One of the things about tennis is that when you have been knocked out of a tournament you have to pick yourself up and start thinking about next week. I went out of Winchester in the 2nd round so I had some hits with playing partners and then got my head into Beckenham which was the next grade 3 tournament. I was really looking forward to this tournament because I was playing doubles with my partner Sam Taylor and would be staying at his house during the week. I don’t do staying away well, something I will have to get used to but Sam and his mum Alison are really nice and they made me so welcome.

Tournament: Goodacre Property Services Beckenham Junior Open
Date: 21 July 2008 – 26 July 2008
Event: Boys Under 14’s
Draw: 64
My Rating: 7.2
Seeded: No
Venue: Beckenham Tennis Club

1st Round (64)
Bye

2nd Round (32)
Opponent: Jack Lloyd
Seeded: No
Opponent Rating: 8.1
Won/Lost: Won
Score: 7-6, 6-7, 6-1
This match was one of my worst matches of all time I could not get my head around the match, and I did just not turn up. However I stuck in and bit my tongue and just hung on. Eventually after 3 hours and three gruelling sets of tennis, I had won. It had been a tough emotional match but I had been happy with the guts and determination I showed.

3rd Round (16)
Opponent: Ben Blackwell
Seeded: [1]
Opponent Rating: 7.1
Won/Lost: Lost
Score: 6-1, 6-4
In the first set I continued on from my last match and everything went terribly badly. However I said to myself things can only get better, and they did. In the second set I played great and I found myself a break up at 4-3. My opponent then played the most amazing three games I had ever seen I managed 2 points and he hit about 7 winners, I was out of the tournament.
The double with Sam went really well and we reached the semi-finals. Doubles is such fun as there is not the pressure when you are playing on your own. It really helps with your net play as well as you get to volley so much more. Sam is a very different player to me. He goes for every shot and is very laid back. I tend to think more about each point so we are a good combination.
Looking back on the week it was really good fun. The double semi final was fantastic and I achieved one of my goals which was to reach a last 16. Rafa my coach was pleased when I texted him on holiday.

After a week away at Beckenham it was so good to be home and see my mum and dad and be in my own bed again.  I was a week away from summer holidays in Portugal where I was going to get intensive coaching every morning to work on various aspects of my game.  This week I was at Woking and it would mean daily trips round the M25 to get to my matches.  The hour each way in the car is a real drag and if you are playing first match it means getting up so early.  Good news was that I was number 3 seed and therefore expected to get to the semi final.  The summer tournaments often throw up odd draws because many of the players you expect to be there are away on holiday.

I can’t eat anything that has lots of sugar in it before matches as it give me a glucose rush so breakfast is oats or Weetabix and banana with a bagel.  Mum is great as she gets me the right sort of food if I have to play more than one match in a day. I also can’t play on my PSP on the way to the tournaments it will effect my concentration.  It is all these little things that you don’t think about, but your mum and dad do that are so difficult to deal with.  The M25 is really boring.

Tournament:    Colbornes Woking Junior Open
Date:    28 July 2008 – 2 August 2008
Event:    Boys Under 14’s
Draw:    64
My Rating:    7.2
Seeded:    [3]
Venue:    Woking Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club

1st Round (64)
Bye

2nd Round (32)
Opponent: Tristan Andrews
Seeded: No
Opponent Rating: 8.2
Won/Lost: Won
Score: 6-1, 6-0
This was a rather simple first round. The boy I played had no real weapons apart from a hard serve which was not very accurate. All I had to do was play within myself and I would win. Well I managed to do this and the match was mine very comfortably.

3rd Round (16)
Opponent: Felix Plom
Seeded: No
Opponent Rating: 8.1
Won/Lost: Won
Score: 6-4, 6-2
It was a rather weird match this because the boy I played was not good at all. However I seemed to struggle to put him away. He had nothing to hurt me with but nevertheless he put a good fight. He rather got on my nerve at some points. For example: he bounced the ball about 15 times before he served. He took far too long in-between points and at change over’s. Plus he made four horrendous line calls and a referee had to watch the reminder of the match from the side. In the end though, I got through it comfortably.

