Tuesday 21st January 2014
It was a very difficult opening match for Alex today as he came up against a player who had an almost identical game to his own, but just executed it better.
Holly Horsfall always takes a great deal of pride in the fact that trip after trip she never gets any forfeits for either misbehaving on court or being late when we arrange a time to meet. In fact she’s only ever been late once and that was on the very first day of her first trip in Austria last January . . . until today!
Alex and I were at breakfast this morning at 6.45am but after 5 or so minutes there was no sign of Holly. I thought it was very unlike her to be late so maybe she thought we were meeting at 7am for breakfast. However when she turned up at 6.56am barely able to open her eyes and hair like a bird’s nest we knew she’s overslept!!
We left the hotel at 7.20am and, after a quick stop at the local shop to get some water, we made our way via the Metro to the club. Alex and I then warmed up together until we got on our scheduled practice court at 8.30am while Holly hit with Frederica Sema. Alex had a really good 30 minute practice session and was feeling very positive by the time we finished our time on court.
Over the next 4 hours I got stuck into some planning for some upcoming trips while Alex and Holly relaxed, got some lunch and watched most of the Djokovic vs Wawrinka match.
At 12.45pm Alex warmed up and we discussed tactics for the match before he went on court at just after 1.15pm to face Czech wildcard Daniel Velek. During the warm up it was obvious that both players were hitting well and had similar gamestyles, so it was looking like it could be a close match. However, after a tight opening game that was 12 points long, Daniel seemed to settle into his rhythm first and after holding his opening service game, broke Alex to take a *2-0 lead. Alex continued to stick to his game plan as he was hitting the ball well but he just needed a little bit more on each shot to keep his opponent from getting a big strike in during the rally. At *0-5 Alex managed to raise his game and held serve but Daniel served well in the next game to take the set 6-1.
At the start of the second set I was hoping that Alex would take a few more risks in the rally to try and get on top but after losing his opening service game it was always going to be tough. The second set overall was better than the first and Alex managed to hit 5 times more winners, but in doing so his unforced error count also increased. In the end Alex went down 6-1, 6-1 to a player who was just physically stronger and hit at a higher level more consistently than Alex could. There were still a lot of positives to take from the match and I think it was great for Alex to come up against a player who plays in a very similar way to how he does – the goal now is for Alex to raise his level in every match / training session he has from now on.
After the match I had some lunch and talked through the match with Alex. His analysis was excellent and we shared exactly the same thoughts on how he played and how he needs to now develop his game.
As soon as I had finished eating Holly was chomping at the bit to get on court so, even though I could still feel my chicken pasta, we took to the court! We played in one of the bubbles for around 25 minutes and to be honest Holly was giving me an absolute lesson! Her level was superb throughout and in the points there wasn’t much I could do! We then moved over to the other bubble which has 3 courts in it and is being used for the tournament but this time it was my turn to dominate the points! Overall we had a really good session and Holly was feeling great about competing tomorrow.
We left the tennis centre at 5pm and after showering and changing at the hotel we left for dinner at 6.30pm. Dinner was once again at Coloseum; Holly stuck with her standard meatball pasta while Alex went for the Ecuadorian prawns and I had a really nice chicken breast with rosemary potatoes – everyone was a winner!
After the meal I decided we should have a little walk to explore the local area and we came across The Church of St Ludmila in Peace Square:
Holly and Alex in Peace Square
*Interesting fact* – the church houses the tomb of St. Wenceslaus (as in the carol “Good King Wenceslas”)
By the time we got back to the hotel the draw was out:
Girl’s Singles Main Draw
Schedule for tomorrow:
(1) Vendula Zovincova (CZE) (159) vs Holly Horsfall (GBR) (799) – 4th match after 9am, not before 12.30pm
