Namibia U18 ITF Grade 4, Day 5

Tuesday 5^th May 2015

After securing two wins out of two matches yesterday, today was unfortunately the complete opposite and so our time here in Windhoek comes to an end.

We started the day with exactly the same timetable as yesterday; breakfast at 7.30am, drive to the club at 8.40am and start our warm-up at 9am. Normally when Toby and I start hitting it’s very consistent but this morning Toby was a little more erratic and that could have been down to the practice courts being a little faster than the match courts, or the fact that the practice balls were quite worn. After four or five minutes Toby started to find his range and the rest of the pre-match hit went according to plan.

Yesterday the matches went quite quickly and Toby’s ‘not before’ 10.30am match went on at 10.40am but today he had the same match time and he didn’t end up going on until 1.15pm! That did mean that he could get some food before the match but it also meant we had quite a bit of time to kill before he eventually went on.

When Toby got on court to face 15^th seed William Grant from America he started a little erratically (like in our warm-up) and that was always going to make life difficult against a good player like William. The first two games of the match were quite straightforward for the America as he took a *0-2 lead but Toby managed to settle down in the third game and held serve. After that William played a very solid next four games and made it very difficult for Toby to break him down in the rallies which resulted in him taking the opening set 6-1.

Toby immediately went 0-2* down in the second but at that stage he dug deep and found probably the best level that he has played on the trip to break William and hold to level the set at 2-2*. Toby was being more aggressive which was actually helping him to control the ball more while at the same time putting his opponent under more pressure to dictate the points. William held in the next game but then Toby responded with a hold and a break to take a *4-3 lead and more importantly take control of the set. The American was starting to get frustrated but he used that frustration in a positive way to raise his game and play a very good three games in a row where he hit 6 winners and only 1 error to take the match 6-1, 6-4.

Unlike last week Toby showed great fight, determination and a very good attitude to try and turn the match around after losing a very one-sided first set. It was always going to be a tough challenge to play William, who made the semi-final last week, but Toby pushed him hard in the second set and I was proud of the way he competed.

Toby only had 45 minutes once the match had finished to cool down, eat and change kit before he was on again for his doubles where he faced his doubles partner from last week.

Toby and Leon were very up for the match as it was another chance to secure some ranking points and at 2-1* up and Sudden Death Deuce on Goni’s serve they looked like they were in control. However, after Goni held serve, the boys from Zimbabwe broke Toby’s serve and then won another two consecutive Sudden Death Deuce games on their way to taking the set 6-2.

Once Goni and Mark had that set under their belts they started to play with a lot of confidence and it seemed as though all the luck was going their way! They won another three Sudden Death Deuce games in the second set (6 out of 6 in total!) and despite Toby and Leon trying to do the right things they eventually lost the second set by the same scoreline as the first.

It was a tough day and for the second year in a row Toby has won matches in the singles and doubles Main Draws here in Namibia but unfortunately goes away without any ranking points.

Once we returned to the hotel I got in touch with South African Airways to change our flights to return to London tomorrow and then it was time for our traditional final meal of the trip at the famous Joe’s Beerhouse!

Last year I had an Oryx fillet and Toby went for a plain steak but this year we decided to raise the bar a little and go for the ‘Bushman Sosatie’ (pronounced Bushman’s Society!) which was basically a Kebab of Springbok, Oryx, Zebra, Crocodile and Kudu:

The Crocodile was a bit tough but everything else was absolutely amazing! I’m not usually a fan of meat being cooked too rare but check out the Kudu – I almost had to kill it before I could eat it!

After a fantastic meal we headed outside to get a car back to the hotel but before we left we had a chance to haggle with a street seller to get a couple of mementos of the trip.

Overall it’s been a good two weeks in Botswana and Namibia – Toby may have only picked up points in the doubles last week but he’s learnt a lot and has showed a big improvement in attitude, determination and willingness to fight when things aren’t going his way.

It’s now back to the UK to get some training in before the next trip away.