Over the past couple of weekends I have begun playing tournaments again! I started with the National Series 18U match play and this weekend I played two different Ladies Open tournaments. It has been six months since I competed and it feels so good to be playing again as I’m able to put to use my hard work on the training court whilst still continuing to learn.
The national series match play was a good level to discover where my game was at on the match court. I also kept in mind that these were my first matches back. In the first match, whilst I lost the opening set 3-6, I knew it had been close and that I could build from there. I won the second set 6-0 and was dominant but my opponent was solid in the 3rd set match tiebreak and took the match. Here's a clip of set point in the 2nd set.
Overall, I was pretty pleased with my level and identified a couple of areas to take into my second match. In my second match, I lost the first three games but then really loosened up my game and won 6-3 6-0. My mindset was good and it felt great to be back on the competitive court!
Last Saturday I played the first proper tournament back which was a Ladies Open. I played 3 fast4 matches and won all in two sets and the title. The majority of my game was good but I felt that my forehand and serve were not firing as well as I would like. However, I was able to adapt to the windy conditions and my two strongest shots not being on top form. It’s important to be able to find a way when you are not playing your best tennis which can be often!
Good to get a second day of competition in and on Sunday I played a Ladies British Tour fast4 event on grass courts. It was a different experience as I haven’t played a match on grass since I played an orange ball tournament on the grass at Eastbourne! In the first match I had to bounce back from losing the second set 0-4. I was dominant in the 3rd set match tiebreak, I served well and played some strong tennis and it was a good win over a higher ranked player. I didn’t play that well in my second match although I competed well but my opponent was more consistent. On grass, it was tricky to really change my game enough from the day before and I would love to have more practice on grass courts as I think my game could be quite suited to grass.
Three different tournaments, different opponents and some good matches so I’ve been able to take away a lot from all three to continue to improve and just so happy to be back on the match court!
Let me know in the comments below which tournaments you have been playing and how you got on..
Amelie ❤🎾
Comments