Another good day at the North Wales Regional Tennis Centre today. I didn’t get to see a lot of the matches as I was meeting with various coaches to discuss the international events for 2011 but the matches I did see were of a high standard.
Qualifier Rebecca Smaller played a solid match today taking out no.2 seed Pippa Carr 7-6(5), 6-1. I watched Rebecca in the last round of qualies yesterday and today, she’s a clever lefty who uses her heavy forehand well to push her opponent back and then takes on her backhand when she gets the chance. In both matches she’s competed hard and showed a good attitude throughout.
Other notable wins in the U14 girls include 11 year old Anastasia Mikheeva beating fellow qualifier Anais Gabriel from Switzerland to gain her first Tennis Europe points and Wild Card Eden Richardson taking out the 4th seed and fellow Brit Patricia Valimaa.
In the boys Sam Rice had a great win taking out the top seed in 3 sets. The first two sets were tight and Sam had to fight hard to stay in the match in the second set but once it got to the third he looked much more confident and ran away with it 6-1. Qualifier Nicholas Nugent won a tight match 6-4, 7-6(6) against a German boy ranked over 500 places higher and there were also wins for British qualifiers William Archer and Ben Stride who both achieved their first Tennis Europe points today.
It’s good to see the British players doing well today. This is the stage where all players have to start showing the types of game styles that are going to make them into professional players. They have to be physical and have to impose their game on their opponents. Many players win at U14 / U16 Tennis Europe level and even at U18 ITF level by having solid games without any weapons but these players rarely have an impact in the senior game. I’ve seen players lose yesterday and today that will be at a higher level in 3/4 years time than the players who have beaten them purely because they seem focused on developing their games and are not afraid to take risks.
Winning at this level is important but I would much rather have a player who develops as they progress rather than be successful as a juniors and then fade away in the seniors because they’re still playing like a 15/16 year old – we’ve all seen many of them in the past. When was the last player to win under 12 Nationals and then go on to win U18’s? Let me know if you find one because I’ve not been able to. Who was the boy that beat Oli Golding in the final of U14 Nationals? I was there and I can’t remember but I know he’s nowhere now!
I always ask the players I work with “How much did you improve today?”. If they win the match but respond with a 2/10 then I’m never as happy as if a player lost the match but scored their improvement at a 7/10. There’s a time for winning but there’s also a huge amount of time as a junior player that has to be spent developing.
It’s been a great couple of days, it was just a shame to get caught up on the M25 (after 4 hours in the car) at 7pm tonight!
The factsheet for both Kenya U18 ITF Grade 5’s should be available from Tomorrow (Tuesday) and if you have any questions please let me know.
