Trinidad & Tobago U18 ITF Grade 4, Day 5

Monday 25^th March 2013

It was a very positive day for the team today even though we ended the day with one win and one loss.

Due to the late match times for Mia and Alex today we had a bit of a lie in and met at breakfast at 9am before getting a taxi to the club at just after 10am. Alex then spent the next hour and a half trying to find a doubles partner but once he had got one arranged they signed in and him and Mia then warmed up for their on-court session from 12-12.30pm. As with all pre-match warm ups the players dictated exactly what they wanted to do so that they felt completely prepared for their upcoming match. Mia and Alex worked well together and after 30 minutes of groundstrokes, volleys, smashes, drive-volleys and serves and returns they felt ready to go.

We then got some lunch and watched some of Katie and Georgie’s singles victories before Mia took to the court at 2.30pm to play Elizabeth Sutherland from America.

Elizabeth is quite a big hitter and at the start of the 1^st set Mia made the mistake of trying to match her pace which resulted in too many unforced errors. Mia fell *1-3 behind and struggled to hold serve but she fought back to level the set at *3-3. Unfortunately she again struggled with her serve and despite breaking back to level the set at *4-4 she went on to lose the 1^st set 6-4.

In the past Mia has found it difficult to come back after losing the 1^st set but today she showed real maturity and professionalism to realise her tactics weren’t working and to change them to a more solid gamestyle. Mia worked the ball really well throughout the 2^nd set and after she held in the 1^st game her confidence increased and she raced to a 4-1* lead. She continued to serve a lot better than in the 1^st set and played a very patient game to hold serve at 5-2 to level the match.

Mia again looked in control at the start of the 3^rd set as she continued to play a patient but aggressive game and after Elizabeth double faulted with an underarm serve at 2-1* it looked as though there was only going to be one winner. Unfortunately Elizabeth held from *0-40 down in that game and then broke Mia for the first time in 8 service games at *3-3 to take control of the set. Mia continued to work hard and fight for every point but Elizabeth held serve at 4-5* to go on to take the match 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 in just over 2 hours 15 minutes.

Despite the loss the match was very positive from Mia’s point of view and I think it was the best I’ve ever seen her play in an ITF; not only did she manage to change her tactics after the 1^st set but she chased every ball and fought hard throughout the match.

Almost as soon as Mia had finished Alex was on court 3 at 5pm to take on Patrick Nkrumah from Trinidad and Tobago. Alex started the match very aggressively and imposed his game on his opponent from the first game. Alex took a *3-0 and even though he was disappointed to lose his serve in the next game he went on to take the 1^st set 6-2.

At the start of the 2^nd set some local support gave Patrick a bit of a boost but Alex continued to play aggressively and got two breaks of serve to lead *4-1. However, just like in the 1^st set Alex gave away a cheap service game and had to dig deep to pull through the 2^nd set after his opponent once again raised his level. Alex played a very solid but aggressive game at 5-3* to break Patrick’s serve to take the match 6-2, 6-3.

Just like with Mia’s performance I was very happy with the way that Alex played especially as he maintained an aggressive gamestyle and developed his front court game throughout the match.

By the time Alex finished it was almost 6.30pm so he cooled down at the courts and then showered and changed before we headed straight out to dinner. We were then met at the restaurant after the meal by one of the local tennis coaches who gave us tour of Port of Spain (the good parts and the bad!!) before he drove us back to the hotel to end a long but successful day.

Schedule for tomorrow:

(16) Arthur Stefani (BRA) (1494) vs Alex Hagon (1805) – 4^th match after 9am (not before 12pm)

Stephanie Nemtsova (USA) & Jeung Won Yang (KOR) vs Sara Kelly (USA) & Mia Smith (GBR) – 6^th match after 9am (not before 2pm)

Scott Lanser (TRI) & Matus Lazar (SVK) vs George Cartledge (USA) & Alex Hagon (GBR) – 6^th match after 9am (not before 2pm)