Thursday 15th December 2011
Hey Everybody! It’s the last blog of the trip so Rob has passed it over to me; Mia, as he is currently cruising down the M42 on our way home!
Today we finally got a chance to lie in as we didn’t have to leave the hotel until 9.10am. We checked out of the hotel and made our way over to the tennis centre with all of our bags. I then went straight off to get my strength and conditioning work done before joining Rob again at 10.00am for a pre-doubles / training session. We had a great session and I felt confident with my doubles game upon finishing. Rob and I then made our way outside into the freezing cold so that I could complete my endurance training for the day. I ran around the field at the back of the centre for 30 minutes and then went inside to shower, change and clean all of the mud off of my shoes!!
Following this Rob and I sat down to have lunch and I offered to buy Dan Sanders, Head Coach of Wrexham HPC, lunch as he had done me a massive favour the day before of stringing my rackets for me. He declined but I will buy him something the next time I see him! We then went to watch some of the semi-final singles matches being played before going through my doubles from the day before and then decided on tactics for my doubles final. Anastasia Mikheeva (my doubles partner) won her match 7-6(5) 6-2 against Olivia Tompkins. She then wanted an hour and a half afterwards to get some lunch and prepare for our doubles so Rob and I jumped back on court after warming up and hit some more. We hit for about 25 minutes and by that time Anastasia was ready to get back on court for the final.
We took to the court to play the final against Alexandra Herd and Sophia Haine. We stormed on through the first set taking it 6-1 with a little blip of our focus when we lost a game. Anastasia and I were working well together and playing good doubles. In the second set Anastasia’s head dropped a bit and I didn’t do a good enough job of picking her back up so disappointingly we lost that set 6-4. The 3rd set was to be a match tiebreak so we pumped ourselves up and started fresh to try and close out the match. It was very tight up until 5-6 when Alex and Sophia managed to win the tiebreak 10-7. It was a disappointing end to the day and after a quick presentation where we each receiver runners-up trophies Rob and I talked through the match before I showered, changed and grabbed a quick bite to eat before getting straight on the road home.
Mia and Anatasia (left) taking on Alex and Sophia (right) in the doubles final
It’s been good writing this for y’all to read but I’m going to try get some sleep now whilst rob is singing/shouting to Katy Perry next to me. Awkward. 😉 Bye!
These are mine & Rob’s Awards for the week:
Coach of the Week: Mark Taylor, Head Coach of Nottingham HPC – Spent more time on court than anyone (even Rob).
Player of the Week: Anastasia Mikheeva – hardest working, best attitude, most consistent, enough said!! And she tried to book a practise court for 4 hours lol!!
Most Intense Parent: Mrs Knezevic – Video to be uploaded to the ITC Facebook page soon – www.facebook.com/itctennis1
Shot of the week: Sophia Haine hitting her own doubles partner Alex Herd in the back from 2 metres away!
Most Committed Player: Sam Ibanez Roig – Travelling from Ibiza …well, Formentera but Ibiza is close enough, when he was 25th alternate.
Miss of the week: Mia Smith – 1st game, 1st set, 1st round – volley on top of the net, whiffed it!
Fashion Police Alert of the week: Rob Booth – in a big fluffy jumper.
