hard and Podvinski started to get a little nervous as his normally solid game started to desert him – up until 6-2, 3-6, 5-1 up Podvinski had hit 28 unforced errors but in the next 5 games he managed to hit 22! He also missed out on 4 match points at 5-2! Dave had also stepped up more but the 22 errors in the five games meant that Dave was now serving for the match at 6-5. The next game took over ten minutes and despite saving 5 break points Dave lost his serve so it was onto a tie-break. Dave went 3-0 up but then a poor choice to hit a drop volley cost him and he then went 3-4 down. It was then close until Dave double faulted at 4-5 gifting Podvinski another match point. Dave saved the first one but a huge serve down the T from Podvinski gave him the match 6-2, 3-6, 7-6(5) in just over 2 hours 30 mins.
As you can imagine Dave was very disappointed but we went back to the hotel, he showered, stretched, went through the match in detail and then we returned to the club for some lunch.
I believe the quote is “It’s not what happens to you in life but it’s how you react to it that matters” and Dave’s response to today’s match was very professional. Once our lunch had been digested we were out running around the streets of Mostar at a pretty quick pace (thanks Dave, I’m going to feel that tomorrow!!) for 30 minutes before going into the park to do some core and fitness until 5pm. It showed real character for Dave to be up for training so soon after his loss and I was up for it too, we pushed each other and got a lot out of the training to finish the day on a positive note.
We met up with Samm and his Dad for dinner this evening by the Old Bridge, the company was great but the food was not – most of it ended up being fed to the local cats!! We then had a walk back to the club to find the girls still competing at 8.30pm!
View was amazing . . . food was not!
An even earlier started tomorrow as Dave and Samm are going to play a practise set in the morning but due to matches starting at 8.30am we’re going to have to get to the club for 6.40am to warm up and be ready to start hitting at 7am.
Schedule for tomorrow:
(4) David Hodgetts (GBR) & Samm Butler (GBR) vs Stjepan Cagalj (CRO) & Tomislav Draganja (CRO) – 6th round on after 8.30am
