Ross Hutchins Blog Part 4 - "The Defeat"

Hi Andrew, i have been reading the comments made, it seems like it has gone down
well! Very pleasing! hope everyone continues to enjoy them! Here is todays..

Hello everybody! Day 4 of my attempt to conquer Bratislava has almost come to an
end and unfortunately it was not a successful day. Aucks and I lost our 2nd
round match 6-3 5-7 10-4 to a couple of Slovak players called Polasek/Zelaney.
It was dissappointing as the standard of tennis in th 1st 2 sets was of very
high quality, but then we got off to a slow start in the tie-break and couldn't
catch up. It was one of those matches that got very intense. Before the match
even began, I think all 4 players realised that it was going to be a very close
fought match with a couple of points that would make a huge difference and thats
exactly what happened. The conditions went against us, we were put on court 1
which is a very fast court which suited our opponents down to the ground. They
both serve enormously and it took away our ability to return very well as we
normally do. There was only one break of serve each set, they broke us mid-way
through the 1st set with a clean lob winner on sudden death deuce. 2nd set we
broke serve at 5-6 to win the set 7-5 and we took momentum into the final set.
Unfortunately we couldn't capitalise and keep on rolling and lost the tie break
10-4. This is the new format of doubles at all ATP tournaments, a sudden death
point with the reciever having the choice of which side and then a a 3rd set 10
point tie-break if it is one set all. It was a shame but we are experienced
enough to deal with wins and losses as they come. I have come to realise that
tennis players cant dwell on results too long as the sooner you can get over a
result the sooner you can prepare for the next match or tournament. As a tennis
player we can never tell when we are going to have a great week. It could be
next week or next month, but the key is to prepare as best you can for each and
every match and give it your absolute all. As long as that happens then I
believe success will come sooner rather than later.
Preparation for todays match worked out well. We woke up around 9am and had a
very relaxed breakfast which consisted of my trusty favourite, eggs and
croissants! I was happy at this point as this starts my day off well! We headed
to the club to warm up for practice, which was booked for 12.30 pm. We managed
to hit on the same court as our match was scheduled to be on. We were 3rd match
on from 1pm. After a half an hour hit and a good stretch, it was time to take a
hot shower and grab a light lunch, enough to fill me up but not to feel heavy by
the time we went on court. I'm afraid to say it was one of those dreadful
sandwiches again but that was all I needed. An hour of waiting for the matches
before us to finish and we were ready to start warming up for our big match!
This takes about 20 minutes, consisting of running, skipping, stretching and
doing various band shoulder rotation excercises. This is very important,
especially with the new doubles rule, you have to be 100% ready from the 1st
point of the match! We walked on feeling good and confident but as I said things
didn't go as planned and we came out 2nd best. After half an hour of reflecting
on the match I was ok and generally happy with my performance. My thoughts were
now with my plans for the rest of this week and on to next week!
We headed back to the hotel to shower and plan flights for the next
tournamet..as of now I have a flight to Ukraine on sunday.
This evening we decided to go for a change of scenery, the champions league
football was on and while we were walking around town we saw a nice Irish pub
called 'The Dubliner'. This was the perfect atmosphere to have a traditional
British meal while supporting our British clubs conquer European football! A
very tasty Irish stew went down a treat and watching Arsenal get the draw they
needed was a good couple of hours spent.
During my time out here I've heard a rumour that the local Slovak people don't
think too highly of us Brits..apparently we are too noisy for them. This is
because the majority of British people that they come across are men or women
having a good time before they tie the knot of marriage. From what I've heard,
it all starts out ok but by the end of the night the fountain in the town centre
is being used as a mass shower rather than a beautiful monument..I guess they
just wanted to have a very good time!
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed todays events, I'm feeling very tired so going to get
a good nights sleep!

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A real big thank you to Ross and Paul Hutchins for passing on the request in the first place.

