Tobago U18 ITF Grade 5, Day 6

Wednesday 28^th August 2013

It was another wet day at the tennis centre today but the boys eventually got on court at around 4pm for their 1^st round doubles match . . . and by 4.50pm they were off court with a win!

When Alex went to bed last night we had decided to meet for breakfast at 7am and then get the 7.45am bus to the courts, but that was before the order of play came out at 11pm!! Once I found out the boys were scheduled to play ‘not before 12pm’ I decided that we’d get the bus over at 10am but, as didn’t want to wake Alex to let him know, he only found that out at 7am this morning!

While Alex tried to get back to sleep I took to the road for a long and exhausting 7 mile run. It wasn’t the most pleasant run that I’ve ever done due to the high humidity and the exhaust fumes from the lorries on the highway but I’m glad I managed to get through it. Please donate if you can to help an amazing charity who helps very sick children – www.justgiving.com/robsGNR2013.

Once we arrived at the tennis centre we watched some of Mia’s ¼ final match before Alex and Stefan warmed up and then had a really good training session for an hour. They warmed up as normal for 20 minutes and then went through a series of doubles specific drills to get them sharp at the net and also work on their movement forwards. They then served and finished the session with some cross court points.

We had lunch today from the small hut next to the tennis centre and even though it wasn’t as good as the pasta from Ciao Café, it was definitely better than having a Subway sandwich! As we were eating our chicken and rice back at the court the Heavens opened and it poured with rain.

During the rain delay Alex got stuck into his strength and conditioning programme and then at 4pm the boys went on for their 1^st round doubles match. They were due to play Matthew Foster-Estwick & Simon Lewis from Barbados but Matthew had a bad injury to his knee yesterday so they were replaced by the alternate pairing of Timothy Davis & Ryan Thomas from Trinidad and Tobago.

Our pre-match talk was mainly about getting the job done in a professional manner and improving throughout the match so that they would be prepared for a tougher match tomorrow. As always the boys had 3 specific goals for the doubles; hit 10 first volley winners per set, cross the centre line of the court 10 times per set to poach the volley and aim to approach off every second serve return to put pressure on their opponents.

Alex and Stefan performed well together and stayed focussed on their goals as they stormed through the match 6-0, 6-0. Even though it was very comfortable victory I was pleased with how both players conducted themselves and how they developed their doubles throughout the match.

After Alex had showered and changed we got a taxi back to the hotel but as there were 6 of us travelling back, 3 of us were in the back of the pick-up with the wind in our hair!!

We had a big group of us at dinner tonight which included the Advantage Tennis team, Pedro Cavalcante and during the meal Mia and her mum joined us too.

It was another fantastic meal at Ciao Café and after a tough run this morning there was only going to be one thing that I was going to order!

Schedule for tomorrow:

Jesse Ruder-Hook (USA) & Jakub Wojcik (USA) vs (3) Stefan Cooper (GBR) & Alex Hagon (GBR) – 3^rd match after 9am, not before 11am