Statham serves unique offering to aid youngsters
New Zealand’s top singles player Rubin Statham is organising a series of exhibition tournaments to help fund the country’s most promising players.
Statham, 33, has been stuck in New Zealand for several months, while most of the professional tennis circuit has been shutdown because of the coronavirus pandemic.
He has used his time to prepare for when there are more tournaments, where he’ll be able to use his protected ranking of 290, but has also come up with the concept of combining tennis with live musical entertainment to raise money.
The first Exo Tennis NZ event will take place at Milford Tennis club in Auckland on January 15.
It will feature Statham, Ajeet Rai, Finn Tearney, Alex Klincharov, Paige Hourigan and Jade Lewis each playing a one-set match, plus singing from Verity Burgess and Paul Ross.
‘‘I’ve been working on it for the last three months and with Covid,
our top pro players haven’t been able to travel overseas and it looks like that’s going to continue for the next few months.
‘‘Over the last four or five years I’ve wanted to put on these types of events, but haven’t had the time to do it with my own playing.
‘‘Now I’ve got the time, and have been chipping away at it over the last few months, to support these
Kiwi players and I wanted to have these types of events to showcase our top players over the summer.
‘‘I also wanted to have it at clubs, so it can attract fans at club level.’’
Two dates have so far been announced, the second at Parnell Tennis Club in Auckland on January 22, with more announcements expected soon.
Former players are also supportive, including Brett Steven and Marina Erakovic, who’ll be leading one of the teams, and there is the chance of them picking up a racket at some point.
While some international tennis tournaments at the top level taking place, there have been far fewer events on the Futures circuit, where up and coming players try to earn enough ranking points to break onto ATP and WTA circuits.
‘‘All the profits from the night go directly to the players, to support them to represent New Zealand overseas,’’ Statham said.
‘‘It’s something I want to have annually, so when they come home after a long year of travelling they can do these events and engage with fans a club level, help promote tennis in this country and help fund their careers.’’