Wednesday 16th January 2013
Today was a disappointing day as Holly Hutchinson lost her singles and both Holly’s went down in the doubles 1st round which, after a very long day at the club, brought our tournament to an end.
The day started on a high note as Alex had to complete his forfeit from dinner last night – the deal was that if either of the girls lost they had to go through their 20 minute physical warm up in one of my tennis kits or if Alex or I lost we had to go through the warm up in one of the girls kits. As it got down to the final two Alex and I got very tight but I just about managed to pull through so here it is, Alex warming up in Holly’s kit!
Priceless!
Once the tears from laughing so hard had been wiped away both Hollys went with me to the practice court to warm up for 30 minutes to prepare themselves for their matches. The hitting was a little erratic to begin with and I got the sense that both girls were nervous about competing today, but after 10 minutes they had both settled down.
We came off court at 12pm and the three players had lunch at the restaurant while I walked down the road to the supermarket to stock up on some water for Holly. We then had about an hour and a half to relax and prepare before Holly went on for her singles match. During this time Alex went off and completed his strength and conditioning programme to keep up to date with his own training while the girls watched some matches and kept a close eye on the score on Holly’s court.
At just after 2pm Holly went on to face Mira Antonitsch from Austria and her nerves were apparent from the start as she struggled to find her range in the opening 3 games and very soon found herself 0-3 down. I always think it’s not a bad thing for your opponent to serve first as it gives you a chance to hit some balls and find a rhythm before you have the pressure of holding serve but the only downside is that if you fail to hold then you could find yourself 0-3 down very quickly. In the next game Holly was a lot more relaxed; she served well, was much more consistent from the back of the court and was prepared to let the rally develop before going for the big winner which resulted in her holding to make it 1-3*. Holly then had chances to hold again at *1-4 but 4 unforced errors from *40-15 up cost her the game and then Mira held serve to take the first set.
It was obvious that Holly was disappointed with how the set had gone but she responded well at the start of the 2nd set by starting to play much smarter tennis. As Holly’s consistency improved she started to get much closer to her opponent in the games and then her confidence increased very quickly. At *1-1 Holly was broken but this time she didn’t let her head drop and she fought very hard to stay close with the Austrian until at *3-5 she was broken again to go down 6-1, 6-3. The match was really a tale of two sets from Holly; the first set was erratic and too one dimensional whereas the second set was much smarter and patient where Holly was prepared to out think her opponent rather than just try and outhit her!
Once the match was finished Holly stretched, showered and changed and then met up with me in the restaurant to get some food to fuel herself ready for the doubles. Both Hollys had been volleying well in training all week and I was very positive going into the match that they could get a win. We had a long chat before the match about what they were going to do and how best to take control of the points so that they had a clear picture of how they were going to play together.
After a slight delay the girls eventually went on court at 7pm to play Kristina Mrazova from the Czech Republic and Ekaterina Stepanova from Russia. The girls started very well and broke in the first game with some very sharp movement at the net but then gave a sloppy game away to let their opponents back in. The set then went with serve until *2-2 when the girls were broken again and from this point level dropped significantly; the movement that had secured them the early break had gone and it was their opponents who took the opportunities to dominate at the net. That resulted in our girls losing the next 8 games in a row to go 6-2, 5-0 down before they then got a game on the board but it was the only game they managed as they went on to lose the match 6-2, 6-1. It was the only match of the week that I was disappointed with as I felt the girls could have done much better and could have done more to try and prevent their opponents from winning 9 out of 10 games from 2-2 in the first set.
Holly Horsfall (hitting) and Holly Hutchinson (watching Holly hit!) during their doubles match
After the match was done the team were feeling very down but I reminded them that they are all only just starting out on their international journeys whereas a lot of the opponents they are playing against have been doing it for a year or two and have a lot more experience. All three players have worked hard on and off the court and the results that they have had this week are definitely not through a lack of trying.
Michael picked us up from the club at 8.45pm and took us back to the hotel before we headed out for a very late dinner! Tomorrow we will fly back to London and then in one week I’ll be back on the road again with Alex, Holly Hutchinson and Anais Nussaume from Thailand for two U18 ITFs in Nairobi, Kenya.
