Nairobi U18 ITF Grade 5, Day 6

Wednesday 6^th February 2013

It was a mixed day today as Alex and Anais got knocked out in the ¼ finals of the doubles but Holly managed to go one better and make the semi-finals after a real rollercoaster of a match.

The day started at 7am with breakfast and then we had a succession of practice sessions starting with Anais and Ria at 8.30am followed by Holly and Alena at 9am and then ending with Alex and Olivier at 9.30am. During each of the sessions we managed to get some good quality doubles played to prepare each of them for their ¼ final matches.

Holly and Alena were scheduled 2^nd on Centre court and as the match before them went very quickly they ended up going on at just after 10.15am to play Iva Ivkovic from Serbia and Nina Van Oost from Belgium. Over the past two days Holly, Alena and I have had some good practice sessions where we’ve worked specifically on their doubles play but I wasn’t expecting what happened in the first set of their match today. From the start of the set both girls were superb in everything they did; Holly served at 70% during the set and Alena dominated the net with great presence. They broke Nina’s serve at 1-1* and then took a convincing 5-1 lead before they eventually took the set 6-2 – they played at a fantastic level but the hard part was now trying to maintain it.

As Holly and Alena finished the 1^st set Anais and Ria started their ¼ final match on court 7 so I repositioned myself on the side of Centre court so that I could watch both matches at the same time! Maybe it was the fact that I moved positions but the 2^nd set of Holly and Alena’s match was completely the opposite to the 1^st set; Holly really struggled with her serve, both of their returns became very erratic and neither of them seemed to want to commit to moving at the net! All of that resulted in them going 4-0 down straight away and even though they managed to break Iva’s serve in the next game they went on to lose the set 6-1. It was now down to the match tie-break to decide the match and the big question of who would be mentally strong enough to do what they needed to do.

3 out of the 4 girls on the court were very nervous during the match tie-break but luckily for us Alena was very tough throughout. Holly and Alena got a breakthrough at 3-3 and went on to take a 6-3 lead before their opponents fought back to get within one point at 7-6*. By this stage everyone was very tense; Holly and Alena let an 8-6* lead slip and at *8-8 it was up to Alena to serve to set up match point. She boomed down a big 1^st serve that wasn’t returned and then at 9-8* Alena once again stepped up to hit a great passing shot down the line to seal the win 6-2, 1-6, 10-8. Both girls were very pleased to get through the match and move into the semi-finals where hopefully they’ll recreate the level of the 1^st set throughout the whole match.

While Holly and Alena were fighting hard in their match Anais and Ria were having real difficulties in their ¼ final against Elena Belenova and Elisabeth Lyukshinova from Russia. Anais had not been feeling well before the match and she was finding everything very difficult; she was broken at *1-2 in the 1^st set and then despite getting the break back at 3-5* Ria failed to hold her serve so they ended up losing the set 6-4. Anais was still struggling in the 2^nd set but after letting an early break go they managed to break again at 4-4* and this time Anais served very well to take the set 6-4. Even though it was now 1 set all I had a feeling that the Russians had the edge slightly as they moved better at the net and were more comfortable at the baseline but once again the match would be decided by a match tie-break.

The tie-break went with serve until 4-4* when Anais and Ria got a mini-break but they couldn’t capitalise on it and went from 5-4 up to 5-8 down. They continued to fight hard but the Russians played some good doubles to eventually go on to take the third set 10-7. Anais was really disappointed at the end of the match as she felt as though if she’d been feeling ok then they would have easily won but I think she did really well to keep fighting throughout the match despite feeling so bad.

After a short break where Holly and I went through her match it was Alex’s turn to go on for his ¼ final match against fellow Brit and roommate Jay Clarke and his partner Mwendwa Mbithi from America. After doing the hard work yesterday Alex and Olivier had the chance to go out and really take the match to their opponents without any pressure at all but some very good serving from Jay and Mwendwa prevented them from really getting stuck into the 1^st set. Alex was broken at *1-1 and then the games went with serve until Alex and Olivier had the chance to break back when they were 40-15* up on Mwendwa’s serve at 3-5*. Unfortunately they couldn’t convert any of their 3 break points and they went on to lose the set 6-3.

The 2^nd set was very tight throughout and it was very similar to the 2^nd set that Alex and Olivier played yesterday; they served well and kept fighting hard to keep the game score close. The whole set went with serve until *5-5 when Alex struggled with a couple of double faults and ended up being broken after a sudden death deuce point. Jay then served very well to close out the set and take the match 6-3, 7-5. It was probably an even better performance from Alex and Olivier compared to yesterday’s match but Jay and Mwendwa played well and were very tough to breakdown.

We then had a couple of hours off to get some food and relax before I went on court with Holly and Alena at 4pm to work on their doubles in preparation for tomorrow’s semi-final. We were joined in the session by Emmanuelle De Beer and went through some good doubles work before ending the session with a set in which Emmanuelle and I just managed to scrape a win!!

Dinner tonight was a long affair with 18 of us eating together at the Fairview hotel. We had some good laughs though and after a mammoth game of Chase the Ace it was Emmaunelle’s coach Jono (who was joining us for the first time) who had to do the forfeit of crawling around the restaurant on his hands and knees!! Unfortunately for Alex and me sorting out a 28, 950 Shilling bill wasn’t quite as much fun!!

Schedule for tomorrow:

(4) Holly Hutchinson (GBR) & Alena Mashtakova (RUS) vs Elena Belenova (RUS) & Elisabeth Lyukshinova (RUS) – 2^nd match after 9am (not before 2pm)