Daniell pleased with progress

Wairarapa tennis ace Marcus Daniell made excellent progress during a five-week circuit involving a series of Oceania 18 years and under ITF tournaments.
Daniell played in Noumea (New Caledonia), Lautoka (Fiji) Darwin (Australia) and Auckland and faced tough competition from the best young talent in Australia, Japan, Thailand, the Pacific Islands and New Zealand.
It was Daniell's first experience at this level so he had no computer points and therefore no ranking.
This meant that he faced seeded players in first rounds and that, in turn, meant it was a huge challenge to win matches, gain points and then receive more favourable draws.
At his first tournament in Noumea Daniell started superbly by beating the Australian fifth seed in the first round and he continued on to the quarter-finals where he lost to the third seed in three sets.
The second tourney in Fiji saw Daniell up against the Aussie top seed in the first round and Daniell gave him one heck of a fright, taking the match to a tiebreaker third set which he lost after twice serving for the match. However, Daniell still had something to celebrate as he won the consolation singles, coming home with a kava bowl as his trophy.
The Darwin tournament was played in 33 degrees heat and again Daniell had the misfortune to draw the top seed in the first round, this time William McNamee the nephew of Aussie tennis great Paul McNamee, who now runs the Australian Open.
Daniell showed grit and determination to battle back to win the match in the third set although his victim was to get revenge in Auckland the following week, when he eliminated Daniell in the quarter-finals.
The Auckland tourney was to represent Daniell's best effort, at least on paper. In the first round he defeated Kiwi Jackson Bodle, who was top seed in this year's 16 years and under national singles. Then came victories over the 14th seed and the second seed from Australia before he lost to the ninth seeded McNamee in a three set quarter final.
Daniell's efforts in the four tournaments was valuable not only because of the computer points he picked up but because of the experience he gained from playing regularly at international level
He discovered that raw talent was only a tiny part of the whole picture, that hard work and discipline are essential ingredients for success. For instance, the Thai players had already participated in 22 tournaments this year.
Many of the players attending these events travel with private or national coaches, a number of them benefit hugely from sponsorship and many take correspondence lessons rather than attend school on a daily basis.
And then there are some who don't go to school at all, devoting their time to tennis instead.
Also illustrated was the value of good nutrition, especially in the heat Indeed some players were hospitalised in Darwin after suffering the effects of dehydration and heat exhaustion.