Wednesday 14th December 2011
It was back to training today as Mia prepared for the semi-final of the doubles this afternoon and the U14 LTA National Tour event in Nottingham next week.
It was an early start this morning as I met Mia and Ema Lazic in the reception of the hotel at 7.10 am. We then made our way over to the tennis centre and had a 30 minute physical warm-up which included some medicine ball and ladder work before we got on court at 7.50 am. It was Mia’s choice to start early this morning as she wanted to get on a full court to play a set out with Ema. The girls worked hard together and after a couple of early breaks Mia played two great games to take a 5-3 lead but Ema stuck in there and fought back to level the set out at 5-5. It was at that stage that the 9 o’clock bookings had arrived, so, much to Mia’s delight (as she’d just been broken serving for the set) we had to stop the session.
Mia then grabbed a quick bite to eat before she went through her strength and conditioning for the day which included her band work and core stability exercises as well as her agility work. By this time it was about 10.30 am and, as Mia’s doubles wasn’t scheduled until around 3:30 pm, we had a nice break to relax and watch some of the other matches. It also gave us a chance to watch the girl that beat Mia and work out how we would play her if we had a rematch as she struggled in her Quarter-Final match today.
Just before 2.30 pm I sat down with Mia and we talked a little about her singles match yesterday and then we set tactics for her upcoming doubles match. Mia and Anastasia then warmed up together before they went on for their semi-final match against Holly Thompson and Georgie Walker.
Mia started a little bit slow in the doubles but the set stayed on serve until 2-2 when Anastasia got broken. In doubles its not only the server’s responsibility when they get broken and that was the case today as Anastasia hit 5 out of 5 first serves but Mia didn’t do enough to take some of the pressure off her by intercepting the volleys. Mia’s movement at the net has improved significantly since the summer but now she just needs to develop her confidence to move an extra step or two and this will enable her to be in the position to finish off a lot more volleys. At 2-3* Mia and Anastasia really raised their game; I’m not sure weather it was just because they had just been broken or whether they had now got into their stride, but they won the next 8 games in a row to lead 6-3 4-0. Georgie and Holly managed to get a game on the board but it was all too little to late as Mia and Anastasia won the next 2 games with some fantastic doubles play to take the match 6-3 6-1 and advance to the final.
Both Mia and I were happy with her performance but she wanted to do some more work on her serving accuracy and finishing first volleys so we went back on court for a really good 40 minute session. After that Mia stretched out and then we headed back to the hotel to shower and change before dinner.
All week we have been going out to dinner with either the West Hants team or Craig and Tom but tonight she had to put up with just my company. However, a solid game of ‘Words with Friends’ managed to pass the time and I must add (because I am so competitive!) that I took the win (I think Mia struggled after deleting her cheat application!!).
After Cameron made the Final of the U16 Singles event in Halton Mia is now the 2nd ITC Player to make a final this year and we hope to bring home the trophy tomorrow.
Schedule for tomorrow:
(3) Alex Herd (GBR) & Sophia Haine (GBR) vs (2) Mia Smith (GBR) & Anastasia Mikheeva (GBR) – 3rd Match after 10.00 am, After Rest.
