Monday 30th January 2012
It was a good day both on the training court and the match court today as Mia played her first round main draw while the boys worked hard in preparation for their doubles tomorrow.
Early start - the view over the cricket pitch from the hotel
Like usual when the players are out of the singles it’s difficult to book practice courts so I decided last night that Jack, Tom and I would start early today before the main draw players turned up. Therefore we were at breakfast when it opened at 7am and then we made our way over to the courts to warm up at 7.30am. At this stage the courts weren’t lined and the nets weren’t up on any of the courts but by the time we’d warmed up at 8am all the courts were ready and looking good – it’s amazing how the ground staff do it but they manage to get the courts in a pretty good condition.
We had planned on training for an hour but because people didn’t turn up for their bookings we actually managed to stay on the court for an hour and a half which gave both boys a great opportunity to work specifically on their serves without having other players on court. Both the boys worked very hard and were happy with their levels by the time we finished at 9.30am. As we were leaving the court Mia and Dawn arrived so, while the boys went through their strength and conditioning work I left site with Mia to warm her up for her singles match at the Public Service Club around the corner. It was quite busy over there as they are much better than the practice courts on site but I managed to sweet talk the grounds man into letting us use a member’s court! We had a good practice and Mia found the best level she’s played at since we arrived so by the time we finished around 11.15am she was definitely ready for her 1st round match.
Mia was due to be on 4th match after 9.30am but the first 2 rounds on court 1 went to 3 long sets so the 3rd round of matches didn’t actually start until after 2pm. This gave Jack and Tom a chance to talk with me in detail about their matches before Tom was back on court for his second session of the day from 1.30 – 3pm. Today was also doubles sign in day and Jack and Tom made the wise decision to find separate partners to give them more of a chance to get into the draw. Their good thinking paid off as they both found main draw partners with rankings which meant they were inside the cut-off for the draw – if they had decided to play together or if they had signed in with a main draw player without a ranking they wouldn’t have got in.
Mia took to the court just before 4.30pm against Sarah Schaerer from Switzerland. She knew that this was a good opportunity to earn some good points in her first Grade 4 main draw and she went into the match looking very focused and up for a tough match. She started well by breaking in the first game and then took a 2-0 lead before the feisty Swiss girl won the next 3 games in a row to go ahead 3-2. In the past this would have really got to Mia but she remained calm and fought very hard in tough conditions to win the next 4 games in a row to take the first set 6-3.
Mia started the 2nd set where she left off from in the 1st and it wasn’t long before her consistency and quality from the back of the court really had a negative effect on her opponent – so much so that Sarah ended up firing a tennis balls at her mum who was sitting in the stands! This was a great time for Mia to step up and finish off her opponent and she did that with great professionalism taking 5 games in row from 1-1 to take the match 6-3, 6-1.
Even though it was a very good performance from Mia we still went back on the practice court for another 10-15 minutes just to tighten up a few areas on her serve before she had a good cool down and stretch out.
We all then went back to our rooms to shower and change before having dinner at the hotel tonight. It wasn’t as good as the Fairview Hotel and we did have a little trouble working out exactly what part of the cow Jack’s steak had come from (!!) but we’d all had a long day so it was the easier option. It also gave us a chance to play some more cards and have some good banter before having an early night.
No singles for Mia tomorrow so it’s just down to the doubles.
Schedule for tomorrow:
Mateuzs Izycki (POL) & Jack Large (GBR) vs Maxim Dmitriev (RUS) & Palash Mishra (IND) – 3rd match after 9.30am (not before 12pm)
Aakash Goyal (IND) & Tom Hulme (GBR) vs Henry Ayesiga (UGA) & Shabani Kabura (BDI) – 4th match after 9.30am
Kasandra Kozub (POL) & Krystyna Shumlianska (UKR) vs Anastasjia Homutova (LAT) & Mia Smith (GBR) – 6th match after 9.30am
