Tuesday 10th April 2012
It wasn’t the start to the tournament that we’d had hoped for today but there was lots to take away from the match and lots of lessons to be learned as we prepare for the U18 ITF next week.
We were up and out of the hotel by 7.45am this morning so that we could warm up and then get on the outdoor courts before the matches started at 9am. Mia hit with Georgia Lawson while on the other half court fellow Kent players Sam Taylor and Tom Wright warmed up for their matches. After a very solid 30 minutes practise it was time to relax and watch some of the other matches including both Tom and Sam taking good 1st round wins.
Due to some very long matches on Mia’s court she decided that she wanted to hit again so at 1.30pm we went indoors and had a light practise for 25 minutes. The session served two purposes; 1) it broke up the day and prevented Mia from getting too tired and 2) it got her focused on her goals for the match.
At just before 3pm Mia took to the court against Dayana Yastremska from Ukraine and from the warm up it was obvious it was going to be a tough match against a feisty young Eastern European. We’d watched Dayana train yesterday so we knew what to expect and we’d set out a game plan to keep her out of her comfort zone and also to take her time away. Unfortunately the inconsistency that Mia struggled with back in Kenya popped its head up again today which made it very difficult for Mia to develop many rallies. That resulted in poor start to the match with Mia going 0-3 down before she broke serve to get on the board. However, Mia didn’t capitalise on that game and lost the next 3 in a row to go down 6-1. Yastremska is a solid player but had nothing to hurt Mia with and actually only hit 3 winners / forcing shots in the whole set.
The pattern of the second set was almost exactly the same as the first with the Ukrainian taking the first 3 games before Mia held serve to trail 1-3. Yastremska then took a 5-1 lead but despite Mia breaking her serve in the next game she managed to break straight back to take the 6-1, 6-2. It was a very disappointing performance from Mia but hopefully she’s learnt that it’s smart play rather than raw power or flare that wins matches at this level.
After the match we watched top seed Beth Askew fight hard from 5-2 down in the first set against a player ranked almost 700 places lower than her by just making balls and being very patient in the rally until she could step up and attack. Mia learnt a lot from watching that set and hopefully she can put that into practise in her consolation matches later in the week.
After a good cool down and a long stretch out for Mia and Sam we went back to the hotel and had an early dinner at ASK before it was my turn to have to fight through a test as I was back out on the road at 9pm to keep up with my running schedule.
We have a training day tomorrow as Mia has a bye in the doubles so it’s a great chance to develop and improve before her consolation and doubles matches on Thursday.
Girl's U14 TE Doubles Draw
