Sunday 11th December 2011
We had a really good training day today as Sam continued from where he left off yesterday and Mia arrived to prepare for main draw tomorrow.
It was an early start today so that we could get enough time on court before the last round qualifying matches started at 10am. Sam and I warmed up just after 8am and then we trained together for 20 minutes before a boy from Brazil, who lost yesterday, asked if he could hit with Sam. They then had a really constructive session for just over an hour; we had to go between a couple of courts as we weren’t allowed to book any but the boys coped with that well and both got a lot out of training which was mainly restricted to half court.
Sam in training this morning
At 10am I took Sam off to the mini-tennis courts at the end of the tennis centre and we went through a tough 30 minute fitness session involving some medicine ball and core work. At 10.30am we were done for the morning so Sam and his aunt went and got some food and then sat at the centre watching some of the last round qualifying matches while I got on with some much needed emailing!
At 2pm Craig Allen arrived from Kent with Tom Wright and Mia Smith and, as none of them had been to the centre before, they spent a little while getting used to where everything was before having a very thorough warm up to get the journey out of their systems. I then went on court with Mia at 3pm and had a great hour and a half training with her while Sam was back on court with the Brazilian playing a set out. Once Mia was happy with her level she stopped and went through her pre-hab work and then stretched out. I then went over to see Sam finish off a very competitive set where he narrowly went down 6-4.
After everyone’s training was done they all signed in and then it was a quick journey back to the hotel so Craig, Tom and Mia could check in before we went back to the tennis centre to check out the draw. Once practise for tomorrow was booked we went across the road to have dinner at the pub and then all the players had an early night to prepare for their matches tomorrow.
Schedule for tomorrow:
Mia Smith (GBR) (722) vs (4) Jovana Knezevic (CYP) (236) – 3rd match after 9.30am
