Tennis: Reynolds' time to sweat

Rob Reynolds will begin his four-year tennis scholarship in the United States next week. Photo / Paul Taylor

Hawke's Bay men's tennis No1 Rob Reynolds has been hitting the sauna for 15 minutes each day in recent weeks.

It's all part of his plan to speed up the acclimatisation process when he begins his four-year scholarship with the Ragin' Cajuns men's team at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette next week.

"It won't be uncommon for me to be playing in temperatures around the 40C mark. It's a big step up from the temperatures we're used to playing in here so I have to be prepared," Reynolds said.

Reynolds, 18, will leave the Bay on a high after being named the male player of the year at Tennis Eastern's prizegiving on Saturday night. Earlier in the day the Hawke's Bay Lawn club player beat Greendale's Luke Donovan 6-3, 10-8 in the men's final of Tennis Eastern's residentials.

"It was good to get Luke back as he beat me in my only previous residentials two years ago," Reynolds recalled.

An older brother of NZ age group representative Finn Reynolds, Reynolds, will leave the Bay with a New Zealand under-18 ranking of two and a national men's ranking of 23.

When New Zealand Davis Cup representative Artem Sitak was in the Bay in December he predicted Reynolds will crack the Davis Cup squad within five years. Reynolds said his desire to back up Sitak's prediction has only increased since then.

"I've been training hard. The long-term goal is to play Davis Cup and then go a little further than that ... playing for my country will be awesome."

Included in Reynolds training schedules has been gym work, stretching and running the various steps on the hills in Napier. He also ran the Mount Kahuranaki leg for a team during the March Triple Peaks Challenge and completed the 21km in a fraction under two hours, five minutes slower than Donovan who is regarded as "a mountain goat" by fellow tennis players because of his gruelling off-court training routines.

"I believe I'm in the best shape possible and while I haven't hit as many balls as I could have, I'll be doing that with Luke between now and my departure," Reynolds said.

He will be one of three freshmen in the Ragin' Cajuns 10-strong team and the only Kiwi. There is a possibility he could meet his long-time national age group rival Connor Heap of Canterbury in division one inter-conference play as Heap will begin a scholarship with the University of California Berkeley in August.

When Reynolds isn't playing for the Cajuns, who are coached by former Australian professional player Mark Jeffrey, he will be able to play in ATP Futures tournaments. The Napier Boys' High School product has also passed the necessary academic tests and is pondering a degree in civil engineering which will be his back-up career should his quest to be a professional tennis player not go to plan.

Heidi Blackbourne beat her Hawke's Bay Lawn clubmate Lily Verhoeven 10-8 in a super tie breaker of the women's final in the residentials. Havelock North's Cathie Clarkson captured the women's player-of-the-year award in the wake of some commendable displays at the New Zealand Veterans tournament in January and she also shared the coach-of-the-year award with clubmate Shane Wilson.

Hawke's Bay Veterans stalwart Dorothy Lumsden won the administrator award and Greendale's Sarah Shand the volunteer award while Waipukurau won the award for the top club.