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

Monday 6^th October 2014

We had another very good training day today and following almost 4 hours of on-court doubles work, the boys are ready and raring to go for their 1^st round match tomorrow.

In order to get a full court to train on this morning we got up early and were at breakfast for when it opened at 6.30am. We then headed over to the club at 7am but, following a short spell of rain while we were at breakfast, the clay courts were out of action so we went straight onto the hard courts to warm up. We then managed to stay on the hard court (despite the security officer trying to kick us off, or make us pay, again!) for almost two hours and during that time we worked hard on Toby and Nils’ doubles game which included their consistency in the cross court rally, their court positioning and their volleys and movement forwards to finish points at the net. It was a tough session but both boys worked well and we were all surprised by how quickly the session went!

At 10.15am Toby and Nils signed in for the doubles and then we headed back to the hotel to get some lunch and relax before it was time for both of them to get stuck into their schoolwork. As much as the players always dislike having to keep up with their school work while they’re on the road, it’s still a very important part of their lives and I always make time for it during every tournament.

At 2pm we got a Tuk Tuk back to the tennis club and for the second time today the boys went through their very thorough warm ups:

Once we had all warmed up I challenged the boys to a couple of court sprints and I’m pleased to say that I can still keep up with them … just! We then walked down to the back clay courts and had one of the best training sessions of the trip. The session was just over 2 hours long and all of us were pushing each other to compete harder while maintaining a high level of focus on what we had worked on this morning. We ended with a short doubles set up to 4 games where Toby and Nils could only play back to the half court that I either served or returned from. It gave them an ideal opportunity to work on their doubles tactics in a matchplay situation and, just like this morning, I was really pleased with how hard they worked and how they tried to execute the game plans that he had discussed.

By the time we finished at 5pm the doubles draw was out:

We then went back to the hotel and, while Toby went straight into the gym to complete his strength programme, Nils hit the books again to do some more school work.

For dinner this evening we went back over to the other Hilton hotel and once again we all had the buffet which this evening had a ‘Thai’ theme. Toby and Nils loved the food but also loved the fact that they got me back for the forfeits they had to do yesterday! So here’s me walking around the restaurant holding our table candle above my head!!

Schedule for tomorrow:

(1) Indra Patwardhan (IND) & Arjun Ramakrishnan (IND) vs (WC) Toby Huffer (GBR) & Nils Larsson Regnstrom (SWE) – 4^th match after 8.30am (not before 12.45pm)