Tuesday 29th January 2013
We had one win today, one loss and one very good training day – all in all a pretty good effort from the whole team.
We had a more relaxed start today as Holly wasn’t scheduled until 4th on and Alex had to wait for a match to be completed before he could play his consolation match. That meant the players could have a much needed lie in and so we met for breakfast at 8.45am. After breakfast Anais and I went to the local bank to change some money and then it was back to the hotel to meet up with Alex and Holly to go to the club to warm up. Our morning session today was from 10.30 – 11am but we managed to stay on the court a little longer and because Ricky had joined us for the session it meant we could do some really good doubles specific work while I worked with both teams.
Once we were done it was time to visit the local supermarket to stock up on more water (Anais drank over 8 litres yesterday!) before returning to the club to watch some of the main draw matches.
Alex was next on for his second training session of the day; he hit with Alexis Canter for an hour and found a really good level despite the terrible condition of the practice courts. The boys worked hard during the drills that we did and then they finished the session with a very close match tie-break where Alexis just scraped it in the end 11-9.
Alex and Alexis training today
The session finished around 1pm which gave me just about enough time to grab some lunch before Holly went on for her doubles at just after 1.30pm. Because of the mix up with Holly’s original doubles partner she teamed up with Maria Ong from the Philippines to take on Mariam Mujawaimana from Burundi and Nidhi Surapaneni from India. We knew it was going to be a tough match as Nidhi is in the ¼ finals of the singles and Holly’s partner had struggled in the main draw. Holly and Maria broke in the first game and then went on to take a 3-0 lead after a couple of sudden death deuce points before Maria was broken in the next game. The girl’s didn’t let that distract them and broke back straight away but when Holly was broken in the very next game they lost their way resulting in losing the next 2 games in a row. At *4-3 it was looking very tight but after Maria held her serve for the first time and then Holly served well to hold at 5-4 they took the first set 6-4. In total there had been 6 sudden death deuces and our girls took 5 of them!
The second set started the same as the first but at 3-0 up Maria lost her serve poorly and then Holly was broken at *3-2 which eventually lead to the girls losing a total of 6 games in a row; going from 3-0 up to 6-3 down. It was a poor set from Holly and Maria but to their credit they bounced back in the match tie-break and after a good start never looked back taking it 10-5. Maria was a different player in the match tie-break compared to the second set so hopefully she can bring more of that level to the court for the ¼ final tomorrow.
While Holly was on for her doubles Alex went on for the 1st round of the consolation and he was facing a tough match in Ernest Habiyambere who he had played against yesterday in the singles. I arrived at the court just as Alex had lost the first set; he said he was playing well but had just missed out on quite a few games due to losing the sudden death deuce point. He started well in the second set though and took a 2-1 lead with some good aggressive play from the back of the court. Unfortunately a poor service game at *2-2 and at *2-4 meant that he had a big mountain to climb if he was to turn the set around. As always Alex was up for a fight; he broke in the next game, then held serve well and I thought he was going to level the set at 5-5 but another sudden death deuce didn’t go his way and he ended up going down 6-2, 6-4. Overall he played well and was much more aggressive than he had been previously which was great to see but it’s tough to play against a lot of these guys that are older and stronger than he is. He’s got another match tomorrow though and will keep developing and improving as he prepares for next week.
As soon as Alex was done I was straight on court with Anais at 4pm for her second session of the day. All of the girls in the singles ¼ finals had a rest day and as Anais had a bye in the doubles it meant it was just a day of practice for her. We had a very good practice for just over an hour and even the downpour of rain didn’t stop us, in fact it made the court even better! We worked on the specifics that Anais would need to implement tomorrow which included me having to bang down loads of serves to match the pace that the tall Australian serves at – hard work but well worth it.
After cooling down and stretching out everyone returned to the hotel together to change before dinner. We had a time-out from the forfeits last night but tonight they were back with a vengeance and one of the best was Alex doing an Olympic-style torch procession with our table candle around the restaurant and swimming pool!!
Not quite the Olympic Flame but the best we could do!!
Schedule for tomorrow:
(8) Sasha Alexander (AUS) (1127) vs (2) Anais Nussaume (THA) (458) – 1st match at 9am
(1) Dona Abo Habaga (EGY) & Nelise Verster (RSA) vs Holly Hutchinson (GBR) & Maria Ong (PHI) – 3rd match after 9am, not before 12pm
Margaux Bovy (BEL) & Nina Van Oost (BEL) vs (2) Alena Mashtkova (RUS) & Anais Nussaume (THA) – 3rd match after 9am, not before 12pm
Boy’s consolation to be arranged as players become available.
