Training at the NTC

18 August, 2008 | 17:08

The guys have been hitting at the National Tennis Centre in Roehampton this week, prior to heading out to New York for the US Open on Wednesday.

Seems that they're over the jet lag (Andy reckons flying back from Beijing is far easier than the other way around), and packing in plenty of tennis and fitness work.

Despite a bit of breeze and light drizzle, they were on the outside courts...

The Wilson US Open balls take a bit of getting used to in terms of how hard they feel, and how that transfers through the racquet.

Fine after a while though....

Ross Hutchins joined Andy and Miles today, and it's interesting to see how an extra player gives them more options on drills....

With three players, it's one versus two at all times.

Here, Andy's trying to get as many points (out of fifteen) as possible with Miles and Ross at the other end.

That all adds up to a lot of running...

They rotate the 'strike' and keep tabs on the highest scores. Andy won, for a change.

A fair few school kids in today, looking around the centre. Including this guy, who pluckily strolled out on to court and asked if he could have a hit.

Brave move, and rewarded with five points against Andy. He hit a winner or two....

And got a picture afterwards....

Pictures done, the weather took a turn for the worse....

Time for lunch...

Not for the first time, all the banter at lunch revolved around Matty Little. In a good way.

If you're interested, Andy scoffed a Michael Phelps-like 2 x baked spuds, an egg, potato, beans, cheese, salad, 2 x peaches and some water.

Unsurprisingly, they left it a good half-hour before heading back out on court.

Indoors this time, and a game of tennis/football to warm-up.

Treacle and Miles versus Ross and Andy. Here's Treacle in typical attacking pose...

Andy returning one at the other end....

In contrast to the morning session, the guys hit serves in the afternoon.

By the time Andy hit the gym, he must have spent a good four hours on court.

Which makes the upper body work a bit tougher...

The gym work took them through until 6pm, by which time Andy was probably bored of throwing medicine balls one handed, and Treacle was probably bored of throwing them back.