Nairobi U18 ITF Grade 5, Day 5

Tuesday 5^th February 2013

It was a very long but extremely positive day today as all three players won their doubles matches which meant they all moved into the ¼ finals and in doing so Alex picked up his first ITF points.

It was an early start this morning as Anais had arranged to hit with her doubles partner from 8 – 8.30am to warm her up for her singles match and then afterwards we were joined by Holly and Alex who had a bit of a lie in as their doubles matches weren’t until this afternoon. All four of us then warmed up at just after 9.30am so that we were ready for our tennis session at 10am. The first 30 minutes of the session was spent going through our normal pre-match warm up, then the next 30 minutes was spent working on doubles specific work so that everyone was sharp at the next and confident coming forwards and then we ended the session with 30 minutes of point play to make sure everyone was ready to go!

At 11.30am we all headed back to the hotel to shower and change and get some lunch before it was back to the club just before 1pm so that Holly was ready for her match. As the matches on court 2 had been moving quite quickly this morning we thought that Holly would be on at her scheduled time of 1pm but a few of the courts needed watering and re-lining so Holly and Alena Mashtakova didn’t end up starting the match until 2pm.

Holly and Alena were facing local wildcards Lonah Bhwenje and Chizi Mutsumi and from the start it was obvious that Holly and Alena were just going to be too strong for the Kenyan girls. They raced through the first set very quickly taking it 6-0 and it was looking like the 2^nd set was going to end up the same way until a lapse of concentration when returning at 3-0 cost them that game. They got back on track though in the next game and ended up taking a comfortable 6-0, 6-1 win to take them through to the ¼ finals.

As Holly was finishing up the 2^nd set Anais and Ria Vaidya from Singapore went on the next court to play Lize Moolman from Namibia and Arki Truscott from Australia. Anais and Ria started the match very well and took a commanding 5-0* lead before taking the set 6-1. The girls had played together a couple of times before and they looked very confident as a pair but after breaking in the 2^nd set to take a *2-1 lead their concentration completely went which allowed Lize and Arki to get back into the match. From *2-1 up Anais and Ria found themselves 2-4* down and had to save two game points to prevent them from going 2-5 down but after breaking Arki in that game they got back on track and won the next 3 games in a row to take the match 6-1, 6-4. It was tighter than it should have been but at least the girls were tested in the 2^nd set which will help them to maintain their level and focus during the next round.

While Holly and Anais had been playing Alex had been sitting next to me cheering them on while he waited to go on for his match. During that time we talked a lot about his match, what his goals were and how to deal with the occasion as Alex knew this was a big opportunity for him to gain his first ITF points. As soon as Anais had finished Alex was straight on the same court with partner Olivier Huvigimana to face 6^th seeds Arian Ebrahimiyan from Iran and Aliaksandr Streltsas from Belarus. The first 2 games went with serve but then Alex was broken at *1-1 and then again at *2-4 before the 6^th seeds took the first set convincingly 6-2.

It wasn’t the kind of start that we’d been hoping for; Alex was struggling with his serve and his returns while the 6^th seeds played very confidently throughout. I knew that it was going to be really important for Alex and Olivier to stay close to their opponents at the start of the 2^nd set and fight really hard for every point. After Alex held serve at *1-1 for the first time in the match his confidence really grew which in turn improved the quality of his returning game and it just seemed a matter of time before him and Olivier would get a breakthrough. We did have a slight problem in the middle of the set as Olivier broke his strings and didn’t have another racket so he had to uses Alex’s!! That didn’t bother him one bit though and at 4-3*, 40-0* up it looked as though a break was on the cards but Alex and Olivier squandered their chances and once again the set was level. Olivier then put in a really solid service game and at 5-4* him and Alex finally got the break they deserved to take the match into a final set tie-break – game on!!

By this stage the crowds had grown and it seemed as though everyone left at the club was willing Alex on. Alex thrived off the encouragement and the normally quiet Olivier was getting pumped up too while their opponents seemed to have lost every bit of confidence that they had in the first set. With Alex and Olivier leading 2-0 in the match tie-break Arian Ebrahimiyan missed a smash right on top of the net and with the crowds cheering louder than ever they took a commanding 3-0 lead. Alex and Olivier then led 5-2 before the 6^th seeds clawed it back to 6-4 and at this stage everyone was starting to get a little nervous. We had no reason to though as Alex and Olivier got another mini-break and Olivier served two great points to set up match point at 9-4. Alex then pulled out a huge return off Ebrahimiyan’s 1^st serve and when the shot was not returned it was all over! The crowds went wild and so did Alex and Olivier on court – check out the video on the Facebook page – www.facebook.com/itctennis1.

Alex was ecstatic with the win and he really deserved it after the hard work he’s put in over the last two weeks. Sometimes getting your first ranking point is a lot harder than getting subsequent points but now Alex has that one under his belt I’m sure his confidence will grow and that will help his game develop very fast.

After everyone congratulated Alex he eventually made his way off the court to join Holly, Anais and I to get the biggest applause from his team. It was then back to business as Anais and Alex cooled down and stretched out before we returned to the hotel at 6.15pm with all of us still buzzing from the match! Almost 11 hours at the club today but it was all well worth it.

We were joined at dinner tonight by the Bath boys but it was obvious that the exploits of the day had really taken their toll on Alex, Anais, Holly and I as we all looked thoroughly exhausted! What a fantastic day though!

Schedule for tomorrow:

Elena Belenova (RUS) & Elisabeth Lyukshinova (RUS) vs (2) Anais Nussaume (THA) & Ria Vaidya (SIN) – 2^nd match after 9am

Iva Ivkovic (SRB) & Nina Van Oost (BEL) vs (4) Holly Hutchinson (GBR) & Alena Mashtakova (RUS) – 2^nd match after 9am

(3) Jay Clarke (GBR) & Mwendwa Mbithi (USA) vs Alex Hagon (GBR) & Olivier Havugimana (RWA) – 3^rd match after 9am (not before 1pm)