Tennis NZ raising g

NO apologies will be made by Simon Rea for raising the bar to unparalleled levels as he tries to create world class tennis New Zealand players.

There have been numerous false dawns and failed plans over the past 20 years as New Zealand struggled to produce a top 100 singles player other than Marina Erakovic.

New Zealand’s highest ranked male singles player is 31-year-old Rubin Statham and the country’s top women’s player is the longterm injured Erakovic at 204.

On the women’s front, there are hopes that Paige Hourigan, Erin Routliffe, Jade Lewis and Emily Fanning can make it. But with the men, there isn’t anyone aged 19 upwards showing any signs of doing anything.

Tennis NZ high performance director Rea has spent a year researching the best way for New Zealand to produce world class singles players again.

For a small, isolated country it may sound the stuff of pipe dreams, but Rea says that can be a reality.

‘‘We would like top 100 male and female athletes in singles and we’d like them to do that in the Kiwi way,’’ Rea said.

‘‘We’d like to see a philosophical shift, a raising of the bar around a national standard being the point of reference.

‘‘With that in mind, we’ve put some extensive research into place around what a trajectory into the ATP or WTA top 100 looks like. From 13 years of age, all the way through a person’s pathway.

‘‘We’ve got some benchmarks in place that need to be met, simultaneously.’’

Rather than Tennis NZ taking a punt on a young player because he or she looks like they have potential, it will now be far more objective.

‘‘What we’re trying to achieve is attacking of international and world class standard, rather than being overly excited by being the best in New Zealand,’’ Rea said.

‘‘We would like to work with good players from a national perspective and make them better.

‘‘Players that meet the criteria, we’d like to put a greater emphasis on a daily training environment here in New Zealand.

‘‘In conversations with parents and athletes in recent weeks, yes, the criteria is demanding, but I’m unapologetic for that, because I feel like we have to raise the bar with what we’re trying to achieve with tennis in this country.’’

In 2014 Tennis NZ launched its targeted athlete programme where it provided significant investment and support to Finn Reynolds (then aged 13), Macsen Sisam (13), Rosie Cheng (15) and Valentina Ivanov (12).

Four years on, these players are at the age where they should be making an impression at ITF junior tournaments.

But none reach the new criteria established by Rea. Reynolds is at 145 in world junior rankings and will be going to the University of Mississippi this year, Sisam is at 136, Cheng is no longer a junior but only got to 155 and is now at college in America, while Ivanov is at 95, although