Monday 19th August 2013
It was a very good start to the tournament here in St. Vincent today as Alex produced a fine performance to take down Elliott Thornton from America in the first round.
We were all up early this morning but some heavy downpours meant that we were left waiting at the hotel for the rain to clear until about 8.45am. Alex, Mia, Stefan and I then walked to the club and even though the courts were still covered in water we decided to go through our warm-ups so that we were ready to start as soon as they were dry. Due to the heat and a little bit of wind the courts here seem to dry out pretty quickly and by 10am Alex and Stefan were on court going through their pre-match hit. After a quick game of Bounce, which saw Stefan finally get his first points on the board (!), the boys had a good 30 minutes of uninterrupted hitting. Alex was hitting very confidently from the back of the court but the mostly pleasing aspect of his game was the way his serve has really come together this week after working on it for the last month.
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Alex and Stefan warming up between rain showers!
After the session the rain came down again so at 11am we got a ‘not before 1pm’ match time for Alex which enabled us to leave site and go back to the hotel for some lunch.
We returned at 12.30pm to find that the first round matches were only just starting but the match on Alex’s court went quite quickly and at 1.45pm it was game time!
Alex was taking on Elliott Thornton today and as Elliott hadn’t played last week in St. Lucia we weren’t able to get much information about him before Alex went on court. Therefore the game plan was to concentrate on the way Alex wanted to play and make sure that he brought a high level to the court. During the first set Alex did just that; his serving was fantastic which lead to him only losing 1 point of his first 2 service games and from the back of the court he was consistently aggressive. At 2-2* Alex increased his hitting level from the back of the court to brake Elliott’s serve and even though he struggled a bit in his next service game he eventually managed to hold which gave him a big boast of confidence. Elliott then held to make it *4-3 but Alex raised his focus again to hold (from *0-30 down) and break to take the first set 6-3. It was a very good performance from Alex in the first set, probably the best I’d seen from him this year, but now he needed to maintain that level to get the job done.
The second set was a little more scrappy; Alex was still in full control but took his foot off the gas a little at 4-1* and allowed Elliott to get back into the set. Elliott held and broke Alex to make the score 4-3* but Alex responded professionally, didn’t panic and in fact raised his level immediately to play his best two games of the set hitting only 1 unforced error to break and hold to take the match 6-3, 6-3. The win saw Alex pick up his first singles ITF points but most importantly it will give the belief that he can produce his high training level in matches when it really matters.
After the match we had a quick debrief and were both happy with the way he had not only played but also conducted himself on the court. We then sat down and watched Alex’s next round opponent play his opening match to prepare for tomorrow.
At around 4.30pm we headed back to the hotel so that Alex could stretch out and relax while I once again took to the mountainous roads of St. Vincent for a 6.5 mile run. The temperature during the day had been quite pleasant but by 5pm the humidity had really increased and from the start I found it tough going – still, more miles in the bank and more preparation for the Great North Run in September.
For dinner tonight Dawn, Mia, Alex, Stefan and I walked down to the Mariner’s hotel to join fellow Brits Megan Rogers and her dad. The food was superb (even though it was slightly difficult to see what you were eating due to the candle light) and it was great to have a big team around the table.
Schedule for tomorrow:
Alex Hagon (GBR) (1861) vs (6) Jesse Ruder-Hook (USA) (1115) – 1st match at 9am
