After breakfast we got ready and headed over to the arena. We had to collect our tickets as Ticketmaster had not managed to successfully send them to us!
As we were early we then took Jennifer across to Xscape to show her the indoor ski slope....I think I am correct in saying that she was extremely puzzled by it!
We had a look around at the restaurants so that we could try and figure out where to eat later.....Jennifer is vegetarian so we were trying to find somewhere with some variety to the menu :)
Tour of Xscape over so we headed back across to the arena. We went in to check out our seats....we weren't sitting with the rest of the forum due to our indecisiveness and Jennifer's enthusiasm but we did quite like our seats.
Although - there were some downsides!
We got settled and ready for the first match and Rob took a picture of Jen and I wearing my preordered T-shirts!
Thankfully the arena has stopped with the prematch 'entertainment' and so soon enough the players were introduced!
One of the Stirling guys was dressed in an amazing outfit and was running around the arena - I tried really hard to get a picture but none of them are great:
So, first up was Josh Goodall against Steve Darcis.
I have very few photos from this match so I apologise in advance!
Josh started off really well and was really holding his own against Darcis - who by the way was such a bad tempered player....just absolutely miserable from start to finish....not a good advert for the Belgian team!
So there were no breaks in the first set and we end up in a tie break......Josh got the first point and then there was no stopping him! He took the tie break 7-2 and we were all absolutely thrilled!
The second set was a bit more difficult - Darcis had several break points and Josh did well to save quite a few but Darcis did eventually get the break and took the set 6-3 :(
Unfortunately Josh was then broken immediately in the third....the remainder of the set was solid and he was always trying to get the break back and if I remember correctly he had several break points....including one immediately prior to losing the set 6-4 :(
Now we are 1-2 in sets and in the past this would be the time when our players would give up.....but Josh was fighting for every point!
Sadly, he was broken again in the first game of the fourth set :(
I am proud to say that this did not change his approach....he was absolutely brilliant and an example of this was the fact that when serving at 4-5 he faced a couple of match points....but he saved them and forced Darcis to serve out the match.
Obviously he did this - I think to love but Josh can look back on this match and truely say he lost to the better player. He fought till the very end!
Next up: Evans vs Rochus
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