Wednesday 16th February 2011
It was another long day today at The Nairobi Sports Club but at least we managed to complete Devan and Beth’s singles matches, the doubles however were not so fortunate.
Following heavy rain, thunder and lightning overnight I got over to the courts at 6.45am this morning to check out the state of the courts – it wasn’t pretty:
Play in 2 hours? No chance!
I then went back to the club to meet the girls for breakfast who weren’t too pleased with having to get up early for nothing! We went back over to the courts and were told there would be no play before midday so we decided to go to the supermarket to get some water. When we got there it was still shut as the manager was stuck in traffic – not the news the girls wanted to hear:
Sitting and waiting - Happy days!
As the sun came out and the courts began to dry we warmed up and went through some specific footwork drills through the ladder for 20 mins. It’s important that the players don’t get bored during rainy days so short periods of activity are great to keep them energised while not wasting too much energy. We didn’t have a chance to practise on the courts before Devan went on but Beth and Devan did hit against the practise wall and then hit some volleys and smashes on the hockey pitch to get themselves warm and ready to play.
Devan went on around 2pm and started a little erratically but managed to take a 3-2 lead before 6th seed Michelle Onyancha broke twice and held twice to take the 1st set 6-3. Devan was quite inconsistent during the 1st set and a change of racket at the start of the 2nd gave her the chance to commit more to her shots. It did the trick and Devan raced to a 4-0 lead before being pegged back to 4-3 but managed to keep her head and take the set 6-4. The 3rd set then followed a similar pattern to the 1st with Devan being too inconsistent and not being able to find the balance between consistency and pace. She did very well to fight back from 4-1 down to 4-3 and had 15-40 on the Kenyan’s serve at 3-4 and 4-5 but couldn’t convert finally going down 6-3, 4-6, 6-4. A very tough loss but hopefully Devan learnt a lot from the match and will use it in her last event next week.
Beth had gone on at the Public Service Club at the start of Devan’s 3rd set so as soon as Devan had finished I had my bag on my back and was off running around the corner to watch her play. When I arrived Beth was 5-1 up on the finalist from last week and was playing very well. She had 6 set points in total and was broken at 5-2 but at no time did she let her head drop and she stuck to her tactics finally taking the set 6-4. The second was just as good as the 1st with Beth playing her strong lefty game taking the Madagascan girl off the court at every opportunity. She again went 5-1 but a little slip in concentration (not helped by the referee who didn’t know what he was doing!) cost her the next 2 games. At 5-3 Beth regained her focus and played 4 great points in that game to take a very deserved and impressive win 6-4, 6-3. Beth’s come on a long way since losing to Devan last week and her confidence is growing everyday.
We got back to the club just before 6pm to find out that the doubles had been cancelled and there were still no practise courts as they were using every one for matches. Beth had a good cool down with Farah around the Hockey pitch, they then all stretched out before we headed back for a quick shower and an early dinner.
Schedule for tomorrow:
(8) Beth Askew (GBR) (872) vs Winner of (4) Dawda (KEN) (662) vs Szupper (AUT) (UNR) – 3rd on after 9am
2 rounds of doubles to follow for Devan & Beth and Farah & Beatrice Lombardo (ITA).
