Tennis clubs will use winter to plan ahead

Jono’s Serve Jono Spring

Junior Manawatu¯ tennis players have been performing well at tournaments around New Zealand over the past week.

Ten-year-old star Pascual Iniesta has won two titles at the Taranaki Open at the start of the school holidays.

Pascual claimed the 10-andunder singles and doubles titles and then the 12-and-under singles.

Pascual was made to work hard in his singles semifinal against Tomi Avery and had to fight back from a 7-3 deficit in the super tie

break to eventually win 10-8. The final was more one-sided, with a 6-0, 6-0 win over Oliver Kerr.

Pascual will now head to the tier-2 Tecnifibre tournament at the Renouf Centre in Wellington as the top seed in the 10-and-under category. Players from all over New Zealand, Australia and further afield will compete at the event, meaning the level of competition will be high.

Other players to earn titles over the holiday period include 15-yearold Jenna Bowie, who claimed the 16-and-under girls’ singles title at the Greendale Open junior tournament in Hawke’s Bay. This is Bowie’s second age-group singles title of the year, after winning the Wairarapa event in January.

More Manawatu¯ juniors will head to the Wellington Tecnifibre tournament this weekend in search

of high-level competition and the prospect of pitting themselves against the country’s best junior players.

Winter months provide the best opportunity for revision, planning and organising for the upcoming summer season. As a result there is a lot of communication between local associations and clubs, as well as greater entities such as Tennis Central and Tennis New Zealand.

For instance, Tennis NZ are conducting a national club conference in May throughout New Zealand to build communication channels, processes and share information vital for tennis clubs to not just survive, but grow and prosper.

In earlier articles I have mentioned how important people are to the overall success of our sport at a provincial level.

Without the people who do the little tasks that both provide opportunities for our tennisplaying public and keep the essential elements that make belonging to a club or organisation a welcoming and worthwhile prospect, it is near impossible for

regional clubs and organisations to consider growing themselves.

Having all parties involved working on a similar wave length is also imperative, and this can often be the greatest challenge. Accepting differences and having appreciation for the greater good has to be the nucleus of any way forward for any club, association or national governing body.

My opinion is that there has been a demonstrated shift in some provincial areas towards a more combined or united front, and I have also seen a more concerted effort from our national leaders to help engage and foster this behaviour. The concept of the upcoming national club conference is just one example and if the past 18 months are anything to go by, I am excited to see how the administrative side of our sport will develop over the following 5-10 years. As many of us are well aware, success on the court will almost always begin with the management off the court.

Jono Spring is a professional coach at the Manawatu¯ Lawn Tennis Club.