Sunday 10th July 2011
It was a good start to the Solihull TE for Mia today as she won through qualifying for the second week in a row.
Last night we stayed at a B&B on a farm which was a nice change from the Travelodge as it gave us more of a family home feel and it was also nice to have breakfast cooked for you rather than having cereal in your room!!
We warmed up between 8.30am – 9.30am and then Mia prepared for her match by completing her pre-match sheet. As she was doing hers I went off and completed one myself to see if she would come up with the same goals and tactics as I would after we both watched her opponent play yesterday. Mia’s sheet was almost identical to mine and I think we were both pleased that we were on the same wavelength but we were both also happy to admit that the other person had one or two things that we missed. As we spoke through the sheets Mia had a clear understanding of what we needed her to do to not only qualify but most importantly to improve her level following Edinburgh last week. Winning is great but it’s not normally the players that win at U14 level that go on to win at a senior level. The players that develop at this age and continue to develop through U18 ITFs are the ones that go on to make an impact at Future and Challenger levels.
After a 20 minute delay due to the court being watered Mia took to the court at 12pm to take on fellow Kent girl Florence Abbott. Mia started very well and put into practise everything we had planned; she was aggressive from the back of the court, executed her serve well and continued to improve in every game. She took a 2-0 lead, then she was broken but responded very professionally and won the next 4 games to take the set 6-1. In the first set Mia hit 14 winners and 12 unforced errors to finish with a positive aggressive balance for the first time this summer – we were both very pleased with that! The second set was a little tougher as Florence upped her game and reduced her errors quite considerably forcing Mia to up her game. The scores remained close and despite Mia serving for the match at 5-4 Florence kept fighting and managed to get it back level before Mia broke and served it out to take the match 6-1, 7-5. Mia played a great first set and stuck in there in the second when things got a little shaky to earn her place in the main draw tomorrow.
The day was far from done though and after lunch we were back on court training with another main draw player before going in the gym to complete Mia’s fitness programme. It was then a thorough cool down and stretch out before showering and changing at the club so we could go straight out for an early dinner at ASK.
We were back at the Travelodge tonight and just to throw a spanner in the works our Sat Nav decided to take us to a completely different place instead of the one it took us to before so we had a detour around Birmingham! At least we found a Fun Fair that’s just around the corner so we might have to give that a visit one evening.
Schedule for tomorrow:
(q) Mia Smith (GBR) (UNR) vs Lucky Loser (To Be Confirmed tomorrow) – 5th round on after 9am, Not Before 3pm
