Tuesday 1st April 2014
Katie and Chloe had a tough doubles match today as they came up against a strong team in the first round.
Having not quite got over the jet lag yet, I was wide awake at 5.45am this morning so I decided to hit the gym for one of my last 7 runs before the London Marathon on the 13th April. I then met Katie at 8am for our ‘boxed breakfast’ which consisted of a carton of milk, a carton of orange juice, a box of cereal and a bagel – not really an ideal breakfast for the players (or the coaches!!).
Shortly after we had finished breakfast we headed over to the tournament site to watch some of the other first round matches and then at 10am we walked over to the college courts to get ready for our morning session. After going through a thorough physical warm-up I took Katie through a footwork and movement session for about 20 minutes to keep her sharp and maintain her fitness while she’s on the road. We then had a very good training session from 11-12.15pm where we focused on the learning points from yesterday’s match and also the tactics that we want to implement in her 2nd round singles match tomorrow.
Katie working hard during the footwork session
Once we were finished we were both pretty hungry (the breakfast this morning hadn’t really done the job!) so we went straight back to the tournament tent for some lunch. The lunch that the tournament are providing is better than breakfast but it just consists of a sandwich and either some potato or pasta salad – luckily it’s self-service so you can have as much potato or pasta salad as you can fit on your plate!
Most of the afternoon was then spent waiting for the matches before Katie and Chloe’s to finish – they were scheduled for 6th match on but 5 out of the 6 matches went to 3 sets!! Before Katie went on court we went through the goals and tactics for the match and then at just after 5pm it was game time.
The wind had been picking up all day and by the time Katie and Chloe Ouellet-Pizer (USA) went on court to face wildcards Francesca Di Lorenzo (USA) & Caroline Dolehide (USA) the conditions were very difficult.
The first 6 games went with serve and even though Francesca and Caroline were playing some strong doubles, Katie and Chloe were holding their own and working hard to stay in the set. At *3-3 Chloe was broken following a sudden death deuce game, Francesca held well and then Katie was broken, again to sudden death deuce, which saw the girls lose the first set 6-3. There wasn’t a lot between both teams during the first set but when it came to the big points Francesca and Caroline just managed to edge them.
The start of the second set was a little flat; the strong wind meant that it had got quite cold and that made it even more difficult to get going. At *1-2 Katie and Chloe upped their levels and, after Chloe held serve well, they broke Caroline for the first time. At that stage I really thought that it was going to be a big turning point in the match but unfortunately Francesca and Caroline played a very good game on Katie’s serve to break her to love. Once they had that break back they increased their play again and won the next three games (two to sudden death deuce) to take the match 6-3, 6-3. Overall there were 5 sudden death deuce games in the match which shows how close it was – unfortunately Katie and Chloe only won 1 of those games!
Despite the loss there were lots of positives from the match including Katie raising her doubles level in the second set to move across the centre line 13 times (10 / set was our goal) and also finish 8 first volleys (8-10 was our goal). It was just a shame for our girls that they came up against a strong pair today who played good doubles throughout.
The match finished at 6pm and after a quick debrief with Katie we headed straight to the gym so that Katie could cool down and stretch out to maximise her recovery before tomorrow’s singles match.
We then went straight back to the hotel and straight into dinner which was thankfully the best meal of the day – chicken, mash potato and fresh vegetables – finally a hot meal!!
Schedule for tomorrow:
(11) Katie Swan (GBR) (109) vs Elysse Graci (USA) (275) – 4th match after 8am
