Ready Set Go- Tennis Action ready to Start

After all the Christmas and new year celebrations the Tennis Season in New Zealand is in full swing.The first major junior event of the year begins the 5Th in Auckland the 14s national teams event and 14s National Hard court champs.After a year absent I am back as coach of the Southern Boys team who if they all play well will be competive in the Teams events.I am looking forward to the battles ahead and as in past years we will have our wins and of course losses.The important thing for players in teams events is to give their best win or lose play to a plan and show some team spirit, I have been lucky enougth to win Gold , silvers and Bronze with Southern teams over the past few years but with the new restructure Southern will struggle against the other 5 regions, distance and population compered to other regions are factors that make this area and region unique compared to others and the fact that the biggest city Dunedin is not a huge tennis city and dosnt compare to its counterparts ie Hamilton, Auckland ,Christchurch, and Wellington .The last few years Southern has performed well at national events .Depth is the key to any teams events and the number 4 singles player on the team is equally as important as the Number 1 player.Doubles can decide a win or a loss for a team and these two rubbers are always vital to pick up.The picture with this article is Leela Beattie( who has been training with me for the past week) and Gabrielle Grady ,both are National Title winners and Leela is gearing up for the 16s Nationals in Christchurch and ITF s later this month, Gabrielle is still battling injury but hopes to play some Money tournaments as well as ITF s later this month also.The two girls are pairing up for the North Otago Open on grass next weekend.