Sri Lanka U18 ITF Grade 5 (week 2), Day 3

Tuesday 13th October 2015

It was another frustrating day in Colombo today as a big storm hit the city and suspended play for the day just as we were preparing to go over to SSC for Toby’s first round doubles match.

It was an early morning gym session for me this morning before meeting Toby for breakfast at 9.30am. We then headed over to SLTA to practice on their clay courts from 11.30am until just after 1.30pm and even though we had to pay to use the courts it was much better than using the bottom courts. During the session our focus was entirely on preparing Toby for his doubles 1st round match so we worked a lot of his 1st volley, closing down the net and then towards the end of the session we worked on his serve and return. The weather while we were training was fantastic and once again we both walked off the court soaking wet!!

We stayed on site at SLTA for lunch at Santoré and the plan was to head from there straight to SSC to prepare for the match. However, after speaking to the referee we found out that the first round match on Toby’s court was going very slowly and he said it would be best to call him later to get an update. With that we decided to go back to the hotel to relax there rather than spend too long outside in the heat.

Over the next few hours we kept getting updates from the referee but just as we decided to get everything ready to go over to the tournament site a huge black cloud came over us and it starting pouring down with rain. Another call to Muffi confirmed that play had been suspended for the day which left both Toby and I very frustrated.

We decided to go over to the other Hilton hotel this evening to check out their dinner buffet but after seeing what was being prepared we agreed that it was not worth spending 3100 Rupees so headed across the road to TGI Fridays again!

Once we got back to the apartment the order of play for tomorrow was released and unsurprisingly the tournament has now moved to the hard courts at SLTA. Hopefully we’ll have more chance of getting on tomorrow but currently it is still raining and lightening is flashing all around us!!

Schedule for tomorrow:

Toby Huffer (GBR) & Ondrej Styler (CZE) vs Christian Cummings (IND) & Rishi Reddy (IND) – 7th match after 9am (not before 3.30pm)