Tuesday 5th November 2013
After the disappointment of not getting into the doubles yesterday, Zeki had some good news today while 2nd seeds Alex and Antonio came back from a set down to move into the ¼ finals.
In order to get a good practice session in this morning we had to be up early and get the first bus of the day to the tennis centre at 6.49am. Alex and Zeki were a bit weary eyed but once we warmed up we had a good session from 7.45 – 9am where we worked specifically on doubles drills.
When we came off court Zeki heard that one of the doubles pairs might be pulling out and, as him and his partner were the only team that signed in as Alternates, they would be the first to take their place. After confirming the withdrawal with the referee, Zeki and Francisco were placed in the draw and their match was scheduled for 6th match on court 5. It just goes to show that it’s always worth staying that extra day just in case someone pulls out of the singles or the doubles.
Over the next few hours we watched some of the main draw matches and I went through Alex’s singles match with him before it was time to warm up for his doubles match.
Alex and Antonio went on court at 1.15pm to face the British pair of Troy Dixon and Peter O’Donovan and despite a slow start which saw Antonio get broken at *1-1, they fought back to break, hold and break again to take a *4-2 lead. The first 6 games had been quite scrappy and the inconsistency continued as Antonio was once again broken after being *40-0 up. Despite some interesting tactics from Peter and Troy, including Peter serving and volleying while Troy stayed behind the baseline, the rest of the set went with serve until they got into a tie-break. The breaker was just as scrappy as the rest of the set; Peter and Troy took a 4-2 lead and then had 3 set points at 6-3 before Alex and Antonio fought back to level it. Antonio then threw in a poor double fault which allowed Peter to serve it out to take the tie-break 8-6.
Alex and Antonio took a toilet break at the end of the set and when they returned they looked a lot more focussed. They broke Peter and 1-1* and then broke him again on a sudden death deuce point at 4-2* to take a commanding lead in the second set. Antonio had been struggling to hold serve in the first set but by now he was more determined and played a good game to hold to take the second set 6-2.
By the time the boys started the match tie-break it was obvious that Alex and Antonio had the momentum in the match and they managed to maintain their level to take a 4-0 lead. Peter and Troy managed to get the next couple of points back but Alex and Antonio played some very good doubles to eventually take the deciding set 10-3.
The match was just over 2 hours long and after talking through the match over lunch, Alex went into the gym to complete his fitness programme just as Zeki was taking to the court at 4.30pm.
Zeki had been desperate to get into the doubles at the start of the week but unfortunately when the match started neither him nor Francisco Caldas played to their potential. They were playing against a good pair in Tiago Cacao from Portugal and Markus Nordby from Norway but they just didn’t seem to get going throughout the match. Francisco was broken twice in the first set and even though Zeki held both of his service games the boys lost the set 6-2.
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Zeki and Francisco Caldas (POR) vs Tiago Cacao (POR) & Markus Nordby (NOR)
The boys then made a strange decision at the start of the second set which I think really knocked them down – Francisco insisted that he served first despite not holding once in the first set . . . and was broken to Love. That really set the tone for the set and even though Francisco did manage to hold serve at *0-4 it was a little too late and Tiago and Markus went on to take the match 6-2, 6-1.
Zeki was disappointed after the match and even though he knew his partner had not performed well he also knew that he can play a lot better than he did. One of the big factors during the match was the number of sudden death deuce that were won by both teams – there were 8 in total and Zeki and Francisco only managed to convert 1 of them.
Zeki and I had a good chat about the match while he stretched out in the gym and then after he had showered and changed we left the club to get the 6.21pm bus back to the hotel – just the 11 hours at the club today!!
We were joined at dinner tonight by Luke Simeone and Dan Little and it was again very entertaining to see everyone get very tight over a game of cards! Luke decided the forfeit would be to ask the girl behind the bar for her telephone number . . . and then he lost in the final to me!
Schedule for tomorrow:
Sebastian Hawken (NOR) & Casper Ruud (NOR) vs (2) Alex Hagon (GBR) & Antonio Sabugueiro (POR) – 6th match after 9am (2nd match not before 1pm)
