Whats up - Tennis Australia and Tennis New Zealand

Well as Christmas fast approaches I thought I had better give a spin on whats been happening here at home and across the ditch.Not a lot is my first thoughts,but I will start with some news from Aussie. 


Not so long ago the ugly side of Junior tennis came to the fore with two parents being involved in brawl at Melbourne Park. Here is the link to the story There are mad parents all over the world and New Zealand is not short of them either. Most of these come from making their child live their dream,high expectations in the scheme of things.When i decide to give the coaching side away ,I will put a book out on some of the crazy's I have had to deal with over the years.


Obviously Lleyton Hewitt is asking Santa Claus for a big present he believes he can crack the World's Top 10 again. Does Santa think Lleyton has been a good boy ....me thinks not and just like Santa some people with common sense do not believe in it.LINK 

The other bad boy currently is Bernard Tomic...Australia's next big hope.He withdrew from the recent Australian Open Wild Card tournament stating illness and then was seen a couple of days later hard out in practice.Read the story here

Former Aussie Great John Newcombe has this to say about Tomic

I watched the Wildcard playoffs and was really disappointed when two of the oldest players in the field Marinko Matosevic beat Peter Luczak to win a spot in the Maindraw for the Aussie open.They beat the best of the Aussie youngsters which is really scary for the future of the game in Australia.


The Ladies field was no better with Jelena Dokic going down to youngster Olivia Rogowska in the final.Another veteran trying to relive the past was Alicia Molik who was easily beaten by Dokic in the semi's.My advice retire girls you are never going to scale the heights you scaled years ago.Wasting time and resources Tennis Australia on these players.


So reading between the lines Tennis Australia will be answering more tough questions over the open period on the "state of the game"


Meanwhile closer to home in the land where most "wont play an event for the fear of showing where they really are on the tennis scene", the residential s have just been completed with Katherine Westbury and Artem Sitak taking out the even and recieving qualifying to the big Open tennis in Auckland early January.Leela Beattie who had the best form going into this had a disappointing  loss to Westbury in the Final. Leela has to improve her mental side to have any chance of making it to the next level.Some noticeable omissions from the women's draw , they know who they are and continue to prevail recieving sponsorship and wild cards on hype alone.

Certainly not much to report on the Men's side with players coming off the Australian challenger circuit where they really did not perform.Of course college players Childs and Venus did not play, yet Venus has received a wild card for the Heineken Open.The Final between Sitak and Marvin Barker ...Sitak being Russian and Barker raised in Australia leaves you pondering what I really think of the "state of the game" in New Zealand.