Another long and busy day at Bressuire TC but loads of British juniors still in the tourney - we are definitely making our presence felt here!
The club was even quieter today as more teams have left but it will fill up tomorrow for the semis and finals. When we left tonight at 20:15, the tourney committee and club members were busy cleaning the courts and putting up stands to accomodate all the schoolchildren who have been invited in to spectate. What a great way to generate interest in tennis amongst the local youngsters and of course it creates an atmosphere similar to playing in a major event when there's a big crowd.
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Some of the kids will thrive on this and others will shrink into a shell. If you have ambitions to be a pro player, you need to rise to these occasions, not shy away from them. I'm looking forward to seeing who does what tomorrow.
So who's through? Well, Freya Christie is in the last 4 of the girls 12s after dumping the 2nd seed in 3 sets but missed out in the doubles when she and Lana Rush lost to the Italians. Belinda Bencic is through too after beating the best name in the tourney 7-5, 6-0. Her name? Harmony Tan. Sounds like something you'd get in a spray to make you look bronzed.
In the boys 12s - Ross Wilson went down 7-5, 6-3 to Alexandre Muller, a tall and powerful French player who was very impressive, but Wilson did make it through to the doubles final with Vincent Gillespie with a 7-6, 6-4 win over Delpire and Verkhoven of Belgium. They now play the second best name in the tourney - Manresy Rakatamolala (good luck to the umpire!) and Ronan Joncour.
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Marcus Walters is getting his moneys worth in the 11s. He hogged court 2 for about 2.5 hours today (even with no ad scoring) and had 2 referees on the court at the end of his 7-6 in the 3rd win over a rather emotional Belgian. He's in the semis tomorrow but Jay Clarke went out.
We are taking over the 11s girls with 3 of the 4 semi finalists. To be fair the draw was quite small compared to the 12s as not many countries send players abroad at this age but you can only beat what's put in front of you. There were 38 girls in the draw and 10 were Brits! It shows how much our girls want to find different and challenging competition and how they are prepared to travel outside the country to find it. It's that numbers game again!
Anyway, Lila Simpson plays Maia Lumsden in the semi and Gabby Taylor's 3 set win over Alex Herd bagged her a last 4 slot vs a French girl called Inez Voelker.
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Oh and James "Shambles" Shemilt is in the 11s consolation final.
Let's hope it's a good day for our kids. I've bribed the Scots with a MacDonalds for a victory but I'll take them even if they lose, so long as they have fought for every point! It's important that you reward effort and not results!
I recently gave a 10 year old player a lift home from training and she told me that she gets £5 if she beats someone the same rating as her, £10 for a rating above and £20 for 2 ratings above. Nightmare! That just sets all the store on the outcome and not on the performance, effort or development of the game.
That's about it for today but I'd just like to thank all of you who texted or emailed me to let me know the result of this weeks Apprentice. You have clearly ruined my Sunday nights viewing but it's good to know you are reading the blogs :)