Wednesday 6th April 2011
The sun finally came out today in Nottingham and with it came a first main draw win for Nicole and Anouska.
We started the day with a warm up in the gym for 30 minutes followed by a very solid hour and a half’s doubles practise which again took the girls outside their comfort zones but also gave them a clear understanding of what was expected from their matches today. We were indoors in the bubble for the whole session and as the time went on it started to heat up like a Greenhouse! The girls didn’t seem to mind though and they worked very hard for the whole session.
After training we had lunch and then at 1pm Nicole and Anouska’s match was moved to an empty court and they began their first ever U18 ITF main draw match. They started very positively breaking twice to lead 4-0 before their opponents held and then broke Nicole. The girls responded very well by breaking straight back and despite being broken again at 5-2 they broke back to take the set 6-3. They really looked as though they were enjoying the match and were combining well as a team. That’s one of the most important things and why it’s so important to choose a partner that you can actually communicate with. Many players choose doubles partners just on ranking but that’s no use if they can’t understand you and you can’t understand them! In the second set Nicole and Anouska raced to a 3-0 lead which then extended to 4-1 and despite getting broken serving for the match they broke straight back to take the win 6-3, 6-2. Top seeds tomorrow and a shot at their first ITF points.
Frankie and Grace went on just as Nicole and Anouska were finishing their match so it was straight over to court 14 to watch them. They started slowly and were broken twice to go 4-1 down but fought back and looked in complete control at 4-4 but a poor sudden death deuce point and then a poor service game gave the Dutch the first set 6-4. After a rather long toilet break (court 14 is probably the furthest from the centre!) Frankie and Grace started the second set much better breaking at 1-1 and held the break until they served for the set at 5-4. Unfortunately Grace struggled with her serve and the Dutch fought hard to take the next three games and the match 6-4, 7-5. It was a disappointing loss in a match that Frankie and Grace really should have won. I think a massive difference today was that Nicole and Anouska had spent three days training together before they played their match where as Frankie hadn’t been able to train at all with Grace so the understanding wasn’t quite there.
Following the matches we trained for an hour on court working on Anouska’s serve and Nicole’s return getting them ready do battle in the last 16 tomorrow.
Yesterday the girls set themselves a reward of eating at Wagamama’s tonight if they won their first round doubles match so we joined up with the Portuguese team of Artur, his coach Pedro and Bruno and introduced them to the delights of Chicken Katsu Curry (Spicy Pedro?!).
Bruno, Frankie, Nicole, Anouska, Pedro and Artur enjoying their Wagamama's!
Unfortunately the day ended on a low when Manchester United beat Chelsea in the first leg of the Champions League quarter-final but next Tuesday it’s going to be a different story (I hope!!).
Schedule for tomorrow:
(1) Mayya Katsitadze (RUS) & Claudia Williams vs Nicole Daisley (GBR) & Anouska Newman (GBR) – 3rd round, N.B. 12.30pm
