It's been a while since my last post and in that time whilst continuing my training I have played my first warm up competition. The Lensbury Open tournament is a grade 4 LTA event that I played a few years back and having been out of competition for around six months I was looking forward to getting a few matches under my belt.
I have been training very well and was very happy with my preparation before the tournament. I feel like I am striking the ball better than ever and my fitness levels continue to get better and better. We had been playing a lot of practice sets and point play scenarios in preparation and I was looking forward to going out and testing my ability on the match court.
I started on the Monday and had a comfortable 6-2 6-0 win in my first round. Having lost the opening 2 games which I would simply put down to a bit of nervousness, I found my game and was able to win the next straight 12 games without any real concern. I had my 2nd round match that afternoon and I was able to get straight out of the blocks a lot quicker against a tougher opponent to win 6-1 6-2 on a surprisingly sunny evening.
I had a rest day on the Tuesday and would play my quarter final match against an old friend and hitting partner of mine on the Wednesday. On the Tuesday I had a light hit but found that I was struggling with some pain in my right arm, something that had troubled me a little in the previous month or so. On the Wednesday I knew I had a very good opportunity to take a victory over a higher rated opponent and would stand a very good chance of making the semi finals. Again I had the pain in my arm during a light hit in the morning which was of some concern, but I was determined to give everything I could that afternoon.
It was in exceptionally windy conditions that I lost the first set 7-4 on the tiebreak having had plenty of opportunities despite struggling to put any pace on my first serve due to the arm injury. Instead I was having to roll my serve in and try to dominate from my groundstrokes attempting to keep the rallies short to prevent the pain in my arm. The match was extremely up and down mainly due to the conditions and the numerous breaks of serve as a result. After the first set I had treatment on my right arm including some serious painkillers in an attempt to simply be able to complete the match. Unfortunately I wasn't able to play my game in the second set at all as I lost it 6-3. I was very disappointed with this, mostly because I knew that it was a very good opportunity for me to gain some winning momentum and I felt that I was definitely able to do this had I been able to perform to the standard I know I can when fully fit. I don't like to make excuses and I accept that my opponent was better on the day as a result, but it is very frustrating to have this happen.
However, as all good tennis players know, next week there is another opportunity. Having been back to training for three weeks since that tournament and having seen a physio and a specialist I am in rehab for my arm and am now able to continue my training proper. Unfortunately, to see an Orthopaedic specialist is either an extremely long wait on the NHS, or an extremely large bill should you go private. So I have had to make do with the diagnosis I have got and have sought advice from anywhere I can get it. I am now working on strengthening the forearm as much as possible.
Now I am very excited to know that I have a big bulk of tournaments coming up as I have around nine weeks scheduled on the tour. This will be a variety of national grade 3s and British Tour events and will hopefully culminate in several futures qualifying events towards the end of the nine weeks. For now, I will be remaining in the UK and hoping to get travelling a little more from September. Here are the first few weeks of my schedule that I hope to be competing at:
15/7 - Winchester Babolat Open (g3)
22/7 - Team Bath Compete Open (g3)
29/7 - AEGON British Tour Tunbridge Wells
5/8 - AEGON British Tour Newcastle
12/8 - AEGON British Tour West Worthing
19/8 - AEGON British Tour Sutton
I will keep you updated as to my results at these events and my schedule after, but for the time being - COME ON ANDY!
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