On UK clay

15 April, 2009 | 18:04

This week has seen Jamie back in the UK to train at the NTC ahead of his next clay tournaments. If you're wondering where he's headed next, he'll be posting a blog this week with the details.

The conditions on Wednesday morning were perfect - light breeze, warm sunshine - which meant Jamie and Alan managed to fit in a decent hit in the morning.

On the other side of the net was Jamie's next playing partner, although we'll leave it to him to tell you who it is. You'll just have to catch his next blog.

Doubles practice is pretty doubles specific, funnily enough.

One of Jamie's big strengths is his volleying at the net, so part of the practice was devoted to just that: Alan hammering the groundstrokes, and Jamie coming up with the fast hands in response.

Alan has very kindly offered to do a couple of blogs when they get on the road again.

They rotated to let Jamie's practice partner the chance to do the same. And the better the volley, the harder the return.

A couple of hours worth of practice in the bag, everyone took lunch and caught up with the latest happenings in Monte-Carlo.

People love watching Rafa Nadal on clay, and the players are no different.

Andy's Strength and Conditioning coach Jez Green is back in the UK after helping Andy to the Miami title. He plonked himself down in front of the tennis with his laptop as well.

Jamie hit again after lunch before turning his attentions to Manchester United's Champions league tie with Porto. A huge United fan, he spent the whole of lunch talking-up the skills of Michael Carrick. 

We'll see if he feels just as strongly in his next blog.