Adam Lownsbrough, Blog #1

Hi everyone!

My name is Adam Lownsbrough and I hope this blog is interesting and gives an insight from a coaches perspective on life travelling on the tour. I have been working on the WTA tour since 2011 travelling between 20-30 weeks. I believe we are very fortunate to have a job which allows us travel all over the world and of course take in the best events on the tennis calendar.

Normally this time of year everyone is with their families enjoying some good food and drink while opening presents. For coaches on the tour this isn’t always the case for Christmas especially with the first tournaments being so far away to start the season.

Friends ask me “isn’t it strange to spend Christmas away?” Or “can’t you go later?”. Firstly, when you do a job you love and are passionate about, its “easier” to miss one of the important days of the year. Secondly, Australia is an amazing place to visit so however brutal the journey time is, once I have arrived from the cold of Europe it’s always worth the sacrifice. The second question is out of my hands due to events starting on January 1st, the travel time, the change in time and conditions – this means we need to be down in Australia at least 5-7 days prior to the start of the event.

I’m working with Ipek Soylu from Turkey who is a young player with potential to have a great career. Ipek is based in Istanbul so we are linking up again after a short break and will travel down to Australia together to start the season. My flight today is manchester to Istanbul, then tomorrow I will fly Istanbul to Adelaide via Dubai.

We started working together at the end of July, Ipek did a really good job at the US Open and also had a good win in Asia against Sakkari, however it’s a new season and the chance to take more positive steps.

My first Australian Open as a coach was back in 2011. At that time I was based in Barcelona and I also flew on the 25th of December and landed in Brisbane on the 26th at night, it’s always been worth the long flight and Christmas high in the sky. Since 2011 the event has changed a lot with upgrades to the facilities which has only benefited everyone involved. It’s one of my favourite tournaments I have been to as it’s very relaxed, the tournament staff are really helpful and with its location being so close to the city it’s easy to walk back to the city/hotel by the river.

With Ipek’s ranking dropping at the end of the season due to defending ranking points, the decision was made to play a smaller event in Adelaide rather than qualifying at the WTA events in Shenzhen or Auckland. This is with the view to hopefully get more matches before the qualifying event and also less travelling. Scheduling can always be a headache after having a break and the ranking where it currently is but we believe this a good option.

Thanks for reading and I will be back soon with an update on our progress!

Happy Holidays!! 🙂