Madrid training week

08 May, 2009 | 16:05

Last proper day prior to their Madrid departure, and Andy was back on court, albeit with a different opponent in Alex Slabinsky.

Watched from the wings by Tim Henman amongst others (as amused by the ice bath photos as everyone else), the guys hit balls for a couple of hours.

Tim was down putting in some practice and training ahead of his forthcoming Wimbledon duties, and popped by for a few minutes after he'd hit.

The same could be said for some of the players competing in the National Deaf Tennis Championships throughout the week. One of the players  - Shaun O'Brien - is a regular on Andy's site and made it to the semi-finals of the Men's Open Consolation Singles. He even made it into one of Andy's tweets last week. Shaun - best of luck for 2010.

Alex and Andy finished with some practice sets, with Andy emerging victorious in front of his team. After the sprint session the day before, their banter fell a little flat...

Something that never ceases to amaze us is the fascination players have with their equipment; whenever they play a practice set against someone with a different racquet, you can count on them to check the stringing pattern and weighting.

Players like Andy generally have their racquets strung by specialist companies that travel with the tour. Stringers all have their own styles, hence the interest. Or at least we guess that's the case.