Wednesday 29th May 2013
In a change to the normal way I write the daily Blog I thought I’d give you a timeline for our day today:
6am – Wake up and get everything prepared for day
6.45am – Meet Alex and Katty for breakfast . . . well, Alex was there, Katty was still asleep!!
7.10am – Get a taxi to the tennis club
7.25am – After signing in for onsite alternate Katty and Alex trained on court until 8am
8.15am – I met with Katty to go through her match from yesterday
8.30am – Both Hollys and Georgie arrive onsite and all of the players sign in for doubles. The girls then warm up and then hit briefly on the indoor hard court
9.15am – Get a taxi to another club to practice on the clay as all courts were used at the main club for matches
9.45 – 10.15am – Georgie, Holly, Holly and Katty go through their pre-match hit on court before their singles matches
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Georgie, Holly Hutchinson, Holly Horsfall and Katty training at the other club before their matches
10.15 – Go back to the tournament site
10.45am – Holly Hutchinson goes on for her 1st round match against Ivana Tasevska (MKD) (1342). After taking a 5-3 lead she eventually takes the tie-break 7-6(3) and then cruises through the 2nd set 6-0 with some very consistent and confident clay court tennis.
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Holly exploding into a forehand during her 1st round singles match
12.30pm – Holly Horsfall goes on the same court after Holly’s win to play Ena Camdzic (BIH) (1098). Holly’s opponent plays a very strong first set hitting 10 winners on her way to taking it 6-1. Holly fought hard in the 2nd set and recovered from 3-5* down to level the set but eventually went down 6-1, 7-5.
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Holly being strong behind the ball on her backhand
2.15pm – Georgie followed Holly’s match on the same court again (by this stage my bum was starting to go numb!) to take on (LL) Doris Aleksovska (MKD) (2065). As Holly Horsfall had beaten Doris yesterday we knew her well and Georgie took full control from the start. Georgie worked on her game throughout the match and after leading 4-0 in each set she finally won 6-2, 6-1.
Georgie keeping her eyes on the mark as she calls the ball out
3.45pm – After over 5 hours sitting in the same spot I managed to have a break and get some lunch!
The concrete was nice and soft to sit on though!!
5.15pm – Alex & Geoffrey Blancheaux (FRA) go on court to play 4th seeds Michal Rolski & Panel Zawisza from Poland. The tall Polish pair were just physically too strong for our boys and won the match 6-1, 6-1.
6.20pm – As soon as Alex had finished 3rd seeds Holly Hutchinson & Georgie went on the next court to play Doris Aleksovska (MKD) & Nermeen Shawky (EGY). Despite a slow start Holly and Georgie took the opening set 6-2 but then a lapse of concentration in the second set resulted in them losing the set 7-5. They managed to recover though and took the match tie-break 10-6 – a big lesson learned!!
8.15pm – Straight after Holly and Georgie had won I had a debate with the referee about how long we’d been onsite (13 hours by this stage) but he was adamant that is will rain tomorrow so we must finish all of the matches tonight. Holly Hutchinson, Georgie and Alex get a taxi back to the hotel.
8.50pm – Katty & Julijana Petrovic from Serbia take to the court to play 2nd seeds Milica Novakovic (SRB) & Ege Tomey (TUR).
9pm – Holly Horsfall & Elyse Lavender (USA) go on court 1 to play Nina Kalezic & Ivana Klac from Montenegro.
10.15pm – Holly and Elyse come through a tricky match 6-2, 6-3 and played some very good doubles throughout. Meanwhile Katty and Julijana are still on after some big disputes over the score in the first set. They went 6-2, 5-2 down but then fought back (Katty playing almost single-handed as her partner lost interest!) to go 6-5 up. Then in the tie-break they went 6-1 down before eventually going out 6-2, 7-6(6) – tough match especially as Katty had to do most of the work!
11pm – Eventually leave site after arriving 15 hours 30 minutes ago (8 hours of which was spent watching matches on court number 6!)
11.15pm – Order dinner at the hotel restaurant with Holly Horsfall, Katty, Elyse and Dawn.
12am – Finally get back to my room and start to edit photos and write this Blog!
1am – Sleep (hopefully!)
Up in 5 hours to do it all over again but I love every minute of it!
Schedule for tomorrow:
(4) Georgie Axon (GBR) (379) vs Mia Jurasic (CRO) – 2nd match after 9am
(8) Holly Hutchinson (GBR) (827) vs Andrada Surdeanu (ROU) (1360) – 3rd match after 9am
Agata Borgman (POL) & Sonia Grzywocz (POL) vs (3) Georgie Axon (GBR) & Holly Hutchinson (GBR) – To be arranged
(4) Tamara Kupkova (SVK) & Cristiana Tudor (ROU) vs Holly Horsfall (GBR) & Elyse Lavender (USA) – To be arranged
