Bob in Spain wrote:

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Tennis36 wrote:

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so by the looks of it we're gona find out if kyle wins his qf by waiting to see if his name pops up on the scoreboard later in the day

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Sounds like a plan - alternatively, I may ring the club late morning and find out what is happening.

Need to know, because if he makes it to the semi, I haev every intention of being there.

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 Sounds like a better plan !

Excellent!

Is it me, or does it appear from Bob's update that Kyle's match must have lasted considerably longer than Busta's even though it was a straight set win versus a 3 setter for Busta? Both matches were scheduled to start at the same time......perhaps one of the courts needed longer to become playable.

Do your best this afternoon Kyle. Should be interesting.....not expecting too much beyond Kyle fighting and keeping it reasonably competitive. Afterall Busta has just won a mere 23 matches and 4 tournaments in a row this year! Anything beyond just competitive would be a huge bonus.

Match up now on ITF live. Kyle 2-1*

Kyle *4-2....he couldn't, could he?

A good week for Kyle
Good work from Bob too - maybe we could find an official role for him as a roving reporter!

Driving down to Cartagena today, I was hoping that regardless of the result, I would at least be able to report that the level of tennis was up a notch from what I had seen over the last two weeks. That wasn't the case. It was up about three notches !! Kyle was beaten today, but by no means embarrassed or outclassed. This was a tremendous game of high quality tennis with some breathtaking rallies.

But let's start from the beginning. I didn't see the morning victory over Perez Sanz, but apparently Kyle played exceptionally well in that match too. It was a strange situation, when Kyle went 2-0 up in the first set, and Perez Sanz refused to continue stating that the court was still unplayable due to overnight rain. Despite the fact that the match had begun and the sun was out, they stopped the match for 45 minutes. But Kyle won comfortably, perhaps moreso than the score might suggest (according to coach Beechy). The four additional points from that win all but guarantee the RG automatic qualification which seem to have been on both Kyle and Beechy's minds this week. So playing this afternoon against Carreño Busta, he looked a lot more relaxed.

Carreño Busta is quite simply a men amongst boys at this level. Tall but very mobile, he served superbly, particularly wide out to the forehand from the deuce court where he scored most of his several aces. Unlike Kyle's previous two opponents he was able to attack with pace off both wings and the consistency of length in his groundstrokes would put any player at this level under enormous pressure. Playing close to the baseline and taking the ball early, he was able to move Kyle around the court with ease. He was/is a class act.

But for large parts of the match, Kyle stood toe-to-toe with him and matched his level of quality. Kyle's serve today was excellent. In the first two service games that I saw (I arrived 5 minutes late - sorry folks), I don't think he missed a first serve and he arrived at 3-2* untroubled. In the next game, Carreño missed a couple of first serves and Kyle pounced. In previous matches Kyle had perhaps not been able to take advantage of second serves as much as he would of liked, but today was different. A couple of clean winners on return put the pressure on. And after another couple of great rallies, Kyle forced errors from his opponent and went 4-2 up. It was breathaking high quality stuff.

As his coach said afterwards, when you play top quality players, you have to take the opportunities when they come along, because there aren't too many of them. Starting well in the next game, we got to 15-15 when an marginal error of judgement cost Kyle dear. A strong serve followed by a pacey forehand to the Carreño backhand looked enough to win the point as Kyle came to the net. But Carreño got his double hander on the ball to attempt a passing shot down the line. Kyle had the volley in his sights but chose to leave the ball. It clipped the sideline - close enough for the Umpire to leave his chair and inspect the mark. Carreño sensed his opportunity and took the next two points to break back. It was a small error, but in the end, very costly. An opportunity missed. The momentum change was obvious and Carreño upped his game to take out the first set with 4 games in a row.

Kyle had a strong hold at the start of the 2nd set, but Carreño was now at the top of his game. An early break had Kyle in trouble at 1-2* and from then, he was playing catch-up. On occasions he perhaps pressed a bit too hard looking for winners too early in the rally. Some of them came off in spectacular style, but the error count also started to rise. Meanwhile, Carreño was now reading the Kyle serve to perfection and in the final game, stepped in to hit three clean winners off heavy first serves. It was a class player, simply stamping his authority on the final game of the match.

When Kyle was playing at his best, he was match for Carreño, but he was only able to maintain that level for about 60-70% of the match. The minute his level dropped off even slightly, his opponent took advantage. Carreño on the other hand, maintained his level throughout and this was ultimately the deciding factor.

But plenty to be positive about today. Kyle has proved again today that he will go a long way in this sport. The talent is there and the consistency will come with experience.

Before I hang up my "reporters hat", I would just like to make a couple of comments. I have had the privilege this last two weeks of spending time with Kyle and his coach and I can assure you, you will not meet a finer young man. Aware of his talent, but extremely humble, he has always been very open to discuss his tennis and ambitions. I for one, am extremely grateful to him for allowing me "into the fold" so to speak and for making me feel so welcome.

And the final word is for his coach. Thanks Beechy for your insight, honesty and your company. It was a pleasure to meet you and to all those reading this, I can assure you that Kyle's future is in safe hands.



PS The rumour is that Oli Golding is playing the three weeks in Villajoyosa (Alicante) later this month. This is also only half an hour away for me. Perhaps I had better not hang up that hat just yet.