Tennis champs find new meaning
In previous years the New Zealand tennis championships were a ho hum affair, where players struggling to make ends meet would play against each other in a tournament that didn’t mean much.
Well not any more. The prizemoney for the champs, which begin on Tuesday, has increased to $7000 for the singles winner and more importantly, the winner of the men’s singles and doubles finals are guaranteed wildcards to the ASB Classic. That means they pick up more prizemoney and the opportunity to have a crack at one of the best players in the world.
There’s also the added interest that it’s wide open for the men, with the three doubles specialists, Marcus Daniell, Michael Venus and Artem Sitak all making a rare return to singles and going up against singles specialist Finn Tearney, plus the country’s promising juniors Finn Reynolds, Macsen Sisam and Ajeet Rai.
For 27-year-old Daniell, it’s also a nice opportunity to come back and visit family after another successful year on the doubles circuit, where he ended up with a world ranking of 50 and earned $370,609 in prizemoney.
This year Daniell teamed up with Sitak to win the title in Stuttgart and he reached the final of the Swedish Open with his now regular Brazilian partner Marcelo Demoliner.
‘‘Overall it was a positive Daniell said of 2016.
‘‘As with any season there are the ups with the downs, but this year the ups were particularly special, with playing in the Olympics [in doubles with Venus].
‘‘I had a couple of good runs in the grand slams, which concreted my belief that I can play at that level and beat some of the best teams in the world.
‘‘I’ve finished the year at close to a career high ranking [49], so as a total I’m happy with 2016 for sure.’’
The last time Daniell played in an international singles tournament was at an ATP Challenger tournament in Rennes, France, in December, 2015.
He’d already given up on being a singles player by then, so it’ll be an unusual experience for him to be on his own on one side of a tennis court.
‘‘I’m playing better tennis than I ever have done in my life,’’ he said.
But while the men’s singles and doubles will feature intriguing battles, that won’t be the case with the women.
New Zealand women’s tennis is at a desperately low level. Marina Erakovic won’t play the nationals because the quality of opponent she’ll face isn’t good enough in her preparation for the Classic. year,’’