Sunday 29th January 2012
After two days of preparation the boy’s kicked off their qualifying campaign today while Mia had another day before main draw starts tomorrow.
As Mia wasn’t competing she had a lie in while Jack, Tom and I all met for breakfast at 7.20am. We then headed across the cricket pitch at 8.30am to warm up before going on court at 9am for the boy’s pre-match hit. Both of them were hitting the ball well, especially Tom who was a little nervous last night and by 9.30am they were ready for their first round qualifying matches.
Tom and Jack during their pre-match training
Jack was first on at 10am against a tricky American opponent in Victor Gurevich but from the start it was very obvious that this wasn’t the same Jack Large that was out in Burundi with me. His confidence in his game has improved hugely and the hard work and professional approach that Jack has each day has resulted in big improvements in the last 2 months.
Jack started well breaking in the first game and then holding to take a 2-0 lead but lost his concentration a little to give away the next game with 3 unforced errors. He regained his focus to then take a 4-1 lead and despite the next 3 games being very close Jack ended up coming through to take the set 6-2. That was a big difference to the player I watched in Burundi where a couple of close games would have caused Jack’s head to drop a little resulting in a complete turn around in the set. Not now though and Jack then went on to race through the 2nd set 6-1. Victor made Jack work hard for it and as I said to him at the end the score line didn’t reflect how close the match was or how tricky his opponent made the match for Jack – a good win and a great start to the tournament.
While Jack was in the middle of his 2nd set Tom went onto court 2 for his 1st round match against Oskar Michalek from Poland. This was Tom’s first ITF event and even though he was feeling nervous last night he didn’t look it and was hitting the ball very well. Unfortunately Michalek was a tough opponent and looked very comfortable with both the altitude and the bouncy courts. Tom lost the first 4 games but fought back to 2-4* before going losing the 1st set 6-2. There wasn’t a lot between the two players; Tom was hitting well from the back and forcing his opponent to earn each point but it was Oskar who just seemed to have the edge when it came to the important points.
Tom continued to work very hard and apply himself mentally very well but the difference between the two players was 1) consistency and 2) the amount of winners that were hit. Tom finished the set with 2 winners and 15 unforced errors whereas Oskar ended up with 6 winners and 6 unforced errors. I like to call the difference between the two statistics the “aggressive balance” therefore Tom finished the set with -12 and Oskar finished the set with 0. Looking at those results you can tell that Oskar would have taken the set and he did take it 6-1. I was pleased with how Tom played the match and I believe the training over the next week will get him prepared to win this type of match when he plays qualifying for the next event next Sunday. Tom was also not too disappointed with his performance and, to my pleasure, knew exactly what he wanted to work on later in the day.
There was then only about 30 minutes left before Jack went back on for his last round qualifying match which just gave me time to eat some lunch and talk Jack through his pre-match briefing.
Jack was up against Tommaso Evangelisti from Italy who was the top seed in qualifying and had received a bye in the 1st round. Jack again started well and it was obviously that the match he had played earlier in the day had prepared him well to play against a higher ranked opponent. After 2 good service games Jack let the 3rd one slip too easily which gave the big serving lefty from Italy a 2-3* lead. At this stage Jack’s level dropped off – he’d only made 1 unforced error in the first 4 games while hitting 2 winners but in the next 5 games he hit 17 unforced errors and only managed 8 winners. It wasn’t easy as the Italian was hitting well from the back of the court, he was also serving very well and made Jack work very hard to hold his own serve. After being broken at *2-2 Jack was also broken at *3-5 to go down 6-3 in the 1st set.
Jack responded well and fought hard throughout the second set but the Italian raised his game which caused Jack to try to do more with the ball resulting in more errors. While Jack struggled with his serve Tommaso was serving at 64% and hit at least 1 ace per game. In the end it was just one break of serve at *3-4 which decided the set and Jack ended up going down 6-3, 6-3. Like Tom, Jack was quite pleased with his performance and I agreed with him when he said it was a much better performance than any he had had in Burundi.
While Jack cooled down and stretched I was back on court with Tom and Mia from 4-5.15pm. Mia had already played in the morning but wanted to play a few more points to prepare her for her match tomorrow so she hit with a girl from Ukraine while Tom trained with a Canadian boy who is in the main draw. Both of the players worked well; Tom worked on the areas that we had identified from his match while Mia just made sure she was feeling the ball well to gain confidence before tomorrow.
After the session Tom and Mia stretched out while the draw was being made and then we all showered and changed before we went back to the Fairview Hotel for another round of the buffet pasta! Jack and Tom definitely got value for their money as they piled up the food but it turned out that my plate ended up the biggest as I didn’t really take into account how much extra volume the vegetables would add to the meal!! When the food arrived I was reminded by the players my rule of “you’ve got to finish everything on your plate” but as the food was so nice I was quite happy to take my time and plough through it slowly.
We returned to the hotel for a quick game of cards but Tom decided to teach us a new game which ended up taking almost an hour to play!! I’m glad to say that I didn’t finish last but it was very close between me and Jack!
Schedule for tomorrow:
Sarah Schaerer (SUI) (UNR) vs Mia Smith (GBR) (1330) – 4th round after 9.30am