Yes, thanks. It's been very interesting reading your blog. It's always good to get the inside story and to read the thoughts about matches and preparation. We're often unduly harsh on our British players but it's only because we're passionate enough to want you all to win every time. Finding out reasons why matches haven't gone to plan helps our overall understanding of the results. Congratulations on your achievements in doubles this year and good luck to you in future competitions. Hope you enjoyed sharing your tournament with us and will do so again some time.

Ooh, that's great news! Looking forward to hearing about next week too.

I really enjoyed reading the blogs and following the progress of our two guys in Bratislava. It's good to know that a player is willing to give up some time to keep others informed. I watched Ross play at Nottingham in that epic encounter he and Goody had against Clément and Grosjean, when they won 2-6 7-5 17-15 and have followed his progress closely ever since. Best of luck in the next tournament.

Ross Hutchins Blog - 'Onto Ukraine'

Hi everyone, thank you for your kind responses to my blog's, great to see that you are all enjoying getting a close insight of the real life on tour. Most weeks away playing tournaments are very similar, especilly while we are still competing as the priority every week has to be to win mathes, hopefully enough to win the tournament. As you have read in my previous blog's, we wake up and everything for the day leading up to a match is all in preparation to perform well and this is the same theme each week. Once each player is finished with that tournament, different players do different things. Right now I'm in Paris playing a club Match for my French Club, Grenoble.
Yesterday was a very relaxing day, I took a flight directly from Vienna to Paris in order to spend a day on one of my favourite places i the world.. The Champ d'Elysee. I love spending time here, it has absolutely everything, classy shops, lovely outdoor cafes, cinemas, car showrooms, The Arc de Triomphe one end and a huge ferrace wheel the opposite end. I really do enjoy, spending a day watching the world go by while I 'zone out' on this wonderful street!
Aucks however had a different sort of day, he too was playing the match in Paris with me but his journey was slight different. With his ticket he needed to fly through Munich and that caused a big problem His day went, Bratislava to Munich, Munich to Vienna, Vienna to Paris and ten a nice lenghthy train journey to top it off! What a day, I found it very amusing and amazingly he found the funny side of it! I can tell you for sure that I most definately would not have been laughing after 3 fights and a train journey!! We were staying in a small hotel on the Champ d'Elysee and trying to make his day a bit brighter I told Aucks to get his dinner kit on as I'm taking him out for a nice meal. We went to a nice restaurant and sat outside in the busiest part of the street, the heaters kept us very warm. A couple of oysters which I wasn't too keen on didn't start the meal off too well but then some rare, juicy steaks were put in front of us and all was good. The day of nightmare that Aucks had just encountered had almost been forgotten.
We shall be heading to Ukraine on sunday to play the next tournament, its a $125+H, therefore a good chance to do well and move up the rankings. With 2 tournmanets to go, my spirits are very high and energy levels even higher as I really want to do well to finish the year on a high! I will be playing with Aucks for the next 2 weeks leading up to Christmas time.
As you all know, we have a tough next Davis Cup tie away in Argentina. Tough as it will be in a Country where it is difficult to play, on a surface that is not our strongest against some good players. I think John Lloyd and the British team have done fantstically well and its a great achievement to get into the world group and now we are here, we most definately want to stay and progress further into the draw. I have never been part of the Davis Cup and give anything to become part of the team.I would love to play in the doubles tie but that is not my decision. I have to impress John and make him feel like I'm the right person to try win the 3rd rubber. There are a few options that the captain has but my job till then is just to try put myself in the frame for being selected for this match. I feel with Andy on a huge high having done unbelievably well to finish the year ranked 11, having been injured for 4 months is a phenomenal achievement! Jamie is also doing great and there is a great opportunity for someone else to shine and I really hope we all can step up and produce something great for this tie!
Anyway I really have to dash as I got a couple of matches to try win for my French team!

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There will be a new thread for the next installements in the Ukraine.

Ross was saying in his blog that they were hitting with other dubs pairs and always trying to find different pairs each day to get as much variation as possible.