1st Int'l Junior ITF

Recently I travelled to Finland for my first international junior ITF to play the Pajulahti Cup in Nastola. It was great to be back out competing in another country again. I had a good week reaching the semi finals with lots of positives and learning opportunities and I improved my ITF ranking.

One of my favourite things about being a tennis player is travelling to new places, so when Covid-19 happened and that element was taken away, I have been waiting for the opportunity to travel again. I find that international tournaments are quite different to tournaments in Great Britain. You get to play different players from other countries and the environment and structure feels more professional – if you lose you move on to the next tournament.. there are no consolation events or back draws! The last time I played internationally was a 14U TE in Germany in March 2020 just before the first lockdown so it was great to get back out again.

In the first round, I played the 4th seed from Finland. I was dominant in the first set taking it 6-1 and was 5-3 up in the second set but had to fight hard to close it out in the set tiebreak. In the 2nd round, I played an Estonian girl with a strong serve and a big forehand.. it was a close first set with some challenging line calls but I managed to stay focussed and took the set 6-4 and won the match in straight sets. In the quarterfinals I played another Finnish girl who was a good player and we both played a high level match which I won in two sets 7-5 6-2. All three players had represented their country nationally at some point in Winter and Summer Cups so these were good matches for me to see where my level was against older opponents from other countries. Overall I was happy with this week and met some new players which is really important to have contacts when you are competing overseas to arrange practice hits, warm ups and for doubles partners.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/aea707_b286b54b01eb463298b0307afe0a3163/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

I was originally meant to travel with a coach-led trip but I ended up going out with my mum. It would be good to have the team & coach experience sometimes as I travel a lot with my mum, but I know that being independent is so important in tennis and a coach isn’t going to wash your skirts before your matches!

The two weeks before I travelled to Finland, I put in a good training block with my coaches to pinpoint my technical weaknesses and work on them, along with tactical work and lots of practice games. When I played my first match, I felt confident with my strokes and technique which helped immensely. It was a fast court and I adapted well. They have heating on the courts so it was warm even though it was sometimes 2°C outside!

I’m looking forward to continue my ITF journey both in the UK and overseas and to continue developing my game.

Thanks for reading, Amelie ♥🎾