Following a training session yesterday morning the ITC team of myself, Mia Smith, Milo Bargeron and Lucas Percy left Kent for the long journey to Bolton to sign in for Teen Tennis. Mia was already in the draw but when we left Milo was 13th alternate and Lucas, who hadn’t entered, was going to be bottom of the list. It’s always worth turning up to these events to sign in even if you’re a long way down the alternate list as there are always loads of players who don’t bother turning up. I’ve been to events abroad in the past where players have been over 40 places out on the alternate list and then easily got in once the sign in deadline had past – Mia actually started as 60th alternate for this event and then moved into the draw a couple of days ago!
I was surprised that there were no courts available for practise yesterday afternoon / evening but we managed to get a good session in this morning from 8am – 9am. It’s amazing to look around and see that some players have not been taught the importance of the pre-match warm up and seem to just view it as a chance to hit a few balls before they play their match. It’s a vital part of the match and something that should be practised just like technical, tactical and mental goals. Probably 50% of the on court pre-match hitting this morning was poorly structured or of poor quality and unfortunately most of those were from the British players. I sat my players down this morning at breakfast and talked them through how we would go about the pre-match warm up and it ran quite smoothly but as we sat down on the court to have a chat about how it had all gone I noticed an American girl hitting on court we were just on. I got the players to watch her for 10 minutes and comment on how well she was going about her business – it was very impressive. Not a word was spoken by her coach (who was hitting with her) in the time we watched, she was very active, very focused and didn’t miss a single ball for almost 9 minutes. Players can learn a lot from watching each other train as well as compete and this definitely had an impact on the players I was with. Maybe check out how well she does this week . . . her name was Nicole Frenkel.
Unfortunately Lucas was 2nd alternate after the draw was made so he didn’t get in but it was worth giving it a go, if he had entered he would have got in! In the girls there were actually 3 byes and I think someone should question the HPC’s as to why they haven’t all sent up their U12 girls to sign in – this is a grade 1 event, the highest in Tennis Europe, players like Henin and Murray have won this, it’s right on our doorstep and yet last year there were 4 byes in the girls and this year there were 3!
Milo was 2nd on this morning, this was his first U14 Tennis Europe event and he came up against a much taller, much stronger and much more experienced player in 5th seed Jonatan Lundstedt from Sweden. Milo wanted to be aggressive and try and take his game to his opponent but struggled to deal with the Swede’s pace of shot going down 6-0, 6-1. It was hopefully a great learning experience for him and he’ll be able to work on the areas of his game that he struggled with today in his matches this weekend.
Mia was scheduled 4th on court 6 but due to some very quick matches her court was changed and she managed to get on just before 2.30pm. It’s always difficult for the referee if there are lots of rounds of matches and one court goes a lot quicker than others but Tom Kinloch and Pete Grimsdale were very organised and let us know about the court change early enough so we could prepare in time. Unfortunately Mia struggled with consistency today and her opponent, 13th seed Apolline Rassat, took full advantage and took the match 6-2, 6-0. The games were closer than the scoreline suggests and Mia competed with the French girl in every game but I think a lack of matches at this level was the difference today.
Even though both players lost today and Lucas didn’t even get into the event they all have learnt a lot about themselves and a lot about the areas in their games that need to develop to be able to compete at an international level. Champions aren’t made at U14 or even U18 level but these events will provide the experience that players need to develop and show them what they need to do to move onto the next level.
