Queenswood U18 ITF Grade 4, Day 2

Sunday 12th July 2015

I had a pretty good Birthday today as Toby took out the number 8 seed in the 1^st round of Qualifying and is now still locked in battle in his 2^nd round match as they had to stop for bad light this evening.

As Toby was scheduled for 1^st match on at 9.30am we were up and at breakfast at 6.45am this morning having managed to convince the Travelodge to open breakfast for us an hour and 15 minutes early! When we arrived at Queenswood School the courts were still very wet from the overnight rain but we were told that they should be fit for a 10am start. With that we headed straight to the AstroTurf courts behind the pavilion to warm up. Toby then had a good 30 minute hit with Cameron Price and even though the court was much faster than the clay would be, at least it gave Toby a chance to hit some balls and loosen up before he played his match.

At 10am Toby went on court to face 8^th seed Miguel Romanello from Italy and after a disappointing match in Edinburgh last week he was ready to make amends this week. The first couple of games were quite tight with both players trying to work each other out but at *1-1 Toby suddenly stepped up a gear and dictated play in each of the next 5 games to take the set 6-1.

Having only missed 3 balls in the entire set I was expecting a few more unforced errors to creep into Toby’s game and when he gave away his serve cheaply at *1-0 I did start to get a little concerned. However, after exchanging a couple of breaks of serve, Toby raised his intensity level at *2-3 and hit 7 winners and only 3 unforced errors in 4 games to take the second set 6-3. It’s sometimes hard to continue to reproduce a high level of tennis when the 1^st set is so comprehensive but Toby did well to refocus and get back on track to finish the match well.

The match was finished by 11.15am but as Toby’s next round opponents were still on court we decided to watch the whole of their second set before getting some lunch and debriefing. At that stage the weather turned and the rain that had been forecast for the afternoon started to come down.

After a couple of heavy downpours we got a ‘not before’ time from the referee and decided to head back to the hotel so that we didn’t get tired or bored just sitting around waiting for matches to go back on.

After watching the conclusion of the Men’s singles final at Wimbledon on TV we headed back to Queenswood to prepare Toby for his match and even though the skies were looking very dark we were told that the match would get started tonight!

At just after 7pm Toby and Jack Gibbens went on court for their 2^nd round Qualifying match and Toby started exactly where he left off after his first set this morning! He broke Jack in the opening game and then produced some high quality tennis to race through the first set 6-0 in 25 minutes.

Having seen Jack fight back from a set down this morning we knew that he wasn’t about to roll over and give Toby the match but with Toby leading 3-1* in the 2^nd set I thought he’d control the set all the way through to the end of the match. Jack had other ideas though and after he held serve for the first time in the match he broke Toby to level the set at 3-3*. Toby responded well and immediately broke to take a *4-3 lead but Jack got the break straight back to level things up once again. At that stage both players upped their games and that led to the rest of the set going with serve until the tie-break. Jack took an early 2-0 lead and then extended it to 4-1 before Toby started a mini fight-back. It wasn’t to be however and Jack played some of his best tennis of the match to eventually take it 7-4.

Once the 2^nd set was completed it was 8.40pm and the referee decided it was too dark to continue so play was suspended for the day.

Toby went straight off court to cool down and have a shower before we left site and drove into Borehamwood to have a very late dinner –and there wasn’t even a birthday cake for me!!

We had a debrief over dinner and talked about the positives of the 1^st set as well as the areas of the 2^nd set that we need to avoid when they start the deciding set tomorrow.

Schedule for Monday 13th July 2015

Toby Huffer (GBR) (2087) vs Jack Gibbens (GBR) (UNR) – TO FINISH 6-0, 6-7(4)

WINNER to play Rohan Sikka (GBR) (UNR) – After rest