Day Four – A long waiting day!
Day four in Bahrain. One more day on tour, and once again a long waiting day.
Routines are always present, and as usual, we followed ours exactly the same way. The only difference today was that our match was scheduled for the fourth round, so we had no idea what time we would actually play.
We stayed on site, followed the matches, and once the match before ours started, we went for a proper warm up on court. Wind conditions were slightly more acceptable today, but still uncomfortable for the players.
We had a great practice session with some players from Jordan and then headed back to the players’ room to prepare mentally for the match.
The game plan was very clear. Be patient. Build the points. Accept that the opponent would try to win mainly from our mistakes rather than creating real danger with his own shots.
The match started, and Rafa had real chances to win the first set. Unfortunately, a couple of very close calls in important moments decided the set in favor of our opponent.
At this stage of the tournament, there are no assigned chair umpires, so everything is left to the fair sportsmanship of the players.
In the second set, things got tense again and we requested a supervisor. Rafa took control, used the patterns we had spoken about, played a more organized game, and won the second set.
Then came the super tiebreak.
Based on the earlier close calls, I requested a supervisor again. In fact, at that moment there were three supervisors sitting in the stands. Unfortunately, none of them were actually watching or supervising our match.
On the very last point of the tiebreak, a very obvious ball that was clearly in was called out. Because no official was watching the match, the point was given to the opponent, and the match was over.
Two things to say here.
First, I genuinely do not understand why three supervisors were sitting in the stands and none of them were monitoring or supervising the match. That is a good question, and one I will be raising very seriously with the ITF and the ATF.
Second, and far more important, how proud I am of our player Rafa.
At no moment did he lose his temper. He stayed calm, behaved in a super professional way, and showed great values and sportsmanship throughout the whole situation.
Yes, we lost the match.
But I could not be happier with how mature and serious Rafa showed himself to be, both as a player and as a person. He kept his values, stayed respectful, and did not do what others sometimes do, anything, including cheating, just to win.
For me, that was the real victory of the tournament so far.
Tomorrow we still have another match, and we need to stay focused and ready to keep battling for as many ranking points as possible.