Cochrane Goes Down but not without a fight

Pupil Anna Cochrane just missed a place in the National 12s girls singles quarter finals going down in a tight three setter against 5th Seed Lauren Alter 6-3 6-7 6-1. Great experience and Anna will take a lot out of this match.Anna and partner Alice Seemann from Christchurch had a great win knocking of the top seeds in the doubles today to reach the quarter finals.All the volley exercises must be paying off!Above is Anna in action.Thanks to Ace Ventura for the pictures.

Sam Stosur’s refusal to represent her country in this weekend’s Fed Cup is a stone-cold snub to those who have nurtured her career and given her the opportunity to play tennis professionally.

Instead of opting to don the green and gold, Stosur remained in Europe to continue her preparation for the claycourt season and battle to retain her top-10 WTA ranking.

While Stosur has been a loyal servant to Australia in the past (32 matches in 19 ties since 2003), her absence in Melbourne has effectively cost her country its place in the World Group.

Jarmila Groth (ranked 30) and Anastasia Rodionova (72) battled valiantly at Glen Iris in Melbourne’s inner-east, but went down 2-3 overall at the hands of Lesia Tsurenko (131) and Olga Savchuk (144), despite holding two match points in Sunday’s deciding doubles.

There is little doubt that had the world No. 6 made the trip, the outcome would be vastly different.

Not Logical or ethical to have the coach of Stosur David Taylor also in charge of the Fed Cup Team.

Read more on it and the full article HERE

Nadal makes it 7 in a row at Monte Carlo defeating David Ferrer in the final.Nadal sends a statement to rivals leading into the French Open .Djokovic withdrew from Monte Carlo stating injury ,maybe a little mind games going on .

STALKER UPDATE : WAS A LITTLE QUIET TODAY NO VISITS TO MY SITE TO DATE, JUST A LITTLE MORE ABOUT THIS SAD PERSON. THEY  HAVE A LOT OF TIME ON THEIR HANDS, THEY LOVE MAKING TROUBLE, A FAMOUS NURSERY RHYME CAN BE ASSOCIATED WITH THEM.THEY NEED HELP.

12s Nationals Update

Mixed fortunes for pupils Anna Cochrane and Tom Russell.Anna moved into the R16 with a 6-3 6-3 win over Amber Barry. Tom went down 6-2 6-3 to Scott Walden in the R16 match.This event is being played in Auckland whilst the 16s are being played in Wellington. 


Nadal fought off a determined Andy Murray to earn a place in the final against David Ferrer in Monte Carlo overnight.


Australia is in trouble locked at 2 rubbers all against the Ukraine in Fed Cup Action. Not a great result as its a home match and The Aussie's have the higher ranked players.


Lot's of interest in the "eyes stalker"and yes they are still stalking , yesterday they arrived at my blog at around 11.40 and was still checking it out at 10.20pm last night and had a lunch time visit today about 12.23pm.I am thinking of starting a contest to see if readers can guess who it is. I went along to Scream 4 today just to get some tips on deranged characters. I am thinking maybe a solicitors letter is needed,its not the fact of the stalker visiting the site, its the threatening comment that was left.


Since word of the stalker my blog has doubled in daily hits. No doubt they will be back later tonight.Oh another stat I notice that sometimes you enter the site from the sports ground site usually from the South Canterbury link site.Although yesterday they were all clean hits.


stalker twitter : stalker logged on again at 8.29pm . Very tricky stalker using firefox 3.6  You really do find this blog interesting .

STALKER Tennis

Monica Seles, Steffi Graff ,Maria Sharapova have all had stalkers , now the "eye"has a stalker. The only thing stalkers eventually get caught.The wonderful stats a blog can give you is who is reading your web page , what country , and even what city! My stalker is a frequent visitor to the site. Occasionally they leave comments .Their last visit to my blog was 8-14 am this morning.I even know what browser they use to log on , they use internet explorer,they even use Windows xp!.Yesterday they made numerous visits to my blog , including leaving a comment. The beauty about New Zealand  its so small, its easy to pinpoint local visitors, most come here for entertainment and news , My Stalker comes for evil purposes :) .I know who the stalker is.


All will be made public soon :). I am up with some great names who have had stalkers , one wonders is it an honor? NO its annoyance to think that people do not have better things to do with their lives.They obviously need help.

Blog Mystery

Always amazes me how smart people think they are, Someone left me a nice comment unfortunately they think they know more than me , well anonymous I know who you are here is your Ip address Telecom Xtra (122.61.142.153) [Label IP Address] its not hard to trace things like that ,I would be very worried .This person I know is not very smart !

Yes readers all will be revealed soon!

THE BLOG

Statistics always interest me and its great to see who and where is actually reading my Blog! This is another set of stats readily available and shows how many hits and from what country's for the past month.The above are just the top country's visiting . Well the clay court season has begun and who will step up ?

The above is the first big event of the year . The best inform player Djokovic has withdrawn leaving Nadal to be tested by the rest.Federer will be trying to find some clay court form , I think his best chance of a major event this year is Wimbledon.It will be interesting to see how the young "guns"such as Milos Raonic adapt to the slower surfaces.

What you need to win on clay.


1.The ability to keep height and depth over the net


2. Being able to slide into shots only learnt on clay, the guys that have grown up on this surface will have an advantage.


3. To be able to use angles and drop shots as court craft is a big advantage in winning on clay


4. To gain control of the rally, you dont have to serve big but you have to serve with accuracy and a high percentage of first serves.


5. Be Fit!!!! Prepared to grind out longer rallys.


6.Play the percentages Patience is a virtue on clay.


7.All good clay courters must be prepared to slice and dice

Presentation Video

Each year I do a video for awards night for Tennis South Canterbury. The theme of the video this year is.... What is success?. Success is hard to measure and each individual success will be different ,is it accumulating tennis titles or is it just turning up for local inter-club and participating. I know many that gauge success on titles, yes that part of it but the humblest and most popular players are those that realize success comes in many shapes and forms.

Below are Pictures of a young junior I coach Anna Cochrane who is just back from the Nelson Junior Open where she lost in the Final of the 12s  in 3 hard fought sets the third being a super tie break decider against Christchurch player Alice Seeman. Anna Combined to win the doubles partnering Alice. A very successful trip , well done Anna. Anna is working hard on improving her variety in her game and as a coach I am implementing volley's and angles with Anna , As we know in Junior Girls tennis it can be just a battle from the baseline and a player that can mix it up by coming to the net to finish, create angles can cause some damage once they can implement successfully. Thanks Ace for the pics!!!

Farewell Bernie

Sadly yesterday we said goodbye to Bernard Matze from Argentina who finished his coaching duty's and set sail for a little sightseeing in Queenstown and Auckland before winging his way back to Mendoza Argentina. We housed Bernie and let me say he did keep himself busy whilst he was here , never missing a chance to go and do some thing like canoeing in Dunedin and wake boarding just the other side of Ashburton, the occasional night out in Timas!.On the court he was fantastic, had good technical knowledge and a sound lesson structure.He was very popular with his pupils. For me he gave me some new idea's and ways to look at things and he was quick to work out the achievers , the pretenders and the temperamental , back home in Argentina where he coaches in clubs he had not come across so much emotional outbursts as he experienced here in South Canterbury.


Well Bernie I am sure you will read this soon, we miss you around the house its just not the same,  Good luck and God Bless I hope you have enjoyed your time here and it will help you in whatever or where ever the paths of life take you.You did yourself and Family proud Bernie!