Friday 18th February 2011
It was a great day today with two superb doubles performances as Devan and Beth look to finish the week on a huge high.
It was a standard start to the day today with breakfast at 7am and training from 8.30-9.15am including their pre-match warm up and specific doubles work to make sure the girls were sharp and ready to go from the first point. The doubles is still two sets up to 4 and a match tie-break for the third so you cannot afford to start slow or before you know it you’re a set down.
Before the girls went on we watched our new friend Artur Completo, who’s been destroying the draws last week and this week, take another win in the singles semi-finals and then it was time for us to get stuck in.
Beth had got revenge on Szuppers yesterday and today was Dev’s turn to get one over on Onyancha. The girls didn’t start particularly well with Beth getting broken in the first game on a sudden death deuce but then they went on to win the next 7 in a row to go 4-1, 3-0. The chair judge wasn’t really with it for the whole match and the girls had to remind him that it was the end of the set at 4-1, much to their amusement! At 3-0 in the second Reimchen held but Beth served a great game to take the match 4-1, 4-1. It was a good performance even though the girls looked a little nervous at times but they kept encouraging each other to take the ball on and close the points out.
An hour and a half later they were on Centre Court for the semi-final against 2nd seeds Finch & Shestakova. It was the best performance I’ve seen from the girls as they attacked from the start, dominated the net in every point and both served very well to destroy their opponents 4-1, 4-0.
Devan & Beth played like a strong team throughout
It was a great win that they thoroughly deserved and next up is a tough final against top seeds Mai El Kamash & Julia Grabher; lets see if the girls can get some revenge now for Farah.
After the doubs we tried to relax for a couple of hours but Farah had other ideas!! The blisters on her toes have been getting worse each day and after the tournament doctor tried unsuccessfully to help this morning we took it upon ourselves to try and take away the agony she was in. I won’t go into too many details in case you’re reading this over breakfast but it was like a volcano erupting when Farah managed to burst it with a sterile syringe!! It’s been much better since so hopefully it did the job.
In the evening we met up with Team Bath, Artur and Pedro his coach and had a great meal at the Fairview hotel. We’ve been going there each evening this week as it’s perfect for the players; they can go up to the counter, select their pasta, their meats and vegetables and then watch at the chef cooks it all in front of them. Team Bath flew home tonight and it’s been great having them around for the two weeks. All of the players have been great and it’s so nice to have a group that have supported each other so well throughout the trip.
So . . . doubles final tomorrow . . . bring it on!
Schedule for tomorrow:
(1) Mai El Kamash (EGY) & Julia Grabher (AUT) vs <b>Devan McCluskey (USA) & Beth Askew (GBR)</b> – 2nd on after 9am (N.B. 11.30am)
