Monday 4th May 2015
It was a hard fought day at the Central Tennis Club today as Toby spent almost 4 hours 30 minutes on court, but it makes it all worth it when you come away with 2 wins out of 2!
It was an earlier start today as we had breakfast at 7.30am and then got a car to the club at 8.30am. Being the first day of Main Draw there are a lot of players looking to practice before their matches and it can often be difficult to get a practice court but luckily I was the first to put our names down for a court at 9.30am. So, once we had gone through a good physical warm up, we got on court and had a solid practice for just over 30 minutes. Even at 9.30am it was getting very hot and our session ended up going on a little longer than planned as Toby broke a string right at the end so we had to hit for another 5-10 minutes to make sure Toby was comfortable with the new racket.
Once we had finished Toby checked his match court to see how long it would be until he was on and for once the court was pretty much running to time. Toby had a ‘not before’ time of 10.30am and he actually took to the court at 10.40am – that’s good planning from the referee right there!
We didn’t know anything about Hugh Morgan before Toby went on court to warm up with him but as the match started it seemed as though Toby had the measure of him. After Toby took the opening two games I was expecting him to go through his opponent quite comfortably but Hugh showed that he was a tough competitor and immediately fought back to win the next three games. Toby continued to stick to his gameplan and once he had worked out that he needed to play in different ways from different ends (due to the wind blowing down the court) he won three out of the next four games to take a *5-4 lead. At that stage Toby got a little tight on key points which resulted in him being broken when he served for the set at *5-4 and again at *6-5. He didn’t let it bother him though and played a very good tie-break to take the 1st set 7-6(4).
Toby then raced to a 3-0 lead in the 2nd set and was looking full of confidence but when he was broken at *3-1 it gave Hugh a big lift and he went on to completely turn the set around and take a *3-5 lead. Toby managed to hold serve after losing five games in a row but Hugh served well to hold and take the 2nd set 6-4.
By this stage the boys had been on court for 2 hours 20 minutes in quite intense heat but once again it was Toby that showed an excellent attitude and real inner strength to race to a 3-0 lead in the 3rd set. Unfortunately Hugh once again fought back and started to put some doubts in Toby’s head by winning the next three games in a row. A lot of those games had been down to Toby making too many unforced errors and once he realised he needed to change what he was doing, he held, broke and then served out the match well to eventually win 7-6(4),4-6, 6-3 in 3 hours and 5 minutes.
The quality of the match, a lot like the scoreline, was very up and down but the most important qualities that Toby showed were his attitude, fight and determination in tough conditions.
As soon as the match had finished Toby gave the score to the referee and then checked out the recently completed doubles draw:
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Boy’s Doubles Draw
Toby then had a very cold shower (there isn’t any hot water at the club – not that Toby would have wanted any to be honest!) and once he was finished we walked up the road to a little Italian restaurant to get lunch. It was then back to the club to prepare for Toby’s doubles match with Leon Olivier which was scheduled for ‘not before’ 3.30pm.
The boys took to the court at just after 3.45pm to face Taine Bernhard and Jamie Davis from South Africa. Jamie is a good 14 year old that is based in Potchefstroom (where I was last year for the two Grade 2s) and following his first ever Main Draw singles win this morning he was buzzing with confidence. Toby and Leon started a little slowly and soon found themselves 2-4* down with Jamie serving. Fortunately at this stage of the set the boys woke up and actually starting playing some very good doubles; they both started moving a lot more and controlled the net much better. That completely changed the momentum of the match and it saw Toby and Leon win five out of the net 6 games to take the opening set 7-5.
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Toby stretching for a return of serve in the opening set
I could completely understand that it would take Toby and Leon a little while to gel as they’d not even spoken much before the match, let alone played together, but as they 2nd set started it was obvious that something had clicked! They broke Taine in the first game of the set and then flew through the set 6-0 while trying out different tactics that they might need in the next round.
Both boys were really pleased with their performance and if they can add to the level that they produced today then I can see them doing really well in the tournament.
After the match we got a lift back to the hotel with Jeremy, Leon’s coach, and had an hour and a half to chill out before dinner.
As our lunch had been quite big neither of us really wanted a big meal at the hotel restaurant for dinner so we got a lift up the road to Nandos! We then got a local taxi back to the hotel and having been quoted N$70 by some of the hotel taxis we ended up paying the local taxi N$20 (and I think he over charged us too!!).
Schedule for tomorrow:
(15) William Grant (USA) (1630) vs (Q) Toby Huffer (GBR) (UNR) – 3rd match after 8.30am (not before 10.30am)
(4) Mark Chigaazira (ZIM) & Ngonidzashe Makambwa (ZIM) vs Toby Huffer (GBR) & Leon Olivier (RSA) – 4th match after 8.30am (after rest)
