Tearney overdue to win tennis title
Profit from the Te Anau Tennis Classic is channelled into coaching players in the town.
President Greg Sheppard said the money had enabled the Te Anau Tennis Club to subsidise coaching, provided all year round by Danny Baleson.
He is assisted through the spring and summer by Skye Lovall who was recently ranked in the top 20 junior players in the United States.
‘‘We had 60 kids [being coached] through the winter,’’ Sheppard said.
The Classic, which is a men’s tournament on December 28-29, will again have prize money totalling $21,000. Eight players will compete, with six confirmed – Finn Tearney, Rhett Purcell and Wesley Whitehouse, of Auckland, Isaac Becroft and Olly Sadler, of Wellington, and Ajeet Rai, of Taranaki.
Sheppard hopes defending champion, Rubin Statham, of Auckland, will return.
Tearney has played in all five Classics and been runner up on three occasions.
‘‘I’m very keen to go back this year,’’ he said.
Asked what he liked about the Classic, Tearney replied: ‘‘The people [who run it] . . . they’re a really good bunch and the town gets behind it.’’
Tearney travels to England in a fortnight to play indoor tennis for the Durham University and to study for a masters degree in international business.
He will be back in New Zealand in early December.
After competition on the first day of the Classic, tennis fans can stay on for an early evening women’s singles match.
Sheppard is not sure who the two women players will be but he is trying to book Lulu Sun, formerly of Te Anau.
Sun, currently in Switzerland, is currently in the top 25 junior tennis players in the world.
She will be in New Zealand during the summer to qualify for the junior Olympic tennis team.
It will be the first time a women’s singles match has been held at the Classic.
The Classic is the third most prestigious tennis event in New Zealand following the two ASB Classics in Auckland on December 31 to January 12.