Nottingham U18 ITF Grade 4 (week 2), Day 2

Tuesday 19th April 2016

Toby faced another difficult draw today at the second ITF event here in Nottingham as he took on 7th seed Johan Garpered from Sweden.

As the only available outdoor practice courts were before 9am this morning we were up for breakfast at 6.30am and then were at the tennis centre warming up by 8am. We then got on court at around 8.30am and had a good pre-match warm up for 30 minutes. In yesterday’s Blog I mentioned about how it was always windy in Nottingham but today was almost a perfect day; zero wind and the sun was shining stronger than it has been for the last 3 weeks (the weather gods must have read my Blog!).

After our practice we got a light bite to eat and then went through our pre-match preparation sheets to establish tactics and goals for the match. It was then a case of keeping an eye on the first round match on court 8 to make sure Toby was fully warm before he went on.

At 11.10am Toby and Johan went on court for their 1st round match. We didn’t know anything about Johan before the match but during the warm up you could tell that he was going to be a tricky lefty who had a big forehand and even bigger serve! The first three games all went the way of the Swedish player and due to the level that he was producing he actually restricted Toby to winning just 2 out of the first 16 points. At *0-3 Toby settled into more of a rhythm; he held serve well and then created two break point opportunities only for Johan to hit two unreturnable serves! The *1-4 game was a long one and Toby did well to save break points before holding serve but that would be the last game of the set that he would win as Johan won the next two in-a-row to take the set 6-2.

During the second set Toby raised his game to a good level, probably the best level he’s played at over the last 3 weeks, but not only did Johan defend well but he was also able to turn points around very effectively. The first 7 games all went with serve despite both players having a lot of break point chances but, at 3-4 with Toby serving, a couple of double faults crept in to hand Johan the all-important break. Johan then closed out the match with some very accurate serving and took the win 6-2, 6-3.

Normally when I talk to players about their aggressive balance (the difference between winners and unforced errors) in matches I refer to a good level to be between +5 and zero and an average level to be between zero and -5. Today Toby produced a -5 in both sets which is acceptable but Johan produced an impressive +6 in the first set and a zero in the 2nd set. I’m definitely a believer that stats don’t always describe a match but 25 winners and only 19 unforced errors in a match do paint a good picture about Toby’s opponent today.

After the match we debriefed and then watched some of the other first round matches to not only learn from them but also to compare our thoughts on different patterns of play in different situations.

During the afternoon the doubles draw came out:

We then headed back to the hotel at around 4pm to relax before dinner which tonight was at Prezzo. The plan afterwards was to play some mini-golf but we were both quite tired so we played a few games in the arcade and then headed back to the hotel for an early night.

Schedule for tomorrow:

Guido Marson (ITA) & Andrea Trapani (ITA) vs Brandon Drew (GBR) & Toby Huffer (GBR) – 3rd match after 9am (not before 12.30pm)