I'm in the process of doing the 1st blog atm...

So I will edit this post and put the 1st tournament blog in here in due time and hopefully by the end of tonight

Be more realistic to go for a lesser tournament, unless you can get TennisAustrailia to give you a wildcard to qualifying in return for an Aussie at Wimbledon!

Go for the lesser tournament, and build up to it Vonce!

Day 1 - Well I've appeared for my 1st event as a top 250 player and certainly feeling good going into this and my match is tomorrow which is against S. Grau who is a German who is just ranked above me in the 240's. Other than that I've been checking out the outside courts and praticising with my coach working on my forehands, backhands and serve and tactics for the match tomorrow. Hopefully they'll be some support at the match since I'm a Brit and all. Plus it's a clay court event. Hopefully I'll be able to adapt.

Day 2 - I'm quite pleased I beat Grau. I beat him in 4 sets. I lost the 1st set as I feel I was still getting used to the courts in this tournament and seemed to be just not hitting the way I wanted to. I upped my game in the 2nd and low and behold I started to pull off what I wanted and it just went on from there where I was just on fire and broke once in each of the next 3 sets to win 3-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4.

After the match I just went to the hotel and had a rest then I went down for dinner with my coach. Certainly some rowdy folk in the hotel as these kids were running about and that and their parents couldn't control them, hopefully when I do have kids they won't be like that. Face a Russian in my SF, Yashin didn't see the match as it was on before I came on and don't know much about him.

Day 3 - Beat Yashin, woopee... Yep. Won in straight sets which was nice. Even though it was 3 close sets which were all tie-breaks. No breaks of serve at all and I'm very lucky to win in 3. As I was a few set points down in the 3rd but pulled out some good forehands from the baseline to pressure my opponent and which made him make a few errors which worked to my advantage. So a final is where I'm gonna be so I'll go out tonight and celebrate with a nice meal and a drink of fresh orange since being an athlete I can't have any/much alcohol plus I'm not even 18 yet so I can't. Face a Swiss opponent in the final, E. Wicki. Can't say I know much about him. So I'll just take it as it comes.

Day 4 - I won against Wicki and won the futures event here in Bournemouth clay courts. Oh the joy. Pity my ranking still won't move up from 250 as I'm still a bit behind and only get 10pts for winning this event. I won 6-3, 6-4, 7-6. Got the early break in the 1st set and just played solidily on my serve with a few wobbles when he got me to deuce but I managed to finish those big points off with my forehands and backhands from the back of the court. Just felt I was just playing just right in the 1st 2 sets.

I just couldn't get the rhythm in the 3rd to break Wicki and just played solidly on serve throughout. So I broke him early on in the tie break and well he broke me straight back at when I was 0-1 up. So it was 1-1, then it was 2-1 to me. I didn't get another mini break till he was on serve when it was tied 4-4 and I served out with my 2 points to seal the title, happy days!

So I go into the next tournament in high spirits, thought best to go to the La Plata Challenger in Argentina than qualify for the Aussie Open as I'd have a better chance of getting more points there. So now on Sunday I'll be off on a long flight to Argentina. Which I'll no doubt play my PSP for a few hours on there and sleep the rest.

So that's the 1st tournie one what do you think? Any changes or additions/deletions I should make to it to spice it up/tone it down? As I'll leave the 2nd one till I get some suggestions

that was really good Vonce. Leave it like that!

Be more interersting if you lost occasionally!

We'll bribe you with our AMs!!

La Plata Open

Day 1

I decided to choose this tournament instead of the Aussie Open qualifiers as I'd feel more chance of getting points here than I would in the Aussie Open. So today I've been training with my coach for the match tomorrow just hitting balls down the court and working on my serve.

Day 2

My 1st round match is against W. Wagner. Don't know much about him as I've never seen or played him before. Done well in the 1st set and at 3-3 I was struggling on my serve a bit holding off break points and hit some good forehand winners under pressure to get myself out of trouble and good 1st serves. Won the 1st set 7-5 in the end. Didn't break till his last service game and it seemed to last an age with so many deuce's but I got it in the end.

2nd set: I had chances on his serve while 3-2 up and well I rued them. As I had some unforced errors at the net which cost me the game and he levelled. In the end I got one break with some good cross court winners and lost the set 6-4.

3rd set: I duly won 6-4 after cruising on serve to love at 2-2 and never looked back as I just cruised on serve with a few errors here and there but not much. Everything on serve just seemed to click for me, except for struggling a bit when he served.

4th set: Cruised on serve at 2-2 hitting well on my backhand and forehand from the baseline and cruised to 40-0 but slipped a bit as he got the next point for 40-15 but then finished it off with an ace to make it 3-2. From there on in I broke his serve in the next game as he made a few unforced errors after that it was equal on serving and won the set eventuall 6-4 to take the match.

Day 3

K. Preiml is my opponent in round 2.

1st set: Won a service game to love at 3-3 on serve. As it was quite tight on service games and duly won all our respective ones until his last one when I got the cruical break to take the set 6-4.

2nd set: Cruising in this set and went 5-2 up. So he was serving and I was 0-30 up on him. 2 unforced errors and a good point from him got him back to 40-30 and hit my racket on the ground in frustration. Then I got back to deuce and both of were exchanging Adv points for a while and went back to deuce. So then I hit 2 unreturnable backhand winners from his serve which got me to Adv and then therefore converted to win the set 6-2. To go 2 sets up.

3rd set: De-ja vu from 1st set while I'm up again 5-2 while returning but this time I cruised myself up to 0-40 and with 3 match points. Basically been on fire for the past 2 sets and sealed the match with a forehand smash and I'm through to another QF! woo!


*Rest of this tournament blog follows tomorrow, feel free to comment as I appreciate it and it gives me the urge to continue this on, unless there is lack of interest

-- Edited by Vonce at 23:14, 2006-11-27

-- Edited by Vonce at 23:17, 2006-11-27