Tuesday 14th February 2012
It was a day of opportunities for Jack and Mia today as they played both singles and doubles but unfortunately we only managed one win out of three despite being in full control of one of the other matches.
As Tom is out of the tournament it’s important that he still makes the most of the training time available which means we’re training each morning from 7.30am until 9am when the matches start. Jack and his doubles partner joined us for the session and it was a really solid hour of practice. Tom’s improved a huge amount since the first week and now he has to keep making sure that he’s pushing himself outside his comfort zone in every training session.
Between 9 – 10am I went through Tom’s 1st round qualifying match from Sunday with him and then it was Jack’s turn to go through his singles win from yesterday which helped him prepare for his singles match today. At 10.15am I went over to the Public Service Club with Mia to warm her up for her singles match and then it was just a matter of them getting everything ready before they played.
Jack went on as scheduled at 12pm to play Guy Iradukunda from Burundi and from the very beginning it was obvious that Jack would need to produce his best tennis to compete with the level of his opponent. The Burundian was very used to the bouncy courts and, where as most of the players are holding back a little to maintain their consistency he was playing flat out whilst hardly missing. Jack went 3-0 down before holding and breaking to make it *2-3 but then his opponent upped his level again to take 3 out of the next 4 games to take the set 6-3.
In the second set Jack started to dominate the points more and used his backhand down the line to great effect as his opponent was expecting it to go cross court. He also moved forwards and finished a lot more points at the net than in the first set which his opponent struggled to deal with. This time it was Jack who took a commanding 4-0 lead and then went on to serve out the set 6-1.
While Jack was in the middle of his second set Mia went onto court 4 to play tricky Russian Victoria Voinova. The Russian had lost in qualies but, like Jack, had got a Lucky Loser and was determined to make the most of it. Mia started poorly and went 2-0 down before she took a little pace off the ball and started to think more about what she was doing. She went from 0-2* to *3-2 and despite being broken straight away she took the following 7 games of the match to lead 6-3, 4-0.
From the end of Mia’s first set I was back over next to Jack’s court to support him through his third set. Tom had been keeping track of what had been happening for me and told me that Jack broke serve in the first game but his opponent broken straight back to level the set. I return at 2-2* to find the Burundian playing at a similar level to the first set while Jack wasn’t quite committing as much as he did in the 2nd. From 2-2* Iradukunda played some exceptional tennis and, while Jack was still playing some of the best I’ve seen from him, it wasn’t quite enough to get on top. Jack held at *2-5 but the Burundian deservedly took the next game and the match 6-3, 1-6, 6-3. Both Jack and I were very pleased with his performance and it was great to see him end the singles component of his trip with such a good performance.
I was then straight back to Mia’s court and arrived when the score was 6-3, 3-0. At this stage Mia played a really tentative game and I could tell that she was starting to get a little nervous while trying to close out the match. She held serve but it gave the Russian a bit of belief and that lead to Mia losing the next 4 games in a row. She managed to get back into the lead at 5-4* but by this stage her hitting level had dropped significantly while her opponents level was on the way up. It was then Voinova’s turn to win 7 games in a row to go from 5-4 down in the second set to 4-0 up in the third. Mia then managed to get two games on the board but the Russian came through in the end 3-6, 7-5, 6-2. It was a match that Mia was in full control of and a match where her actions caused the turnaround in the match rather than her opponent changing what she was doing.
After a quick chat with Mia I then moved straight onto Centre Court to watch Jack and Alexandros Vakouftsis take on Wiktor Bielawski from Poland and Anatole Bizimana from Rwanda. The whole match was rather flat and while Jack was trying as hard as he could it was obvious that he was very tired after his tough singles match. Jack and Alexandros came through it though with a 6-2, 6-3 win which lifted the spirits of the team after two three set singles losses.
Jack serving his way to victory with Alexandros Vakouftsis at the net
By the time Jack had finished I had been courtside for over four and a half hours trying to keep track of 3 different matches and I was mentally completely fried!!
While Mia was warming up for her doubles match with Alessandra Gisonna I had to quickly go back to the hotel to buy a sandwich and when I returned the first words Alessandra’s coach said to me was “Are you sure you want to watch this?!”. That was at 0-3 and despite Mia and Alessandra trying their best they just weren’t up to the level they needed to be at to compete with their opponents. In the end they went down 6-1, 6-0 and that ended Mia’s 3 ITFs here at the Nairobi Club.
Mia and Dawn will fly home tomorrow; Tom will stay to train and learn from the other main draw matches while Jack will compete tomorrow in the 2nd round of the doubles for his first ITF points.
Schedule for tomorrow:
Jack Large (GBR) & Alexandros Vakouftsis (GRE) vs (7) Dominik Domazet (AUT) & Aswin Lizen (GBR) – 4th round after 9am (not before 2pm)
