It’s a volley holiday with Andy
...well, his ex-coach to be precise!
THINGS are not looking good for Andy Murray, Britain’s No 1 tennis player. ‘Poor old Andy,’ says a woman clutching a cocktail at the pool bar of the Messini Beachclub in the Greek Peloponnese. The afternoon sun glares beyond an awning, heating the grass on a crisp lawn leading to the golden sands of Analipsi beach. But all of our focus is on a television in the bar. Murray is playing in the French Open final against Novak Djokovic and he’s having a hard time.
Oohs and ahhs emanate from the 50 or so people gathered. ‘Yes: in the net!’ says one holidaymaker after Djokovic makes a mistake. He’s drinking a half-litre of Mythos lager and is gripped by the contest. It is ‘Happier Hour’ at the resort; the implication being that all times are happy, though some more so than others (when the drinks are cheaper still). ‘I still believe!’ he bellows. ‘COME ON ANDY.’
Just as with group walking holidays, tennis breaks create a camaraderie. I’m on a week’s break with tennis lessons included. It’s the official launch of a new programme in which instruction is headed up by Andy Murray’s former coach Mark Petchey.
Staying at a hotel with a tennis academy during a grand slam is a great way of creating a buzz and cementing friendships off the court. But the focus of the week is the game itself… and how to get better at it.
Petchey has been brought in to Messini Beachclub (and six other such clubs run by tour operator Neilson in Greece and Turkey) to fine-tune their tennis coaching. His belief is that many tennis academies do not allow participants to hit enough shots as the buckets used by coaches to feed balls to players are too small. So instead of perhaps 100 balls for each coach, special baskets have been introduced with as many as 300.
‘I hate it when lessons are spent picking up balls for the next drill,’ Petchey says during a pause on one of the resort’s five artificial grass courts. ‘I want people hitting as many shots as possible and to do that with a plan: to correct mistakes.’
This means you run about a lot. Balls are fed to you by the four coaches after instruction is provided on each shot – forehand, backhand, serve and volley – and you are given ample opportunity to hone your new swings without dropping to your knees in exhaustion.
There’s a simplicity to the approach, which starts with participants choosing one of four categories: green (beginners), blue (intermediates confident in a rally), red (club players) and black (advanced). Each day – over six days – an hour’s instruction is organised, then there is a chance for ‘social tennis’ from 5pm to 7pm.
‘Low to high! Low to high!’ says Joe Hoose, 24, from Crosby in Liverpool. He is head coach at Messini and, despite his age, he has the right temperament for instruction: patient and laid-back, yet precise in his communication.
I’m in the red group and he’s soon telling me to start my forehand swing lower in order to whip over the ball and accentuate its top-spin. I do this. The shots get better. He comes over and suggests I try gripping the racket less firmly. For a drill, he asks me to play shots with just a thumb and two fingers holding the racket. This feels peculiar, although the ball is flashing over the net with exactly the right spin. It’s a marvellous sensation.
Apart from the courts, there’s an excellent 50-metre pool, keepfit classes – and I joined an organised bike ride into the nearby hills. But the highlight of my stay is a private lesson with Mark Petchey. It is baking hot and he puts me through my paces. He can see my old strokes coming through (I haven’t held a racket for six years). He checks out my forehand and backhand and calls me over.
‘Take a semi-open stance on your forehand. Step back and then move into the ball on your back hand,’ he says, indicating the body positions required for each shot. We start playing again and his advice immediately has an effect.
One moment sticks in my mind. Mark fires a stinger of a serve at the end of my lesson. Somehow I punch the ball down the line. Petchey lunges but is nowhere near. It’s a clear winner…