Kiwis battle to make Classic impact
This year’s ASB Classic may have been a huge success in terms of the stars who played in it and the number of spectators who attended, but from a New Zealand tennis point of view it was a pretty miserable fortnight.
Marcus Daniell and Artem Sitak were the only Kiwis to win a match, while there were firstround defeats in singles, doubles or qualifying for Erin Routliffe, Paige Hourigan, Valentina Ivanov, Michael Venus, Rhett Purcell, Ajeet Rai and Kiranpai Pannu.
Tennis New Zealand’s high performance director Simon Rea, who leaves the role at the end of the month, acknowledged the Kiwis’ results weren’t as good as 2019.
‘‘I think the athletes would speak to this themselves, but we haven’t seen the strength of performance we saw last year, but we were setting a pretty high bar,’’ Rea said.
‘‘Michael made the finals of the doubles last year, Paige made the doubles final, Rubin [Statham] had a win over Hyeon Chung, so it was always going to be hard to follow up on that 12 months later.’’
Rea ran through how the New Zealanders’ performed over the fortnight, starting with Routliffe, who lost in first round of doubles and singles qualifying.
‘‘It’s really positive to see Erin playing again,’’ Rea said.
‘‘She took a break for a period of time, but she’s back engaged with her tennis and enjoying it again.
‘‘She wants to continue to play singles and whilst doubles is her stated priority, she believes in herself in singles and will try to combine both when and where she can.’’
For Ivanov, who lost to Jil Teichmann 6-4 6-3, it was a good, competitive performance, but there is a school of thought that it’s not enough for Kiwi players to just be competitive, that they have to start winning these matches too.
‘‘That’s a fair point and not necessarily with Val in mind, but across the board,’’ Rea said.
‘‘The playing group and the staff have got 12 months to go away and put in a body of work so that when this event rolls around again in 2021, we’re ready to take that next step and not be satisfied with just being competitive.
‘‘I think that’s always a good litmus test for individual athletes as well, because in my experience the very best athletes won’t be satisfied with just getting close, they will only satisfied with getting it done and genuinely believe that when the moment arrives, they will get it done.’’
Perhaps the toughest watch over the fortnight from a New Zealand point of view was Hourigan’s 6-1 6-0 loss to Caroline Wozniacki.
‘‘Without wanting to get hung up on an individual match, which it’s easy to do at this time of year, for me it’s more about where would we like to see Paige in 12 months?,’’ Rea said.
‘‘At the start of the week she was 438 with her singles ranking. If she can come back in 12 months and halve her ranking or be inside 200, that would represent a really strong body of work.
‘‘Hopefully, she would be deserving of another main draw wildcard opportunity at that point.
‘‘I’m always of the belief that if you can half your ranking over a 12-month rolling cycle, you’re doing pretty well.’’
In the first round of qualifying Purcell lost to Leonardo Mayer 7-5 4-6 6-1, while Rai wen down 6-4 6-2 to Thiago Monteiro.
‘‘Rhett was highly competitive and looked like he enjoyed the experience and opportunity,’’ Rea said.
‘‘He wasn’t satisfied with just being competitive, I know he was really disappointed to have not
‘‘It’s been really challenging at times and it is a challenging role in this climate. I still don’t feel like we’re anywhere near as connected as we need to be, as a tennis community.’’ Simon Rea
Tennis New Zealand’s departing high performance director
got it done. An opportunity against Leonardo Mayer, who’s been top 30 in the world, doesn’t roll around that often.
‘‘He can learn a lot from that match, he’s recommitted to his tennis in a way he never has before over the last two or three months, and his challenge is to keep that going.
‘‘Ajeet was a little disappointed with his performance,’’ Rea added.
‘‘He has the ability to generate off serve and forehand.
‘‘He’s got some weapons with them, but we never really saw him at his best, he never really looked comfortable.
‘‘So he gets a stark reminder to the barometer of what a player ranked 80 in the world looks like.’’
Rea is leaving Tennis New Zealand to be with his partner and their young child in Melbourne, so is only going for family reasons.
He spent three years with
TNZ, trying to set up a programme that would deliver top-100 singles players again.
Asked if he thinks he’s left TNZ in a better state than it was when he started, he said that’s for others to comment on.
‘‘There will be mixed opinions on that,’’ he said.
‘‘It’s been really challenging at times and it is a challenging role in this climate.
‘‘I still don’t feel like we’re anywhere near as connected as we need to be, as a tennis community.
‘‘So there’s some work to do, but that’s for others to comment on.
‘‘I’m probably my own harshest critic and I would have liked to have seen us improve at a faster rate, but I know it’s going to take shoulder to the wheel for another five, six, seven years yet.’’
There are some juniors showing promise, but not yet to the degree where they’re inside the top 100 of the ITF junior rankings.
‘‘I do think there is some reason and cause for optimism there,’’ Rea said.
‘‘I watched Reece Falck and Corban Crowther in the final of the 18s in December and thought it was as high a level match I’ve seen domestically junior wise since I’ve been back here.’’