Rea to return to NZ
Simon Rea, who masterminded the success of Nick Kyrgios, is returning to New Zealand to help bring through the next wave of players from this country.
It is believed Tennis NZ will announce on Tuesday that the 34-year-old will be confirmed as Tennis New Zealand’s new performance coach, where he will oversee the federation’s performance programme, replacing Marcel Vos.
Rea started work with Tennis Australia as a national academy when he retired as a player in 2008 and brought through Kyrgios, taking him from 843 in the world to a breakthrough win over Rafael Nadal at Wimbledon in 2014.
Rea will bring with him a wealth of experience and a proven track record of taking a player to the top, something that’s been lacking at Tennis NZ.
For all Kyrgios’ faults around his on court behaviour, he is one of the best young players on the circuit and looks destined to eventually win a grand slam, it’s also worth noting that Kyrgios’ antics have got considerable worse since paring with Rea.
Rea split with Kyrgios soon after that breakthrough win over Nadal, with Kyrgios stating he wanted to spend more time in Canberra, rather than be in Melbourne, where Rea and Tennis Australia are based.
When making the announcement that he wouldn’t be working with Rea in the future, Kyrgios was full of praise for Rea.
‘‘My deepest thanks go to Simon Rea who has been nothing but a steady, calm and positive influence on me,’’ Kyrgios said at the time.
‘‘My time with Simon was an incredibly special time for us both and I learned and achieved a lot thanks to Simon and I will be forever grateful for his input and drive to improve my game.
‘‘We both knew going into Wimbledon that it would be our last event working together and in some ways, to sign off with a quarterfinal appearance was a special reward and a fitting end.‘‘
Rea went on to coach Australia’ top women’s player Sam Stosur, but despite guiding her to semifinals at WTA Premier tournaments in New Haven and Beijing, the partnership only lasted eight months.
His next job will be to help bring through the likes of Finn Reynolds, Macsen Sisam and Valentina Ivanov, three players who Tennis NZ have invested considerable time and money into.
As a player, Rea had a serve and volley game and got to a career high of 473. He stopped playing in 2007, realising he wasn’t going to be able to make it as a professional player and moved into coaching, where he has achieved considerable more success.