Hi,
Well this weekend that just gone saw the second futures tournament in my series of three back-to-back in the UK, and luckily this time it was a lot closer to home - Roehampton, London. I had been feeling great all week, especially after my experience up in Wrexham the previous week and had been training even better. I had taken no days off after Wrexham as I wanted to get straight on with improving the things that I had learnt from my match and so training got underway on Monday.
The first couple of days were reasonably light with a couple of endurance gym sessions and 2 hours on court each day. I always then like to up the intensity greatly and had a couple of 4 hour days of more intense work on the court. I stop my gym work and running for a few days prior to a tournament and really focus on getting everything right on the tennis court. I felt like I was hitting the best that I have been hitting in a long time and felt extremely comfortable, particularly on the return, but also during points. My style of game leads me to have quite an explosive baseline game. I like to dominate points with my serve and forehand and often like to finish points at the net. My defence is getting better - particularly after spending so much time out in Spain, but I would rather counter-punch more than defend as it were (certainly in Spanish terms!).
I then spent Friday on the court for two hours in the morning but took the afternoon off in order to rest before Roehampton. Saturday was sign in and I travelled up with another player and hitting partner, Hassan, and hit with him and Ashley on the indoor courts at Roehampton. This is the National Tennis Centre for the LTA and the UK and is an amazing facility. The courts are fantastic and the environment is even better... it's just a shame the LTA are so poorly run otherwise with something like this facility (costing around £40million I believe) we could be producing a hell of a lot more players!
That evening the draw came out and I was lucky enough to have a bye through the first round of qualifying and so wouldn't be playing until the afternoon. This would give me enough time to head up earlyish to the centre, hit for around an hour before having some lunch and prepping for my first match. It would also mean that if I could get through this match I would be straight through to the last round of qualifying and the prospect of that excited me greatly!
Once I got onto the match court I discovered I was playing Fares Ghasya from Libya, who had won through earlier that day. He had gone through qualifying in Wrexham the previous week to win a match in main draw and get his first point there so I knew this would be a tough one! He is a left-hander with a big serve and reasonably big shots off the ground. He hits relatively flat and didn't like the points to last long. Unfortunately, I came out and played what I can only describe as horrific tennis. It was honestly the worst I have played in a long time. I felt great going into the match and felt as if I knew I was striking the ball particularly well and went in with a reasonable amount of confidence (something I have lacked in the past). However, I didn't make anywhere near enough balls in the court, his lefty serve really troubled me and I failed to notch a single game on the scoreboard. I cannot remember when I last played this badly in a match on a hard court and came off desperately frustrated by myself. I knew going into the match that I would have to take my opportunities and play well, but believed that with the way I had been playing I would have a good shot at taking this match and the opportunity of a last match shootout for a place in main draw. Whether it was nerves or not, I felt extremely tight on the court. I was sluggish and did not move well. I felt a step slow and extremely hesitant and the match flew by in just under an hour. I came away from the match pretty distraught. Not because I lost 0&0 - this has happened before and I have learnt how to deal with this - but because of how well I was playing going into the match and how poorly it came across during the match.
That afternoon I headed home with my girlfriend and decided straight away that it would be necessary for me to take the Monday and Tuesday of this week off. I looked back at my schedule and realised that I had actually only had one full day off in over three weeks and I believed that this may have started to take it's toll on me. Not because of my fitness or my body necessarily, but simply mentally I think I needed to have some time away from a tennis court after such an intense period.
I have spent those couple of days with my girlfriend and with my friends and have had some time to reflect on the match and the days leading into it. I should mention now that I am an exceptionally hard worker. I do not give up at any sign of failure; it simply motivates me to get back out there and work harder. Oh and trust me, I have learnt how to lose and am not afraid to say that.
I had a lot of time over the last couple of days to really think through what I can take from this match and more so my preparation for the match. I came away from Wrexham extremely positively and with lots of things to work on that I knew would put me up there with the guys that have points, but it was a lot harder to decipher what I needed to learn from this match in Roehampton. After some time, I believe that there are two major things that I need to take from this match to reduce the chances of this happening again (I recognise that these things happen and people have 'bad days' so I would never strive to eliminate it altogether - an impossible task). Oddly, the two things seem to contradict one another slightly but also maybe explain each other. I believe that I may have overtrained prior to the tournament, but also gone in underprepared for my match.
I believe this simply because I think that I went into the match knowing I was striking the ball well because I had been training so hard for the previous 3 weeks, and as a result the day and morning before my match I was too relaxed through my pre-match hitting. I think I may have got too confident that the game that I had been playing all week in practice, would simply turn up again once I got out on the match court and as a result my intensity and discipline (which is usually what I take my pride in) was lacking somewhat in my preparation before my match. I think I may have become a little complacent and so my stretching routines and mental routines were not quite there. Obviously, I have to give credit to my opponent and I know he is a good player and deserves the points he got last week. But I honestly know that I could have performed much much better on the match court yesterday and it frustrates me that I failed to do so when I've felt like now is such a good opportunity for me.
I apologise now if I have babbled on a bit here but I certainly feel a lot better getting it out and down on paper. I know it may seem like my two points contradict, but I also believe that as a result of my over training I think it may have caused my lack of better preparation on the mental side certainly!
Anyway, I have been back to training today and came off court around 1pm after a three hour hitting session. I will now get in the gym this afternoon and will be hitting all the rest of the week. I have entered the futures in Nottingham which start next week but I am currently around 17 on the alternate list so I am not sure if I will travel for this one or not. I am planning on a short holiday with my girlfriend the following week which will be some much needed time off prior to the hard training and tournament run in to Christmas, the off-season and more training!
Thanks for reading and as ever any questions/feedback will be answered/greatly appreciated :)
