USTA College Bound Super Series event, Day 2

Saturday 7th May 2011

It was a very hot and humid day in Miami today as Devan played her first round match of the USTA College Bound Super Series event at the Royal Palm Tennis Club.

I was out exploring the local area this morning on a pre-breakfast run where I found some great basketball courts as well as a superb hard tennis court in a local park – I’m sure that’s going to come in handy for some training this weekend. We met for breakfast at 8am and then left for the club at 9.15am. Even though it’s only a few miles to the club the traffic here can be a nightmare so we gave ourselves enough time to get there and go through our 20 minute pre-match warm up before starting to hit at 10am. The club is really nice but I’m not convinced the club members are too happy with the event being there (reminds me of some clubs in England!!) and it was a bit of a fight to get a practise court for 30 minutes. By 10.30am Devan was warm and ready to go but still had to wait until 2pm for her match.

I always prefer to get away from the club when possible at tournaments to give the players a break, today was no different and after Devan had showered and changed we went and got some lunch before chilling out at the hotel until 1.15pm. We then drove back to the club and Devan warmed up and got set for her match.

Devan started very well, the first game was perfect as she was aggressive from the back of the court taking her opponent wide before attacking the space early. She did this three times in the first four points and in total she hit four winners in that game sending out a strong message to her opponent. Unfortunately her opponent fought very hard to take the next 5 games, Devan was doing the right things but she struggled to finish off the points once she had set them up well and her unforced errors started to increase. Devan broke at 1-5 but then was broken straight back to lose the first set 6-2. All Devan needed to do was reduce the unforced errors and she would be back in the match. She did just that in the second set and at the same time increased her winner count which resulted in an opposite outcome from the first set – Devan took it 6-2. At the end of the second set the USTA allow parents / coaches to talk to the players which I think is a great idea and one that other National Associations should encourage. I had a quick chat with Devan and said that she just needs to keep everything the same; keep attacking, keep the unforced errors down and she’ll be fine. She started the third set Super Tie-Break really well taking the first three points but then the level from the first set started to creep in and the unforced errors started to increase. In the end Devan went down 10-7 and the toughest part was that her opponent only had to hit 1 winner in the whole tie-break; the other 9 points were unforced errors.

It was still a positive match for Devan, her attitude throughout was excellent and her level from the back of the court was much more aggressive hitting a total of 27 winners, the only thing that hurt her was her unforced errors. It was definitely a tough result to take but we were both positive about where her game is going to go in the next 7 days to get her ready for the next ITF event in Delray Beach.

After dinner we went back to “Alex Rodriguez Park” to watch the second game between the University of Miami and Hofstra University and this time my iphone was charged!!

We’re now going to have a mini training block starting in Miami tomorrow and then we’ll move up to Delray Beach on Monday before either qualies on Saturday or main draw starting on Monday.