Tennis: Bay pair toast of under-16s

WHEN Hawke's Bay tennis player Albert Rocard starts his two-year academy stint in Brisbane on Sunday he will have the words national champion on his CV.

Rocard and his Greendale clubmate Andrew Shand were the Hawke's Bay members of the Tennis Waikato-Bays team which won the national under-16 teams tournament which finished in Wellington yesterday. Shand was No1 boy and Rocard No4 for the unbeaten team which finished the four-day event seven points ahead of nearest rivals Auckland.

"Our girls were definitely our strength when it came to the results but the support we all gave to each other was huge too," Shand said after the prizegiving.

The side, which Waikato's Guillaume Gignoux coached, recorded 6-3 wins against Northern, Auckland, Southern and Canterbury and a 5-4 win against Central. Each tie involved three boys and three girls singles matches, one boys and one girls doubles match, and a mixed doubles.

Shand lost all five of his singles matches and had one win and two losses in doubles play. Rocard had one singles loss and two doubles losses. The pair will start the five-day national under-16 individual championship in the capital today.

Shand will start in the main draw of the singles and Rocard has to play a qualifying match. Shand will play with Tennis Waikato-Bays teammate Ryan Jackways in the doubles while Rocard will team up with Tauranga's Ricki Cowan.

Rocard, who won the under-18 singles and doubles titles at the Hawke's Bay International Junior Tennis Tournament last month, hopes his Brisbane stint, which will involve four or five hours of tennis training each day combined with the remainder of his secondary school education, will lead to a division one college scholarship in the United States.

"My dream is to one day return to New Zealand and play at Davis Cup level," Rocard said.

It was the second consecutive year Tennis Waikato-Bays had won the national under-16 teams title. Hawke's Bay Lawn's national age group rep Finn Reynolds was the sole Hawke's Bay player in last year's winning team.