Alan's blog

24 October, 2009 | 10:10

Hello everyone and welcome to my first blog in a while.

Apparently, Jamie was being overwhelmed with queries about when I’d start blogging again, so to get a bit of peace he’s ordered me to write a new one.

Here’s a little glimpse of a parallel reality, possibly (hopefully) the future reality for British tennis. There’s a Challenger in your home town in the UK and you go along to watch the evening match. The number one seed is playing, a Brit ranked 34 in the world but who’s only number 3 in the country. His opponent is a fellow countryman ranked about 100 places lower, still a very good player but not even in the country’s top 10! There are around 1000 people watching the match, there’s a great atmosphere and the lower ranked player eventually wins in 3 tough sets. He gets a standing ovation and everyone goes home happy...

Wouldn’t it be great if that is indeed what the future holds for British tennis, perhaps in 10 or 20 years’ time? Well, it’s not only happening in a parallel universe or in my imagination – Jamie, Delgy and I watched it live last night in Orleans, France. The two players were Frenchmen Jeremy Chardy and Stephane Robert, and it was a pretty stark demonstration of the work that we need to do back home as players, coaches, administrators and the rest before we can say that British tennis is back on the map (with the honourable exception of Mr A Murray of course). If we as a country can get anywhere near the levels of tennis participation that France has, and consequently start consistently producing players of the quality that they do, it would be an amazing achievement. As for Jamie and Delgy, they’ve spent the last few months striving to improve every way they can and get back up the rankings ladder.

The last time I blogged was during the grass season, and there have been quite a few shots hit and matches played since then. As you know, Jamie and Delgy have been playing together since Wimbledon, almost exclusively on clay. The dirt is not necessarily either of the Jamies’ favourite surface but it can actually be pretty good for your game because it forces you to work hard for each point and take care of the basics well. The time the boys have spent training and playing on clay has therefore been worthwhile regardless of results because they’ve had to focus hard on making good serve and return percentages, as well as sharpening up their speed of reaction and movement at the net to combat all the big forehands you have to face on the clay! An example of a specific area they’ve worked on is attempting to be more explosive in their first few steps after serving, in order to play their first volley as far forward as possible – a factor which can be less noticeable on faster surfaces where you get more free points and easier first volleys in general.

Results-wise, they’ve been alternating between early losses and tournament wins, an interesting way of going about things! Jamie and Delg played some good tennis to win tournaments in Trani, Italy and Ljubljana, Slovenia, while Jamie teamed up with Johnny Marray to win a Challenger in Holland. Apart from those weeks though, they haven’t reached a semi-final (until this week). The transition to the indoor season was a bit tough after all those weeks on clay, and the guys were ambushed (winning only 6 points in the first set!) in their first indoor match, in Mons, then lost again last week on super-fast courts in Kolding.

The faster conditions at these indoor tourneys mean that the players have to take extra-special care of their service games because it’s harder to get the breaks back than on clay, and they probably threw in a few too many sloppy points on serve in the previous two weeks. As I write this from Orleans though, they’re safely into the semis after following a late-night super breaker victory over Rosol and Junaid on Monday with a battling win against the top seeds, Qureshi and Rettenmaier, from a set and a break down on Wednesday. Their semi is scheduled for 1pm British time on Saturday, against Frenchmen Grosjean and Patience. We watched them win their quarter-final today and it should be an entertaining match in front of the home crowd. Jamie and Delgy are well up for it...

On an unrelated note, I feel I should defend star goalie Rob Stewart from some of the slander that Andy and Jamie have been circulating about him after last week’s footy matches. Contrary to what you may have heard, I would estimate that he was personally responsible for only around 50% of the goals conceded over the 3 games played. But seriously folks - as I think Jamie’s mentioned on his blog, the 5-a-sides are perfect for tennis fitness – an hour or so of constant sprinting, changes of direction and agility, all disguised as an enjoyable but insanely competitive kickabout! Having said that, my fitness was found wanting in the last game we played, with the match being abandoned partly due to my phantom injury and partly due to the wild shooting of Mr Colin Beecher. My knee feels much better now, so as soon as Beech’s shot lands we can get playing again...

Anyway, that’s all for now I think. Hopefully we’re doing our part out here to bring the future vision of British tennis I mentioned earlier a little closer to reality, and it’s good to have fellow Brits Colin Fleming and Ken Skupski out here as well, along with all-round sage/guru Louis Cayer. I had fun this afternoon helping Colin and Ken train, although I should apologise to Flembo for a particularly sweetly-struck volley which tagged him on the head! They’re playing their semi today too – look out for an all-British final on Sunday.

Alan