Quarter-Final (8)
Opponent: Billy Ellison
Seeded: [13]
Opponent Rating: 7.2
Won/Lost: Won
Score; 7-6(8), 6-3
This was by far and away my hardest match so far. The boy I played was very talented. He was extremely consistent and used a lot of topspin. He did not hit the ball that hard but he moved the ball all around the court quite superbly. His game plan was mainly to topspin to my one-handed backhand. In the first set he did this very well and he ended up three set points at 6-3 up in the tiebreak. However I clawed it back with two great points and a lucky net cord and end up winning the breaker 10-8. The second set was rather easy apart from I had to recover from 2-0 down, however I overcome that hurdle and went on only losing 1 game from that point to win it 6-3.

Semi-Final (4)
Opponent: Ryan Lonsdale
Seeded: [9]
Opponent Rating: 8.1
Won/Lost: Lost
Score: 7-5, 6-1
This boy was a great player he did not come from England and had been training abroad and had come to do the English tournaments this summer. In the quarters he had beaten the number 2 seed 6-1, 6-0, he had also taken the number one in the country for under 13 to three sets. So I knew I would be in for a fight. I guess this is why I was so surprised when I stared a set point in the face in the first set. He served a kick serve high to my backhand that I sliced low to his forehand because he was left-handed. He then played a lovely drop shot cross court. I was nowhere to be seen and the set point at 5-4 up was gone. The first set then played over in my mind which was a bad thing and I could not seem to make it disappear. It is something I have to come to terms with as I was not focusing on the set I was playing.  I crumbled and only won 1 game to his 9. I had lost in a bad way and felt I had let myself down badly.  The journey home was a very quiet and long one.

On reflection I had achieved beyond where I thought I would this summer I had reached a semi final of a grade three tournament in my first year at U14.  This was better than I had ever done as a first year U12.  Much to my annoyance Ryan lost in the final to another 7.2 and I was left thinking what might have been had I closed out the first set.

Today was going to be a very busy day I had a lot to do. I was woken at the early hour of six o’clock. I then carried out my daily routine at breakfast of two slices of toast, three Weetabix and a glass of strawberry milk. I then left the house at around about half past six this enabled me to arrive at the club at ten to seven. Giving me enough time to stretch for ten minutes. My coach and I then hit the gym where I trained speed and strength for an hour. An intensive hour and half of tennis followed by the end of this I was slightly tired but this was just the beginning.

My mum then ran me to my school where I was greeted with P.E, and just my luck it was the one lesson in the term where we went into the gym for a class workout! This news really did not please me seeing as the next lesson was Latin, which I miss for fitness training with John Shepherd (my personal trainer). An hour that seemed more like five hours later, I was shattered and the worst was still to come.

A welcome break was to come with a lunch in the school dining room, I had a ploughman’s lunch including two bags of salt and vinegar crisps three sandwich’s with salami, ham and chorizo, plus some pate with apple pie for dessert. However after that heavenly half an hour it was time for the one in every year afternoon of sports day! I was running in the 800m, 1500m and the triple jump I did not think my day could get any worse. I won the 800 and the 1500m and came 2nd in the triple jump. Immediately after a snack from my mum when she picked me up I headed down to my club: The Neville where I played the semi-final of the under 16 competition . I won 6-0, 6-3 and finally the most tiring day ever was over.

I went home to a dinner of two jacket potatoes and a leg of roast chicken. I was too tired to do anything after that and so headed straight to bed the day was finally over.

Today was the last day of tennis, and a very relaxed on at that, in fact I only played an hour of tennis today. We knew it was going to very relaxed when Rafa said I will pick you up at ten thirty and we can go and look at some good shops. It all started with waking up and today hat was later than normal (10:00) because of this late start I had to get prepared for the day very quickly and I only had time for a ten minute breakfast. Obviously after breakfast Rafa picked us up and we went to two different shops: one was a very good Adidas sports shop that was very cheap as well. I bought a lovely tennis shirt in there for only 15 pounds. The next shop was not as good, It was a unfashionable boys clothes shop and the only person that bought anything was my mum, and that was a belt for my brother. We then went to pick up Rafa’s mother because she wanted to come to the club with us.

