The Last few days I spent in Wellington with the Southern 14s Girls team at the National Event.I am not sure that the powers that be understand how important events such as these are for junior tennis players from the region.I know that this event for most Southern Juniors is a reason why they put that extra into the tennis ,following tournaments and having extra coaching and training.Its a great chance for regions to measure their region against others.The Southern Region does not get the exposure on a regular basis and this event is a highlight for juniors making the teams.We managed to pip Canterbury to finish fith and having three matches be decided by countback after rubbers were tied was a great effort for our team.
I hope that TNZ can put more into the regions financially for this event as the spinoff is invaluable in keeping players playing the game and to give other juniors something to aspire to.
Locally its been a good week with the 16 National girls team qualifying for Worlds.Cameron Norrie reached the quarter finals of a futures in Engand.Lets hope that he plays a few more senior events rather than lingering in the ITF junior events for too long.The eye does have to report a couple of high ranking juniors being caught out after sneaking out of their rooms whilst on tour.If its good enough for Pat Rafter to drop his players from Davis Cup because of behavior then TNZ needs to keep a firm grip.
I also urge more fundings to the coach of top juniors allowing them to map out a plan and be able to travel with their players to major tour events. Farming them off to salary coaches is a disaster, give the individual coach access to funding.Where to get this funding....get rid of the babysitting coaches .
We need to stop nursing our up and coming juniors and getting them to play tougher events , I mean the top end junior ITFs and a few future events.
Last week 18 year old Aussie Nick Kyrgios took out the China futures event.He is the worlds leading junior boy but those events are well behind him.
The measure for New Zealand juniors are the Aussies start beating them in their backyard thats a start .
Posts
hi Steve
ReplyDeleteI noticed you didn't say Canterbury bet Southern girls in the head to head.
Are you meaning that it was the boys or girls in the NZ 16 National teams that was caught out
Willy
No Willy I was just stating the facts as we all know each round head to head delivers a different scenario , the fact is Southern performed better against other teams than Canterbury so justifying the higher placement : ) .I am led to believe that the events re junior players happened earlier this year in Australia.Thanks for the comment , you were a great team manager ..Southern and SC loss!
ReplyDelete