A day in the life of a tennis professional
Anne Keothavong
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This feature is taken from the tennishead Ultimate Guide to Winning Tennis magbook. Click here for more details about the magbook and how you can buy it.
Tuesday June 16 2009, 8am
My alarm goes off and while I wake up I turn my thoughts to the night before when I won my first round doubles with Sarah Borwell. Monday was a good day – it’s always nice to start a tournament on a positive note, but today is about singles and I play Austrian world No.28 Sybille Bammer in the last match on Centre Court. Even though I’m not playing till late, I’m not much good when it comes to lying in so I head to breakfast to meet my coach Claire Curran.
8.45am
I meet Claire and say hi to a few of the other players and coaches mingling about. All main draw players stay at the five-star Grand Hotel, a typically old-fashioned, English Victorian seaside hotel right on the seafront. It’s a nice place to stay, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t have air-con or a sea view! Maybe next year…
9am
If someone else is cooking I usually go for poached eggs on toast for breakfast on match days. I’m yet to master poached eggs – they always break when I cook them. I don’t like milk so I don’t eat cereals unless I have to, so I finish off with some fruit and I always make sure I drink enough too – coffee (just in the mornings), juice and water. Getting fluids on board the day before a match is really important too, although I’m careful not to drink too much as it’s easy to get bloated which is what happened to me at this year’s Australian Open. I’d already talked about the match with my coaches Claire and Nigel Sears the night before so breakfast is laid back and there’s not too much tennis talk.
9.45am
I go back to my room to relax for a little while and to get my kit ready for my morning hit. Because I’m playing late I’ll hit twice – once in the morning for 45 minutes and again just before I play just to get loosened up. The hotel is only a five-minute walk from the courts so I don’t need to take a whole day’s kit with me – I’ll come back to the hotel for the afternoon to relax.
10.30am
I walk to the courts – it’s another sunny day on the south coast – and once on site I pick up my newly-restrung rackets from the tournament stringer. I gave him these the night before so I’m all set to go for the day. I always have new strings in my rackets on match day.
11am
Time for a full warm up in the players’ gym which this year is just next to Devonshire Park’s old pavilion. I jog for about 10 minutes, then do some work on my shoulder with a band and then finish up with some short, sharp sprints. It all takes about 20 minutes.
11.30am
My first hit will be for 45 minutes on half a court. At a busy tournament like this, early in the week it’s tough to get a whole court to hit on and today me and my practice partner are sharing with Sabine Lisicki from Germany and a Polish player, Marta Domachowska. It’s part of Claire’s job to book courts and organise balls and stuff and Nigel has found the hitter. Since today’s opponent Bammer is a lefty, Nigel has found me a young left-handed guy who he knows from Brighton to warm me up. The first hit on a day like this is just about getting my eye in so we go through groundstrokes, volleys, serves, returns and a few points. Afterwards I have a quick chat with Claire and I’m done.
12.30pm
I’d been having a few little niggles with my shoulder at my last tournament in Birmingham the week before Eastbourne so I go and see the LTA physio, Sophie, who’s on site for the week, for a 30-minute session. At tournaments abroad I’d see the WTA physio but as Sophie lives in Brighton and there are a few Brits playing in Eastbourne she’s around to sort me out.
1pm
Time for a shower and some lunch on site at the players’ restaurant which is next to the theatre and what we refer to as the ‘back’ practice courts. The food this year at Eastbourne is much better than it has been in the past – us girls reckon they made more effort because there are guys playing here for the first time ever this year! The sort of stuff I’ll eat on a match day are things like salad, a bit of pasta or rice, vegetables and maybe a bit of chicken.
2pm
I’m fifth match on Centre after an 11.30am start so I still have plenty of time to relax before I need to start getting ready. Because the hotel is so close to the courts I head back to my room at the Grand where I spend some time online, read for a little while and then have a siesta. I have the live scoreboard fired up on my laptop so I can keep track of the progress of the matches before mine, but Claire has stayed on site and will make sure I know what’s going on too and will call me when I need to get moving.
4pm
I get my match kit together and everything I need on court and walk back to Devonshire Park to get ready for my second hit of the day. I say hi to my family who have come down from London but it’s only a quick chat as they like to take in as many matches as they can when they come to tournaments. It’s always great to see them and know they’re in the crowd supporting me whenever they can get to events.
5pm
I hit with Sarah this time, just for around 20-30 minutes to get things moving again. I don’t always hit so close to match time, but it’s never a bad thing as it means my muscles are still warm when I get on court. At the end of the hit I have my final chat about tactics and what I need to do against Bammer with Claire and Nigel and from this point I keep myself to myself – I like to be alone just before I play.
5.30pm
I head to the locker-room to keep an eye on the score of the match before me – Amelie Mauresmo against Vera Zvonareva – and have a bit more to eat. Only a light snack so close to playing – half a sandwich or a Powerbar usually.
5.45pm
After eating I start warming up – there are certain things I like to do just before I play including listening to my music. Today it’s Kings of Leon. I try to start my final warm-up once the first set of the match before me is done. If it starts to look like it might go to three sets then I’ll keep an eye on the scores and delay my routine – there are screens throughout the locker-rooms and gyms.
6.15pm
Match time. Mauresmo comes through against Zvonareva in three sets and we’re up next. When the match before yours ends the referee announces your names over the tannoy in the players’ area and you meet your opponent in an area just outside the referee’s office. When they’re ready for you on court, you’re announced and you walk out there – game on!
7.35pm
It’s been a poor performance from yours truly and I lose 6-3, 6-2 in an hour and 20 minutes. My first assessment once I get back to the locker-room is that I was too defensive and Sybille was too solid. I wasn’t proactive enough and didn’t have the confidence to back up my game. All in all, a disappointing performance. It’s a fantastic playing surface, Eastbourne’s Centre Court, but as we were last match on and the sun by that time of the day was so low, the court was bathed in long shadows which I found off-putting. The main problem, though, was my opponent – she hardly missed a ball and I was the exact opposite!
7.40pm
As I walk off court the WTA Tour’s representative at the tournament asks when I want to do my press conference. Normally, I find that if you’ve lost it’s a good idea to have some time to gather your thoughts first, but as it’s late I decide to do it immediately. It’s up to me when I can do my press conference providing it’s 45 minutes to an hour after my match has finished but today I want to get it done and get back to my hotel.
8pm
I walk to the media centre with the WTA rep. Because it’s late there aren’t many journalists around. I’m not in a great mood. “I expected her to be a tough opponent and today I didn’t give myself a chance,” is my honest assessment. “I was spraying balls about and she just had to put the ball in court. I know I’m capable of beating players like Sybille and today it just wasn’t happening for me.”
8.30pm
Normally I’d do a proper full cool down and stretching routine in the locker-room but I’m in a pretty bad mood so I grab my bag and head straight back to the hotel. I do some stretching in my room alone instead.
9pm
I keep myself to myself for the evening. When I’ve lost I’m the first to admit I’m not the easiest person to talk to so I order some room service for dinner, switch my phone off and that’s that. I can usually handle defeats pretty well, but when I lose a match by handing it on a plate to my opponent I find it frustrating.
10pm
A disappointing end to the day but I need to put the defeat to the back of my mind and get plenty of rest. I have another match on Wednesday – our doubles quarter-final against Ai Sugiyama and Akgul Amanmuradova – and I have another important day ahead of me when I wake up tomorrow. Over and out…
This feature is taken from the tennishead Ultimate Guide to Winning Tennis magbook. Click here for more details about the magbook and how you can buy it.
Visit Anne’s official website at AnneKeothavong.co.uk
