Thursday 3rd April 2014
It was a good performance from Katie today in her Last 16 match against 8th seed Kaitlyn McCarthy but unfortunately for us the America played at a very high level throughout and went on to win 6-2, 6-1.
As Katie was scheduled to play in the 2nd round of matches today we were up early to have breakfast at 6.45am and then got over to the site to warm-up just before 8am. Today was the first time we were actually able to practice on the match courts as earlier in the week all the matches had been starting at 8am which meant that any training after that time had to be on the college courts. Katie once again hit very well during our warm-up session and we’ve now got into a very solid routine of what we go through in practice before she plays matches.
Once the match before Katie’s had finished a long 1st set we sat down to talk through the tactics for her match and also set some goals. Then at 11am Katie went on court to face 8th seed Kaitlyn McCarthy from America.
We knew a little about Kaitlyn and knew that Katie would have to be on her game and dictate the points in order to go through a good opponent, but I don’t think either of us were expecting such a close first game of the match! It lasted over 15 minutes and saw both girls play at a very high level – it actually took 7 winners from Katie in that game alone to break Kaitlyn’s serve and take a *1-0 lead. In the next five games Kaitlyn really increased the pressure on Katie with some very accurate hitting despite Katie continuing to play at a very high level. Unfortunately those 5 games went against us and even though Katie kept fighting and competing hard, she eventually lost the first set 6-2 after 1 hour and 5 minutes. The set was probably the best I’ve seen Katie play in a match but Kaitlyn just played the big points better.
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Kaitlyn serving against Katie in their Last 16 match today
In the 2nd set Katie maintained her aggressive play and produced some great tennis in the first two games but from 1-1* Kaitlyn stepped up the pressure again. She went on to win another 5 games in a row with probably the best level of tennis I’ve seen from any of the girls this week to take the match 6-2, 6-1 in 1 hour and 45 minutes – normally you’d expect a 2 & 1 scoreline to be over in 50-60 minutes which just goes to show that the match was a lot closer than the score suggests.
Katie was obviously disappointed to lose the match but we both agreed afterwards that she had played some of her best tennis and now if we can increased her consistency at that level in the next few days then she’s going to be a real threat next week in Indian Wells.
After cooling down and stretching out in the gym we got some lunch and then watched some of the other Last 16 matches. Sofia Kenin against Claire Liu was a very close match which Sofia ended up winning 6-4 in the third, but 13 year old Claire is definitely one to keep an eye on over the next few years.
After the matches we headed back to the hotel to relax and pack our bags ready to move on tomorrow. I also managed to get a 30 minute interval session in and it suddenly dawned on me that there is now only 10 days to go until the London Marathon – please support the amazing charity that I’m running for by donating here – www.justgiving.com/robslondonmarathon2014 – THANK YOU!
This evening we had an early dinner and then went through the analysis of the match before heading to Yogurtland for frozen yoghurt – as I’m in training I managed to resist getting one but I was very jealous of everyone’s yoghurt and topping masterpieces!!
Tomorrow we head to Indian Wells to start preparing for the USTA Easter Bowl U18 ITF B1 which starts for Katie on Monday.
