November 2017 - Tennis School Trip to the ATP Finals 2017

On Wednesday 15th November The Appeti Tennis School were lucky to be gifted a Private Suite at the 02 for the fourth day of the ATP Finals. A huge thank you to construction services company, ISG, a global construction services company who specialise in fit out, technology, construction and development, who where incredibly generous and donated their private suite to 24 excited pupils, coaches and parents for an afternoon and evening watching the world’s top tennis players.

The ATP Finals is the season-ending event for the highest-ranked singles players and doubles teams on the 2017 ATP World Tour. The top 8 male players in the singles event were Rafa Nadal, Roger Federer, Alexander Zverev, Dominic Theim, Marin Cilic, Grigor Dimitrov, David Goffin and Jack Sock.

Initially, we were going to see Rafa Nadal play Dominic Theim but sadly Rafa had to withdraw with an injury and was replaced by reserve Pablo Carreno Busta. So the buzz on the way up to the 02 was huge with lots of discussion on who would win, the scores, tactics and which players was whose favourite.

On arrival we did a lap of the 02, checked out the ATP souvenir shop and then grabbed burgers, chips and milkshakes at Five Guys to fuel us through the evening’s tennis.

As play was due to start we headed towards the ISG suite, sailed past the queues and settled into our seats to watch the doubles. We had a great view of the court with both pairings creating some fantastic points! The kids loved the private suite as they could really relax and enjoy the match, cheer on their favourite players and discuss points, games and sets.

There was an hours gap between the doubles match and the singles and we all had a great time in the suite comparing notes on the match and discussing the upcoming singles and getting some refreshments. It was great have James from Volkl Tennis UK join us and he really enjoyed watching tennis from such great seats and he got to know the Appeti Tennis School players a little better.

The singles proved to be a really exciting and close match! Dominic Thiem battled to a compelling three-set victory over Pablo Carreno Busta to maintain his hopes of reaching the last four of the ATP Finals. Thiem took an early lead in the match by closing out the first set. However, Carreno Busta grew in confidence and controlled much of the second set before winning it to force a third and final set. Both players showcased their best tennis in this set and produced a high energy final set but Thiem made a decisive breakthrough in the ninth game of the final set, before serving out for victory in two hours and six minutes.

The evening ended on high and we all left chatting about the amazing tennis we had seen and what a treat it had been. Again a big thank you to ISG for being very generous. We all loved the experience!

ISG is a strong supporter of Macmillan Cancer Support and the Appeti Tennis School was pleased to raise £800 to donate to this great cause.

Click here to see our photos from the event!