Sunday 25th August 2013
It was another good training day today as we prepared for Alex’s 1st round main draw match tomorrow.
We met for breakfast this morning at 8.15am and, due to the tournament bus schedule, we ended up warming up at the hotel before getting the 10am bus to the tennis centre. The plan was then for Alex to train with Stefan from 10.30 – 11.30am but Stefan had a bit of a mix up with where he was staying last night and didn’t end up getting to bed until after 2am! Just before we were due to start we managed to get Allen Thornes to join us which was great as it gave me the chance to be down Alex’s end of the court for the whole session. Alex and Allen had a good hour on court together and with just one day to go before the main draw starts the majority of the session was point based.
The plan for lunch today was to go to Ciao Café and get a good portion of pasta but after going all the way to the restaurant it turned out that it was closed for lunch on Sundays! Therefore it was back to Subway to get a sandwich but hopefully that will be the last time this week! The food there is okay but the service is diabolical (we were waiting 35 minutes today!) and it’s just a bit too heavy when we haven’t got a lot of time between sessions.
This afternoon we went back on court at 2.30pm and, as Stefan was still not at the club, we asked Andrew Symmonds from Barbados if he wanted to warm up and play a practice set. He was happy to do so and the boys ended up having a close set; Alex couldn’t quite find the level he had been hitting at over the weekend and he struggled to maintain his focus but in the end he held serve at *5-6 down and played a solid tie-break to take the set 7-6. The set took a little longer than I would have liked but it was good practice for Alex and identified areas that he needs to focus on for tomorrow’s match.
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Alex serving against Andrew this afternoon
After the set Alex and I had a debrief and then he went off to sign in. He then got a lift back to the hotel with Kylie McKenzie, Ryan Peus and Ryan’s dad while I decided to run the 2.5 miles – a short distance but it was very hot and humid!
Once I got back, Alex and I had a recovery session in the swimming pool and then at 6.30pm it was back to the Ciao Café with Kylie, Ryan and Eric. We had another fantastic meal and I think I’m spreading the word quite well about the restaurant as, just as we were finishing, half of the tournament seemed to turn up for dinner!
By the time we got back to the hotel the draw was out:
Boy’s Singles Main Draw
Schedule for tomorrow (oh, and it’s Alex’s birthday!):
Alex Hagon (GBR) (1880) vs Kristen Anthony (TRI) (UNR) – 1st match on at 10am after the Opening Ceremony
