Another good day today on Thursday, the weather was gorgeous and there was some good tennis too.
Ross Wilson (Sco) is through to the quarters of the 12s boys but Jonathan Gray (Leeds) went out in 3 sets. Freya Christie (Loughborough) is into last 8 of 12s girls whilst Maia Lumsden (Sco) and Lila Simpson (Surrey) are in semi-finals of the 11s girls while Alexski Herd and Gabriella Taylor are in the quarters. Marcus Walters and Jay Clarke are in last 8 of 11s boys, and we've still got teams in all the doubles events too.
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The tourney seems pretty quiet now that it's getting to the final stages but there's more free courts outside to arrange practice matches with other countries for those players who are out of the singles events, which is perfect.
It was a nightmare this morning (these early starts are killing me by the way) I had sorted practice matches with the Dutch team at 08:00 in the indoor sports hall at the far end of the complex but I got there to discover the hall was locked. So I had to get the cleaners to open it, then found there were no nets or net posts. Great. I got the nets up and left the kids to it while I ran back to the venue to start a practice for Maia Lumsden who had a 09:00 match vs an Algerian born in 1999.
Her name was Ines Ibbou and she was travelling on her own with her coach. A scary big guy with caterpillar eyebrows who kept growling "Pas de fautes", (No mistakes). She was an incredibly composed and consistent baseliner for a 10U player and in the 2hr marathon that Maia eventually won 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 she hit 2 winning shots! Her game style is clearly influenced by the coach warning her not to miss, rather than encouraging her to learn how to build and finish points. I'll be interested to see if she develops into a good player in the next few years.
I watched a bit of Belinda Bencic v Mirabelle Njoze. Bencic has won the 11U event here for the past 2 years and trains at an academy in Switzerland run by Martina Hingis's mum. She has a very aggressive game, is very tactically astute (as you would expect from a pupil of Melanie Molitor), takes every ball (especially returns of serve) very early and has a massive court presence already, she is one to watch.
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Mirabelle is one of the best British players born in 1997 who used to train at Sutton but is now based at the Nice Tennis Academy for some reason. Bencic won 6-0, 6-0 and Mirabelle had nothing to hurt her with and struggled to keep up with the pace.
I couldn't find 2 of our girls when their court was called for doubles, it's a big complex and if they are outside or in the dining hall, they don't hear the tannoy! I found them in the clay modelling area (squash court) creating what I thought was a plate of rabbit droppings. Apparently it was a bowl of coco pops.
There's so much for the players to do here, there's an internet and computer games room upstairs above the indoor courts, a tent full of arcade games and the waffle and crepe station, table tennis tables and a skate park. No wonder they keep going AWOL.
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Tonight we went to MacDonalds. It was a 15 minute walk from the club and was a bit of a treat for the kids for some great efforts on court after 5 (feels like 25) very long days and a welcome break from the soggy pasta. It was quite funny to listen to the kids trying to order their meals in French but we stood back and let them get on with it.
This trip has been all about them doing things for themselves. Working things out, asking questions to get information, taking responsibility for their tennis and supporting each other. I think they have learned loads and had a lot of fun too.
A few of our players and coach Mark Walker leave tomorrow night but I'm staying to the bitter end. It's that female accompaniment thing but I actually wouldn't trade places anyway. Not when I can get a couple more days in the Ritz. I am looking forward to getting home though to a decent cup of tea and this weeks Apprentice that been sky plus-ed. Hope that ghastly Ben gets booted off. Or Debra.
But we've got a few more matches to win first so onward and upward. Or allez! As they say over here :)