Sri Lanka U18 ITF Grade 5 (week 1), Day 4

Sunday 5^th October 2014

It was a much more positive day today as not only did Toby and Nils put in a very good day of training but they also received a Wildcard into the doubles!

Yesterday we wanted to book an early practice court for this morning but we were convinced by the referee that it was going to rain overnight and he said it was best to book after 10am. So with that in mind we had a bit of a lie-in but when we did meet for breakfast at 8am the weather was amazing! – I’m sure Toby and Nils appreciated the extra sleep though!

We warmed up at the club at 9.30am and then managed to get a full court to practice on from 10am until 11.15am. During the session we focussed on the areas that Toby and Nils had struggled with in their singles matches yesterday – namely consistency at their personal ‘higher levels’ and also depth of shot both when under pressure and when attacking. Despite the conditions being hotter and more humid this morning than before on the trip, both boys worked very hard and were feeling much more positive by the end of the session.

Another thing that made both boys even happier was when I told them after the session that I had spoken to the referee and the tournament director, and they had agreed to give them a Wildcard into the doubles draw. Whenever I travel to events I always try to build good relationships with referees and the personnel who organise the events as you never know when you might need a favour – luckily for us the tournament committee here like us and we were all very grateful for the Wildcard.

After lunch Toby and I went through the details of his match from yesterday and compiled a list of the things we wanted to work on over the next 6 days before Qualifying starts next Saturday. One task that I had set both Toby and Nils after their matches yesterday was to ask other players to hit with them during the week so that they were getting more variety and I was very pleased that both of them arranged to play practice sets this afternoon.

Nils was first up at 1pm and he was taking on Hyung Sung Choi from Korea. Nils’ specific goals were to increase the consistency of his good level of hitting (his 8/10 shots) and also reduce the number of unforced errors that he missed over the baseline during the set. Nils did both of them very well and even though he lost the set 6-3 he stayed at his 8/10 level for around 80% of the session and only missed 4 balls long in the whole set.

Toby was next on court at 3pm and he was playing Saitejas Mopuri from India who is in the main draw this week. Toby’s main goals were to find a better depth off his backhand side and also have a specific focus for each point that he played depending on the score in the game. The set was very close from start to finish and even though Toby lost it 6-2 he had game points in 6 of the 8 games and every game apart from 1 went to Deuce – that just goes to show how close sets can be in tennis even though the score line might not reflect it.

At 4.15pm we headed back to the hotel with both players feeling a lot more confident and looking forward to working at their doubles tomorrow before their 1^st round match on Tuesday.

Once we got back to the hotel Toby went down to the pool to complete a recovery session while Nils went through some injury prevention work. We then all got ready and headed out for dinner at 6.30pm to TGI Fridays by the Dutch Hospital.

The boys were in good spirits again over dinner; Nils was loving his rack of Ribs . . .

. . . while Toby was not so impressed with having to eat his dinner through a Cricket helmet after losing at Subway Surfers . . .

. . . and I was just happy that Chelsea beat Arsenal!!

..

It’s going to be an early start tomorrow so we can get a full court to practise our doubles specifics so hopefully the weather will be kind to us again!