At the club the first thing we tried to do was fined a court and that proved harder than we first thought. However after ten minutes we managed to bank a hard court at the pack of the club. Me and Rafa only had time to play nine games and about an hour of tennis before we got chucked off. The set we had played had been played at a slow speed because of the blistering sun and our tired legs after a week of tennis. The score when we came off was: I was serving for the set at 5-4.

As Rafa and I came up through the club Rafa spotted one of his friends from when he was young, it was the owner of the club Guillermos Vilas. Vilas came and sat down with us because he knew Rafa. He was very nice man and was friendly to us. Ten minutes went past before he said something that I will be honoured by for the rest of my life. He said: I want to play with Barnaby, next time you are over in Argentina. It was the highlight of my week in Argentina. I also got a picture and autograph which was extremely cool too.

Once I had finished my steak and chips again we said good bye to the club and headed off to a shopping centre called the Uni Centre. The Centre was huge and it was very unorganised unlike Bluewater. However after two hours of shopping I and my mum bought a tennis outfit two belts and a shirt. It was a successful trip. It was a simple rest of the evening. You know washed eaten and bed ready for the long flight tomorrow.

Last night I did not get lots of sleep, I kept on waking up. I think this was because the heat was unbearable. And at one point I woke up on the floor. So once I woke I was still very tired however when I managed to rise from my covers I was ok. After I had done my daily routine of packing by tennis bag and laptop bag I headed downstairs to have I quick breakfast. I had quite a long time to wait afterwards because my Mum and my coach were e-mailing the airline we flew with to try rescue their bags. That mission was complete about 45 minutes later and then straight away we zoomed to the club.

At the Vilas Club I played Paddle Tennis before physical training with Stephan. The only thing that we did in the lesson was ladder training and stretching. I did not do the ladder training very well at tall. I played Mini tennis afterwards for about half an hour, before having an hour of tennis with Ruben. In my hour we practiced all sorts of my game. It was not the best I have ever played. It was also very hard I keep your footing because the clay was very dry from the sun. Next I changed my clothes and went for lunch where I had steak sirloin and chips with a lovely drink of Gatorade. You know what was for dessert, as always ice cream.

In the afternoon I had my squad. I did not enjoy my squad this afternoon because the people on it were not very friendly to me and the exercises we did were not very fun. However my mood turned when I went up to the restaurant to play on my computer. Sitting on the table next to me was GUILLERMO CANAS! I was just about to go into my bag and get out the camera when I remembered Mum had it and she was in downtown Buenos Aires trying to sort here bag problems out. I started praying that she would come back, luckily she pulled just as he was about to leave and go to the gym. I managed to grab an autograph and a photo! After this moment of my day I had a session with Stephan in the gym. I was unlucky to not get anthers players autograph. This was because in the gym with Stephan I saw Juan Ignacio Chela, he is number twenty in the world. However this opportunity was missed because he left whilst I was in the middle of an exercise.

Once the day’s activities were over we went home washed and walked to Rafa’s sister’s house where we had a beautif barbesue. Rafa’s brother in law cooked the food . He is an artist and I got the chance to go inside his office where he had made lots of different types of statues and creations for different films.
Luckily seeing that I was so tired we got a ride home from Rafa’s friend Edmundo and then we went straight to bed.

It was a relaxed start to the day because we had an important test in the afternoon. I had breakfast in the room; this was because I only woke up at 9:30. We eventually left the room at eleven o”clock, and the only tennis I played this morning was a light hit with my coach and an hour with Rubin where I worked on my serve. After Rubin it was time for lunch. I continued my tradition of ordering the same dish by having steak and chips again; it was just as good as yesterday.

