Thursday 31st January 2013
It was Alex’s turn today to get a win on the board while both Holly and Anais struggled in their doubles ¼ final matches.
Our plan today was to get up early for a 7am breakfast and then hit at 8am but when we got to the courts to warm up at 7.40am we found that the overnight rain had completely soaked the courts and we were told there would be no play before 10am. We returned to the clubhouse to relax and then made our way back over to warm up at 9.30am but when we got there the courts were in the same state as before! Eventually we were told that play would start around 11am and the players would have a longer warm up (as there weren’t any practice court available) so all of the players went through their physical warm ups expecting to be 1st on but the referee then changed the schedule so that the singles matches could start first. That meant that we had a bit of time to kill and rather than stopping the players during their warm up I let them finish and then took them through a speed and movement session for 10-15 minutes.
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Anais, Jay, Alex and Holly (on the steps!) during the movement session today
After the session the players got some food and then watched some of the main draw singles matches before it was time for them to go on. Holly was first on with partner Maria Ong and they were facing a bit of an uphill battle as when play was suspended yesterday they were 5-3 down with Nelise Verster serving for the set. When they resumed play Nelise and Dona Abo Habaga held serve and then continued to put pressure on Holly and Maria as they took a 2-0* lead in the second set. Maria then held serve and Holly held well at *1-3 but both of them really struggled with their returns only managing to return 5 serves in total in the whole set. Despite trying to take on as much as she could and doing her very best to cover as much of the net as possible Holly wasn’t able to stop Nelise and Dona from targeting Maria with a lot of balls. After Maria was broken at *2-4 Dona held serve to take the second set and the match 6-3, 6-2. Holly was disappointed with the loss but knew that it was always going to be difficult with an inexperienced partner so now the hunt begins for a new partner for next week!
Whilst Holly was on court Alex went on for his next consolation match and to his credit he prepared very professionally completing his pre-match sheet and talking to me about his goals before he went on. The consolation today was only 1 set so it was important that Alex started well and kept his focus throughout. He did just that and cruised through the set 6-1 against a player who had been in the main draw this week which will hopefully give him a good boost for qualifying of week 2 on Saturday. Alex will now play one more consolation match tomorrow to try and fine tune his game and then we might have a second session in the afternoon if he feels as though he needs it.
Anais and Alena were next on at 2pm and were immediately facing two set points when the match resumed at *4-5, *30-40. They ended up losing the next point but after almost completely turning the 1st set around yesterday they knew what they needed to do today and consequently they started the 2nd set really well racing to a 4-0 lead. The Belgians weren’t about to roll over though and after one of them had already won her singles semi-final earlier in the day they both fought hard to get back into the set. It was looking comfortable at 5-1* but then Alena struggled in her service game and after their opponents held serve it was up to Anais to serve for the set at *5-4. The nerves that had been apparent in her singles match yesterday were not bothering Anais today and she held well to take the 2nd set and level the match. Now match tie-breaks can often be a bit of a lottery and if you can get a bit of a lead at the start it can be tough for the opponents to come back, unfortunately it was the Belgians that took a 5-0 lead and they never once looked like giving it up as they eventually went on to take it 10-4. Anais and Alena just didn’t play well enough when it really mattered but on another day they could have easily won that match in straight sets.
Having not had time for lunch due to trying to keep on top of what was happening with the re-scheduling of the matches I sat down with Alex and Holly at around 3pm to get some food before it was back over to the courts to be on court with Holly from 4.30-5.30pm. Holly is still maintaining a great level of hitting and it seems as though the work that she did back in Halton with Mike James before we came out has really sunk in. She’s added a very important dimension to her game and hopefully she will build on that over the next few months to get her ready for the summer.
When we were done we cooled down and then headed back to the hotel to shower and change before dinner. We had hoped to join the team from the Bath International High Performance Centre who had landed from England this morning but they all went for the pasta buffet in the other restaurant. It’ll be good to train alongside those boys this week and it’s good to see “newbie” coach Jamie Feaver on the road as his professionalism and wealth of playing experience will be a huge asset for the boys.
Schedule for tomorrow:
Shabani Kabura (BDI) (UNR) vs Alex Hagon (GBR) (UNR) – 3rd match after 9am
