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Bloomfield aims high in
2005
01 February 2005 12:05 Richard Bloomfield is hoping that 2005
will be the year he makes his mark on the big
stage.
The 21-year-old from Alpington is
currently ranked 372 in the world – a healthy 33
places higher than his previous best of 405 –
having had a terrific run of results following his
second appearance at Wimbledon last
summer.
Bloomfield, now in his third year
on the professional circuit, is determined to
enter as many events as possible in order to win
more points in the dog-eat-dog world of rankings
points.
The former Hobart High School
pupil has taken the brave step of overhauling his
game over the past year – taking a step back in
order to take two forward.
"Prior to
Wimbledon I had been working hard on the technical
and physical side of my game rather than the
playing side of things," said Bloomfield, whose
world ranking points were, if he had decided to
make the trip Down Under, good enough to have put
him in the frame for Australian Open
qualification.
"Having played there, and
watched what the other players were doing, I then
found the confidence that I was lacking as it
showed me I was moving in the right direction.
"And after that I managed to string some
really good results together," added Bloomfield,
who lost in the final of a Futures tournament in
Belgium in November having already gone one better
in the final of another Futures tournament in
Glasgow. Bloomfield has been working with
tennis-specific fitness coach Jez Green, who is a
freelance trainer based in Leeds and Florida, who
works with a number of other players on the world
circuit.
Green has been working hard with
Bloomfield on his core strength in keeping with
the necessary body movements for a tennis player.
"I started the training programme in April or May
last year and it's taken a while for me to see the
benefits but they are certainly there," said
Bloomfield, who has already played in three
tournaments this year with his best result so far
being a quarter-final place in a Futures event in
Barnstaple, Devon.
"Lleyton Hewitt did a
similar thing. He went from winning to having a
real lean patch and it was during that period he
reassessed his game."
Bloomfield is now
looking at possibly playing in four tournaments in
a row on the Satellite tour in Sunderland – where
he faces Federico Torresi in the first round today
– Redbridge, Cardiff and Sheffield.
It is a
decision to push on that Bloomfield has reached
with long-term coach Pete Russell and he is now
looking forward to the challenges
ahead.
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