On Monday the 19th of July Sid and I set out for the Czech republic. Unusually sign in was on a Tuesday so we both had time to recover from our previous week up in Newcastle.

We arrived in Prague for 2:45 and quickly set off on the road to the hotel which was approximately half an hour from the airport. We were greeted by Dave, Roxanne and Joy all part of the Sammel house-hold who had flown out to Prague the previous day. Sid, the Sammel's and I quickly settled in and were off to do some light training and to recover from our flight at the Sparta Prague tennis club thanks to our travelling S&C coach Roxanne

Roxanne had us both do a 20 minute run and some stretching before we went out to hit. We both had a light hit for around and hour to get our eye-in and did a bit of work with Dave.  

The next day we arrived at the tennis club for 11:30 to do some more training. Luckily it was hot and sunny and so we took the opportunity to get a tan too. Sid and I both quickly signed in and got back to the hotel to shower and change as Roxanne was leaving that night to attend an S&C course at Roehampton the next day and we all wanted to visit Prague before Roxanne left.

Sid and I both found out our fait as the draw came out that night, we both had to play czech's.

Sid was on second and I was on fourth.

Sid had to play the top Czech 95 who could have easily passed as an eighteen year old. Sid got broken early as his opponent hit some superb shots  and Sid quickly found himself a set down. However Sid got some momentum going early in the second and found himself a break up, with some solid groundstrokes and simply ridiculous defence Sid took the second set and it was all even. Dave, Joy and myself were completely outnumbered in support as it seemed the whole of the club were out to support his opponent. Once again Sid found himself a break down at 0-3 however he fought back brilliantly to get back on serve at 5-4, Sid had two match points at 15-40 but his opponent simply played two outrageous forehands, one of which hit the very back line of the baseline millimetres in, on any other surface it would have been game set and match Hazarika it was that close a call, however Sid was extremely sportsman like and accepted his opponents brilliant shot. It went down to the wire with his opponent winning 6 in the third, a fantastic match and a gutsy performance by Sid. It capped off a very successful three weeks for Sid.

Unfortunately that day we saw the departure of Dave's wife Joy as she had to get back for work the next day.

Next up was me and I was feeling a little nervous. I was up against what some may say in the business as a "bunny". The first 4 games in the match were breaks however I managed to steady the ship and won the set 6-3. My opponent was very tricky as he moved very well and got everything back with height and depth, it took me back to the days when I was 12 and you had to hack to win, however a lot has changed since then and I began to attack the net, this did it and I won the second 6-2.

The following day I had to play another Czech. He had had a very impressive win in his career as he had beaten a top 100 player so I was wary going into the match. I managed to get out of the blocks better than the previous day and I took the first set 6-2. My opponent put up some resistance in the second but none too troubling and I sealed the second set 6-4.

That night I said fair-well to both Sid and Dave as they were both going back to England. That meant I was all on my own, the first time for me at an ITF event.

Going into the quarters I knew I had to up my game as I was far from my best in my previous two matches and my quarter final opponent had had some very impressive wins not just in the tournament but also the previous week. The previous day i had had an excellent chat with Dave which I managed to take into my match.

I broke straight away and was pilling on the pressure. However he broke back and it was on serve to 5-4. At 5-4 it went 0-40 on his serve and I had three set points, I didn't manage to convert any of them and my opponent took the set 7-5. This didn't stop me believing and I upped my game, my opponent just wasn't up to the task and within 20 minutes I had taken the second set 6-1. This continued into the third and I prevailed 6-1 once again. I was extremely happy with the win knowing that my attitude and game had improved massively from the previous two matches.

I was into the semi-finals and had to play the fourth seed from Slovakia.

The match started at 10 and before I had even stepped onto the court I was at a disadvantage, I only had 1 racquet strung. The previous day I had given the tournament stringer two racquets to restring for 9am the next day however he had not turned up. I argued my case with both the referee and umpire with the referee phoning the stringer however he was not picking up, there was nothing I could do.

I knew it wasn't going to be my day as my string broke in the warm up which meant I had no racquets left to play with. This meant I had to play the entire match with a broken string. Some how I managed to get two games in the match losing 6-1 6-1, which to be honest i thought was a good effort. It was an incredibly frustrating day for me because I felt I was playing well enough to go further into the tournament. Even by the time I had come off court the stringer hadn't even arrived, I had to wait another hour and eventually he arrived with my racquets strung, I'm sure you can imagine how I felt. I didn't wait around any longer and I left the club refusing to pay. It was a tough lesson to learn but a lesson that's needed.

That was the end of my visit to Sparta Prague Tennis club and my week in the Czech Republic, a week with very mixed emotions. However I will leave with confidence as I performed very well in my quarter final match, my last real match of the week.

I would like to say thanks on behalf of Sid and I to Dave, Roxanne and Joy for coming out to Czech with us, they were all extremely helpful and we really enjoyed their company.