Nairobi U18 ITF Grade 5, Day 3

Sunday 3^rd February 2013

It was a positive day for Holly and Alex today while Anais had a very tight 1^st round match that didn’t quite go her way.

Even though Holly was scheduled for 2^nd match on today we stuck to our normal routine of breakfast at 7am, warm up at 7.40am and then straight on court for our tennis session at 8am. As Anais was scheduled for 4^th match on she decided to hit later at 10am and Alex had decide to go with Jay to the Public Service Club to get a whole court for an hour so it was just Holly and I for her pre-match hit. We ended up training for around 45 minutes as Holly wanted to spend longer working on her serve and return but by the end of the session she was timing the ball well and ready for her match.

The match before Holly’s was moving very quickly but she completed her pre-match sheet and then we spoke about what she was looking to achieve in the match before she went on just after 10am. Having had quite a lot of experience of players I’ve travelled with playing against Kenyan wildcards I knew that the match was probably going to be quite straightforward but it’s always important for the players to play not just for the win but to develop and improve for the next round. Holly went about her business well today against Alvas Wahome and quickly rapped up a 6-2, 6-0 win in under an hour. She had a little difficulty with her serve throughout the match but she hit well from the back of the court and played a really good last game to finish off a comfortable victory.

While Holly was on court Anais hit with Ria Vaidya from Singapore who is another player that is a good friend of hers and also the top seed this week. After their session Anais watched Holly’s match and then it was time to go through her own preparations before she went on court at 12.30pm to face Sasha Alexander who had beaten her in the ¼ finals last week. Anais was really up for some revenge and her preparations for the match over the last couple of days had been excellent.

As the two players had played last week they knew each other’s games well but Anais was playing much better today and was finding a much more consistent level in each point. The whole of the first set went with serve with either player not really getting close to breaking the other’s serve; Sasha was serving much more consistently compared to last week and the double faults that had haunted Anais throughout the previous match were gone. When it got to the tie-break Sasha was the first one to step up and she immediately took a 3-0 lead. Anais won the next 2 points but a few too many unforced errors cost her as she eventually went down 7-2.

The second set was much the same as the first with Sasha doing most of the dictating but Anais fought hard to stay in the rally and was prepared to wait for Sasha to miss. Anais got a breakthrough at 2-1* when she broke Sasha’s serve but then she immediately gave up the break with some poor serving in the next game. It was looking like another tie-break was on the cards but at *5-5 Anais gave up a *40-15 lead and was broken which left Sasha to serve for the match. Anais responded superbly by playing a very smart game and got the break back to take the 2^nd set to a tie-break but it was Sasha that once again started the better out of the two of them. She took a 4-0 lead before Anais got a point on the board but it was a little too late as by that stage Sasha was full of confidence and she went on to take the tie-break 7-3.

It was a really tough match to sit through on the side of the court let alone play and to go down 7-6, 7-6 after two and a half hours of constant battling is always going to be a tough result to digest. Anais as always looked on the positive side of things and she knows she’s starting to find some better form which is why she made the decision after the match to stay on for another week on her own to play the third tournament. She’s got a very mature and professional attitude which is so refreshing to see and hopefully she’ll get the results she deserves next week.

After a quick chat with Anais she went back to the hotel to shower and change while Holly, Alex and I went over to the Public Service Club together so that Holly could work on her serve and Alex could work on his return. Earlier Alex had drawn himself out of the hat to get into the doubles draw; there were 3 pairs that all had the same entry priority but there were only 2 spaces in the draw so he was quite fortunate to pick his own number!

 

Holly served for around 45 minutes and found a really good level before I stepped in to bang down some serves to prepare her for playing Sasha tomorrow.

After the session we made our way back to the club to cool down and stretch out and then I met up with Anais to go through some tournament planning for the next 3 or 4 months. Dinner tonight was not as lively as it has been as most of us were feeling quite tired after a long day but it did include my first forfeit of the trip which saw me complete some swimming by the side of the pool!!

Schedule for tomorrow:

Sasha Alexander (AUS) (1136) vs Holly Hutchinson (GBR) (1615) – 4^th match after 9am

John Lutaaya (UGA) & Alex Meseguer (ESP) vs Alex Hagon (GBR) & Olivier Havugimana (RWA) – 5^th match after 9am