Thursday 7th February 2013
It was a fantastic day today as Holly and Alena made it through to the final of the girl’s doubles after a nail biting three set win against the two Russians that had beaten Anais and Ria yesterday.
As Ria had been doing well in the singles all week she wanted to stick to the same routine that she’s had each day which meant that Anais was up early to hit with her at 8am. Holly was also up early to warm Alena up for her singles semi-final against Ria and as Holly is still in the tournament I spent the whole warm up on court with her to make sure she was happy with how she was playing. Both girls finished at 8.30am and after a long couple of weeks Anais decided that she’d take the rest of the day off to recharge her batteries for the 3rd event next week. Holly on the other hand had the doubles final to play and as she was feeling a little tired too she went back to the hotel to rest. I watched some of the boy’s and girl’s semi-finals before returning to the hotel to sort out arrangements for travelling back to England tomorrow night.
Semi-finals day but surely court 3 is longer than the other courts?!
At 11.30am Holly and I sat down for some lunch at the hotel and were soon joined by Anais and Alex who had been watching the semi-finals where Ria had beaten Alena in three tight sets. While we were eating Alena came in for some food and made it very clear that there was no way that she was going to lose two matches in one day!!
After warming up and talking through the tactics and goals for the match Holly and Alena went on court at 2pm to face Elena Belenova and Elisabeth Lyukshinova from Russia. Holly and Alena didn’t start well and it was obvious that they were both a little tentative on serve and return in the first few games. After hitting 4 double faults in her first service game Holly was broken to go 0-2* down but the girls responded straight away by breaking Elena’s serve to get the set back on serve. Elena Belenova’s serve was then broken again at 3-3* and then the next two games went with serve until Holly played a great service game to take the opening set 6-4. It was a pretty good set from the girl’s despite some early nerves and after Holly’s first service game she ended up hitting 6 out of 6 first serves in at *2-3 and at *5-4 which was very impressive.
The second set was similar to yesterday’s ¼ final as Holly and Alena stopped moving as much at the net and the communication dried up a little between them. At *2-3 Alena was broken, however the girls responded by breaking straight back but at *3-4 Holly played a poor service game which included 2 double faults and 2 unforced errors and following that they lost the next 2 games in a row to lose the set 6-3. Not a lot had changed but we’d lowered our level while the Russians upped theirs.
After a lengthy toilet break (just like yesterday!) Holly and Alena emerged looking very up for the match tie-break. Unfortunately the nerves got the better of Holly and after losing her two opening service points the girls found themselves 1-4* down. Alena managed to hold one of her two service points but at 2-7 things were looking very bleak. Holly and Alena weren’t done yet though and when they looked across the net and saw Lyukshinova starting to get very tight their belief grew and the scoreline started to get closer. After Holly double faulted to give the Russians a 5-8* lead Lyukshinova missed a couple of very easy balls close to the net and suddenly the momentum started to shift our way. From 5-8* down Holly and Alena played some smart and confident tennis to win the next 5 points in a row and take the third set 10-8.
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Alena and Holly encouraging each other during the match tie-break
Both girls screamed with joy at the end while Alex, Anais and I were equally as pumped up – it was a really hard fought win and the match could have gone either way but it came down to the fact that Holly and especially Alena held their nerve when it really mattered.
There were high fives and hugs all around for the team after the match and now Holly will compete in her first ITF final tomorrow against top seeds Dona Abo Habaga from Egypt and Nelise Verster from South Africa – bring that one on!!
For the rest of the afternoon we all went about the jobs we needed to do; Anais had a massage to try and relieve a bit of pain in her back, Alex sorted out his room and got everything ready to pack and after Holly and Alena had decided what kit they were going to wear for the final tomorrow she cooled down and stretched out on the cricket pitch (priorities first of course!!). I on the other hand put some final touches to the all-important “Trip Quiz” that the players will do over dinner tomorrow night for some great prizes!!
After trying to escape some more embarrassing forfeits we all had a great dinner and then it was back to the hotel to pay off the room bills and get an early night ready for our last day tomorrow.
Schedule for tomorrow:
GIRL’S DOUBLES FINAL
(1) Dona Abo Habaga (EGY) & Nelise Verster (RSA) vs (4) Holly Hutchinson (GBR) & Alena Mashtakova (RUS) – 2nd match after 9am