Next on the agenda was the most important part of the week, a physical training test at the Boca Juniors Stadium. We did lots of different tests including agility, coordination, balance and flexibility. It was obviously my lucky day because afterwards my dreams came true when we had a guided tour of the whole of the Boca Juniors facility. The facility consisted of a basketball stadium, training pitches, a youth stadium and of course the main Boca Juniors First Stadium. My day was made even better when my coach said that we might be able to go and watch a Boca match on Saturday.

We then went straight to dinner however this took a long time because it was rush hour. Once we got to the restaurant though it was amazing. The restaurant was a buffet of every type of food. The way they laid out the food was quite spectacular and very organised and beautiful. Next as always it was home to bed.

This morning I had a lot of time to relax once I had woken up. This was because it was a public holiday. It was the day that the Argentines had invaded England to win the Falcon Islands. So in the spare time that my Mum and I had we went on a walk down the main street in Buenos Aires. On this walk I bought a Boca Juniors t-shirt worth 179 pesos, in a store called Dexter Sports. When we arrived back at the hotel my coach was waiting for me in are hired car. I took the lift back up to our room where I collected my things and headed off to the club in the back seat of the car.

At the club the first thing that was on my timetable was a match against the number 20 in Argentina for under 13s. After losing six match points and playing the worst tennis of my life the match was finally over. More of the same was up next when I had another agility and coordination session with Stephan. Followed by an easy set of tennis against another Argentine boy, that I won 6-0.

Lunch was to follow, and a change in my daily routine of chicken Milanese to well done steak and chips with of course Coke as a drink. As I was on my way to the toilet I passed a face I had seen on the TV many times before. I t was DAVID NALBANDIAN. At first he looked in a bad mood so I was too keen on asking for a picture and an autograph. However my Mum and I collected up the courage to do so, and it all turned out ok. This was the best part of my day!

After lunch we all went off to a Hotel called the Shelton, where I played another match against a 22 year old man you was very good. But I managed to play extremely well the same day that I had played dreadfully, and won 6-1.

Another long day was nearly over, but before it was over there were two more things that we did. My Mum and my coach went for a facial for two hours, and I went for ice cream in a great shop called Volta. Volta had every type of ice cream you could possibly imagine, it was fantastic. Going out to dinner was the next thing on the list. Dinner was practically the same as always apart from I was pulled from restaurant to restaurant because my coach and my mum wanted me to eat with them.

By the time I got back to the room I was so tired, all I had to do is rest my head on the pillow I was off into a deep, deep sleep.

It was a hectic start to the day seeing as I had to do chores that I had to do last night as we were trudging around Buenos Aires and I woke up a little later than normal (8:30). However once all these chores had been carried out I had time to go down and have a 20 minute breakfast. For breakfast I had four croissants and two glasses of orange juice. After breakfast I went up to my room to collect my belongings and then headed downstairs to where my coach Rafa was waiting in our hired car. Soon after we were pulling into the Vilas Racquet once again.

The routine was pretty the same in the morning: an hour of footwork and agility training. However the second segment of the morning was slightly different. I played an hour and a half with Ruben Puerta who is one of the best coaches in Argentina. He has coached players like Coria, Chela and Mariano Puerta his son. At this moment in time his was coaching two boys from Venezuela. Ruben gave me an assessment on which parts of my game to improve and which parts he thought were good.

By the end of this assessment it was one o’clock and I was feeling peckish so popped up to the Restaurant and ordered the same thing as I had ordered yesterday followed by ice cream again for dessert.

At four the court beckoned me once more for another two hour intensive training session. That was swiftly followed up by a forty five minute core, stamina and strength lesson in the gym with Stephan. After this long day it was home time again and our destination was the hotel, to get washed and head out to dinner.

For dinner we found something very simple. A lovely local restaurant just round the corner so we could not get lost. I ordered steak and chip. The moment of my day came when I dug into that first slice of steak. It was so succulent and delicious. It was the best steak I think I had ever tasted.

