Thursday 23rd January 2014
It was a disappointing final day of competition today in the Safina Cup as Holly and Sean Lodzki from Israel lost a very close 1st round doubles match.
We had another early start so that we could get to the club to practice but luckily the tournament director took my advice and scheduled the practice sessions in 20 minute slots. That meant there was plenty of space for everyone to warm up for their matches and less pressure to get a court before the matches started at 9am.
Holly hit with Anastasia from 8.20 – 8.40am and both girls hit well throughout the session. Marcel, Anastasia’s coach, had to leave at 8.30am to get a flight back to Edinburgh but it’s been good to spend the week with a coach who shares similar philosophies and beliefs to me.
After the session it was time for some school work for the players while watching some of the tennis from the Australian Open. I also had lots to do as my mobile phone decided to die last night and also my email account decided that it didn’t want to receive any emails people had sent me!!
During the day we tried to get on a practice court a few times but the club members had booked all of the hard courts so it was just a case of watching some of the singles matches and making sure we were well prepared for the doubles.
Holly and Sean went on court at 2.45pm to face Karolayne Alexandre Da Rosa from Brazil and Emilija Kravtaite from Lithuania. Despite the match starting quite slowly, and the energy level on the court being quite low from all 4 players, Holly and Sean broke in the first game and went on to take a 2-0 lead. Holly’s serve was then broken at *2-1and it looked as though the match was about to get a lot tougher. However, our girls responded well and won the next 4 games in a row to take the first set 6-2.
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Holly lining up for a big forehand during the 1st set
During the 2nd set Holly and Sean upped their levels and started to talk a lot more which helped them to play the best 2 games of the match to go from *2-1 up to *4-1 up. Unfortunately, when it looked as though they were in full control of the match, they took their feet of the gas and started to play a lot more within themselves. There was less movement at the net and as the cross court rallies became more frequent it was obviously that their opponent’s confidence was growing. Holly and Sean were broken 3 times in a row and ended up losing 5 games in a row to go down 6-4.
Even though our girls had lost the second set I always felt as though if they could try and find a more aggressive level again then they would take the match tie-break. By this stage though Karolayne and Emilija were much more animated and were making most the balls that they had missed in the first set and a half of the match. With the score at *5-5 in the tie-break everything was looking close but then Holly and Sean fell *5-9 behind. They continued to fight and managed to claw the score back to *8-9 but a good point from their opponents saw them lose the match 2-6, 6-4, 10-8.
It was a really disappointing end to the week as Holly and Sean were in full control of the match at 6-2, 4-1 up but as always there were lots of things to learn from the match and I know the loss will make Holly even more determined to improve her game.
After dinner we said goodbye to Alex who flew back home tonight and Holly and I will return to England tomorrow evening. We won’t be taking it easy tomorrow though as we’ll be up at 6am again to get to the club and train from 7.30-9.30am before the matches start.
Overall the week has been tough in terms of results but very positive in terms of the players learning, developing and understanding what they now need to go home and work on before their next tournaments.
Until next time . . .
