The Ebbs and Flows of a tennis match

For those that dont know I have been attending the Canterbury ITF supporting a young Liechtenstein Junior Thomas Weirather.Today he beat the third seed 6-3 6-7 7-6, a match that  had almost everything.Thomas started nervously and found himself down 3-1, he was playing a brash Australian .Gaining in confidence Thomas took the set 6-3 as he dictated play with his aggressive baseline game pinning the Aussie into the corners of the court. How many times do you see a strong performance winning the first set and then relaxing at the start of the second set.Juniors you must strive to make the first games of the second like the last game of the first,...many breathe a "sigh"of relief and intensity is not as strong as it was.....You must refocus and get tough! Keep your opponent down and keep the intensity up.Now before Thomas knew it he was down 5-3 in the second.He fought back and had an opportunity to break at 5-5 , it then went to a tiebreak which at 5 all in the tiebreak he appeared to get a very dodgy call by his opponent and went on to lose the second set. Not only did Thomas have to battle the player the referee had stepped in and warned both players for Intimidation. I will write more on this latter .To Thomas's credit he kept calm and a good lesson to all players try not to lose to much energy in disputes whilst they some seem ridiculous decisions( as you have seen watching the Aussie Open even the Top Players crack at times and let the moment get the best of them)Keep the focus on the job at hand.Also Thomas had to watch his opponent have an  injury time out before starting the third set again another distraction you dont need.Thomas started strongly and went two love up and had the Aussie on the ropes ,,again a lapse of intensity and loose shots allowed the Aussie to break and come back to two all.Games went with serve until 4 all and Thomas lost his serve to go down 5-4 to leave his opponent to serve for the match.This could be enough for most players to acknowledge defeat unlike Baghdatis who in the Aussie Open after dropping serve went and smashed 4 racquet's! Thomas kept his composure and broke to love.Games again went with serve and adding too the drama the Aussie had cramps.Surely now the match must be Thomas's all he has to do is move the guy around,,,,easier said than done as the player takes more risks to shorten the points and suddenly it was another tie-break to decide the match. Thomas was down the first two points surely a guy limping around the baseline could not get the victory.Thomas went to 6-2 , nerves set in and two points were lost quicky!, At 6-4 Thomas wins the point the match is over.!He gets his first ITF points , I said to him after the game remember this game that got you on the World ranking list for Juniors not just because of the win but the many lessons  he can take from this match to make him a better and more experienced player.CONGRATULATIONS THOMAS!

Mistaken Identity

If you are a coach and in the Tennis Industry you have to be ready for anything,but this incident is a first! After returning from Holiday's in Australia I was catching up on emails and there in my Inbox was a letter from a major association re my conduct at their recent tournament. I asked for the tournament report which contained a three page summary from the tournament referee on my alleged conduct which stated I abused the referee during a match ,in the report  my name was mentioned throughout, it said I should know better blah blah blah.!!! Now the problem I have with this is simple....I was never at the tournament.I have to ask how can a referee get this so wrong, in fact I know the referee in question ,I have been on the tennis scene a number of years in New Zealand and I do think well known among the tennis fraternity.Also i have never lost my Australian accent and pray to God I never will.I have received written apologies from the association and the referee in question who wrote the report.This is indeed a very case of "the wrong man".New Zealand is a reasonably small place and unfortunately the rumor mill is alive and well.This should not happen.....I cannot fathom how it happened.It remains a huge mystery to me. :)

The Return of the eye!

The eye will be back with forth right comments , the state of tennis in New Zealand is not good, and its no wonder Sasha Jones has defected,  Big story's to come its time to again hit the pathetic and agenda driven administrations .