The follow this great meal I had some weird tasting ice cream that I ate quickly so I could retreat home to the softness of my pillow.

It was an early start on day 3 of the Buenos Aires Tennis Trip. 6:38 was the exact time I woke up after going to bed at about 9:00. So after nine and a half hours of good sleep listening to the midnight rush of down town Buenos Aires I felt in quite a good mood for giving my all and playing good tennis.

After waking up and getting ready for the day ahead I took the lift downstairs to have some breakfast. My breakfast consisted of four croissants half French stick some cereal and two cups of orange juice. After breakfast we made a sharp exit out of the hotel and down to the Vilas Racquet.

My day of tennis started with an hour session of footwork training just to get me wormed up. However the work really began when I started a hard session of tennis with a full grown man who hit it twice as hard as me. To make matters worse the father of Mariano Puerta (French open finalist) who was one of the best coaches in Argentina, once coaching Coria, Chela and many other great players was watching me.

Lunch was next on the agenda and I had a native dish called Milanese which was a fattened chicken smothered in bread crumps served chips and fried eggs. On top of that I had a Coke and some ice cream for dessert. Also my highlight of the day came when I managed to get a picture with Diego Hartfield one of Argentina’s best players.

After lunch I had another intensive tennis session followed by a 45 minute gym session with my personal trainer for the week. This marathon of tennis had taken it out of me however it was nothing compared to what was to come.

On way back to the hotel mum and I wanted to have a look in a sports shop to try and replace some clothing items as our luggage still had not arrived. After that we tried to meet up with Rafa for some supper but unfortunately could not find the pizzeria that he had mentioned. We spent 45 minutes looking but as it was now dark and getting late we decided to head back to the hotel. Luckily mum had bought some provisions on the first day so we sat in the room and had some cold cut sandwiches. I was very tired after a long and strenuous day on the tennis court and so after eating we went to bed.

At the beginning of this month I was faced with quite a difficult decision ahead of me. My coach wanted me to train a lot more and therefore miss cricket as well as the lesson I already miss: Design Technology, Latin, Art and Rugby the previous term. This was because I had got to the stage in the development of my tennis game that intensive physical training was needed to improve my strength, agility and core stability.

This was on top of the half an hour of stretching and core stability a day I do by myself to try and improve my tennis ability. However it was not enough at the stage in my career that I was at. The decision I was going to have to make was whether I would play cricket or not. This was not an easy decision for me seeing as cricket was my second favourite sport after tennis of course. Eventually I decided on giving up cricket. I felt quite content with myself after the decision; then again there were a few doubts in my mind. I already got an ear full from my school pals about skipping a large section of work to play tennis and it is not easy for me to miss out, because it means I get left out and discarded from recent events.

Then on the first day of the summer term the school told me that for this year I would not be able to miss cricket. I felt quite disappointed in a way because I had got my whole mindset that I would be able to go that extra mile with my tennis but then I looked on the bright side to the school’s decision: I would play cricket, I would be mixing with my friends and I would not be unhappy. I was still disappointed in the decision though and I was unhappy I was being held back from doing something I wanted to do.

At the end of the month in my half term holiday I played in the Park Langley Junior Open, a Sunday Telegraph Grand Prix Grade 3 tournament. I was hoping to do well there were only handful of players that had better rankings as me and as the week passed on some of those players crashed out of the tournament. So by the Thursday when I played my match against a boy in the last sixteen I felt certain I could reach the semis or even the final. I had played him twice before winning one and losing one. I felt confident, strong, fit with no injuries and ready for war. In the first set I went 3-1 up with a break however then plummeted playing the worst tennis I had played in a long time and lost the first set 6-3. The rest of the match went the same way and my opponent giving nothing away. My head went down and I lost the match 6-3, 6-3.

My coach Rafa was fine with my performance as we hadn’t been specifically getting me ready for competition. I felt down, despondent and miserable as the boy went on to the semi-final. I had ended the month on a low and had to face the questions from all my school friends about how I had done when I went back to school.