Namibia U18 ITF Grade 5, Day 6

Tuesday 13^th May 2014

We had another ‘Tricky Tuesday’ today as Toby suffered a 2^nd round loss in the singles and a 1^st round loss in the doubles.

We were up early this morning and at breakfast by 6.20am before getting the 7am bus to the club. Toby and Brandon then went through their physical warm-up exercises and then hit from 8-8.30am on centre court to prepare Toby for his singles match. Toby was hitting well and, despite the distraction of around 10 people warming up on the side of the court, he felt good about his game by the time we had finished.

The match before Toby’s lasted around 1 hour 45 minutes and in that time we completed a pre-match sheet, talked though our tactics for the match and watched some of the other first round matches. Then, at 10.15am, Toby went on court to face 14^th seed Damon Kesaris from South Africa.

As you know if you’ve been following the Blogs, Toby has been working hard on finding a consistently aggressive level but from the start of the match today it was apparent that Damon could match him shot for shot and then increase his level when he needed to. That led to Toby going for a little more than normal and, as he’s not used to doing that, it resulted in a high number of unforced errors. At *0-3 down Toby tried to raise his level and his consistency but he often struggled to find the 2-3 quality strikes in a row that he needed to put Damon under enough pressure to make him break down.

The first set lasted just under 30 minutes and even though the scoreline read 6-0, the games were much closer than the score suggested. Toby continued to battle hard at the start of the second set and after holding serve to level the set at 1-1 his confidence started to grow. By that stage Toby was finding some very good combinations of shots but it was just the final ball that was letting him down and Damon took full advantage to break and hold to lead 4-1. The last two games of the 2^nd set were probably the best of the match, but it was Damon that won the important points and went on to take the match 6-0, 6-1.

After the match Toby expressed his disappointment with the scoreline but he also said he was pleased with the way that he had approached the match and the level he had found throughout. The goal now is to increase his consistency at his higher level and if he can do that then matches like this one will be much closer.

Between when Toby came off for his singles and when he started to warm up for his doubles, he just about had enough time to shower, stretch, eat and relax for around 30 minutes. Following Toby and Brandon’s doubles last week they knew exactly what they needed to do today and also knew that if they did not get outside their comfort zones then they would struggle to win the match.

Unfortunately they both started slowly and immediately went 0-3 down. They fought back though and played some good doubles to get back on serve at *3-4 but a poor service game ended up costing them the first set.

The boys started the 2^nd set much better and from the first game they started to move more at the net and finish a lot more first volleys. Toby was broken at *1-1 and then 3 more breaks followed which resulted in the set being all-square at *3-3. At this stage I really thought the momentum was with Toby & Brandon and, after Toby played a very good service game to lead 4-3, I thought they had really turned the match around. Shabani held serve in the next game and then another poor service game at a crucial time lead to Toby and Brandon being broken to a sudden death deuce point. It was always going to be tough to break Muzingaye’s serve as Shabani was extremely sharp at the net and, after a few very tight points, Toby and Brandon went down 6-3, 6-4.

The performance was much much better than last week but Toby pointed out straight after the match that if they had played like that in their previous doubles match they would have won. They then would have had more matches under their belts and could have been in a much better position to win this match today – which I agreed with 100%!

The loss in the doubles ended our 2^nd week here in Windhoek but I believe Toby has improved a lot over the trip and most importantly he feels much more comfortable competing at this level. He’s played 8 matches in total; won 4 and lost 4 and even though he hasn’t picked up any ITF points this time I am very confident that he will in the next ITF he plays.

For dinner tonight we decided to go to ‘Joe’s Beerhouse’ which has been highly recommended by a lot of people . . . and it was definitely worth it. I decided to go for the Game meat and had an Oryx fillet while Toby had a peppered steak. Both meals were superb and the atmosphere in the restaurant was great with everyone sitting together on long benches and eating under a big thatched roof.

When we got back to the hotel it was time to pack up and get ready to return back to England tomorrow.

The next trip is a return to Montenegro for the Grade 5 ITF at the end of May . . . let’s hope we don’t come across any snakes this year!!