KEY POINTS:
It has been too long since local tennis crowds had a New Zealander to support in the final rounds of our international tournaments. It will not happen next week when Auckland hosts the Heineken Open for men but it happened on Thursday in the women's ASB Classic.
Marina Erakovic, whose progress in junior ranks we have had to follow from a distance, beat the tournament's top seed to make the semifinals.
She could not repeat her effort yesterday but her victory over a player ranked 22 in the world, against Erakovic's pre-tournament ranking of 152, gives the 19-year-old Croatian-born Aucklander a taste she will savour. Sport at this level is a contest of mental fibre as much as physical ability and Erakovic showed us this week that she is as tough and as confident as she needs to be.
New Zealanders may take some adjusting to a representative who talks up her prospects in the next match and invokes Mohammad Ali on the value of expressing self- belief. But she is right. No young player, no matter how talented, could graduate from the gruelling junior tour without nurturing immense self-belief and dedication to his or her career.
In Auckland this week, we have seen enough to know Erakovic is the genuine article - a newly developed durable professional who should give us a presence in Grand Slam events before too much longer. She did not make the progress we may have hoped for last year, her first as a fully fledged senior on the World Tennis Association tour. But a late surge brought consecutive singles titles in Australia and a doubles title in Dubai before she came home to prepare for this week.
Home crowds are no doubt a help to a young player but the pressure of their hopes can be overwhelming. By turning on her top game at home, Erakovic has not only taken her best scalp so far but given New Zealand tennis a model it sorely needs. Every sport needs champions but especially a sport that needs to develop players very young.
The success of Erakovic at Stanley St is the kind that can inspire children who swing a racquet well and need to know what is possible if they want it enough. But inspiration and dedication on their part will not be enough. They need concentrated coaching and competition from their pre-teen years, preferably in national academies where they practise and compete with their peers.
New Zealand tennis has tried to provide these conditions for many years but not with much cohesion. That is beginning to change. Prompted by Sparc and the need for its funds, the national tennis organisation has negotiated a more united relationship with the powerful regional associations that own the major tennis assets, including Auckland's international tour events, and have the affiliation of clubs.
Restructuring, as it is called, is a two-edged sword. While it brings more cohesion it also introduces corporate managerialism that does not sit easily with volunteers who run amateur sports. Much time can be spent distinguishing the roles of management and "governance", composing "strategic plans" and lists of goals and objectives.
If this is the way to bring leadership and direction to a sport and lift its international performance, it will be worthwhile. Many ordinary club players might wonder what value they are receiving from the affiliation fees they must pay for this palaver but if it begins to produce a crop of international class in the next few years it could boost participation at all levels.
Marina Erakovic has given a glimpse this week of what is possible for her and others who work as hard. May it be a breakthrough for her career, and the beginning of better times for our tennis.
