Sunday 3rd November 2013
It was a tough day for Zeki today as he came up against a good player in his 2nd round match while Alex’s continued his preparations for the main draw which starts tomorrow.
Due to a later start to breakfast and the fact that the first bus of the day was at 8.49am the tournament decided to start play at 10.30am today. That gave the boys a bit of a lie in and after we arrived at the tennis centre at around 9.15am they warmed up and then hit from 10-10.30am. Zeki was hitting well throughout the session and he continued to focus on some of the things we had talked about yesterday following his first round win.
After the practice session we went upstairs onto the balcony to recap on yesterday’s match before talking in detail about goals and tactics that we wanted to use in the match today. Then, at 12.30pm, Zeki went on to face Jacob Eskeland from Norway.
We had watched Jacob play almost all of his first round match yesterday so we knew quite a bit about how he plays – he had a big serve and hit well from the back of the court when the ball was within his comfort zone. Zeki’s game plan was therefore to use his ‘leftiness’ to move Jacob wide on his weaker backhand side before looking to ghost in to finish the point.
The match started with Jacob holding serve comfortably but Zeki responded well with a very good service game of his own. After another hold from Jacob, Zeki played a poor game where he double faulted and gave away another 2 unforced errors to hand Jacob the break. That game was to have a big impact on the match as Zeki’s head dropped a little while Jacob’s confidence grew resulting in him taking a 4-1* lead. Zeki managed to hold serve in the next game with 5/5 first serves but that was unfortunately the last game he won in the match.
After winning the first set 6-2, Jacob raised his level and prevented Zeki from really being able to execute his game plan effectively. Zeki did have opportunities in the second set to get games on the board but in the end Jacob played well on the big points and ended up taking the match 6-2, 6-0.
While Zeki was on court Alex spent 30 minutes practicing with Dan Little and then after we all got some lunch we went back on court from 3-4pm to make sure he was well prepared for his main draw match tomorrow. The session started with the two of us training next to a couple of Russian girls but soon they were done so we started a practice set. Alex hit the ball very well throughout our hour on court and despite him taking a 4-1 lead I managed to fight back to level the set before (luckily for me!) our time was up. We then headed into the gym so that Alex could do his injury prevention work and stretch out while I did little workout of my own. After a while Peter O’Donovan and Rob Morgan from the Bolton high performance centre in England joined us in the gym and I think, thanks to Rob’s ‘help’ on the bench press, I’m going to be feeling it in the morning!!
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Alex working out in the gym while the Italian slept on the floor!
We left the tennis centre at 5.45pm and after a quick change at the hotel we headed down to Vapiano again for dinner. To try and get a bit of variety in the player’s diet I decided at the start of the week that no-one could have the same meal for more than two days in a row. Zeki decided to go out on a limb and order the beef ravioli tonight but in the end it was definitely the best selection of the night.
After last night’s forfeits Zeki was determined to get his own back on Alex and me! In the end we both lost which saw me have to drink a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar while Alex had to pay for dinner and walk out of the restaurant wearing all of our jackets!
Boy’s Singles Main Draw
Schedule for tomorrow:
(1) Antonio Sabugueiro (POR) (603) vs Alex Hagon (GBR) (1090) – 3rd match after 9am
