KEY POINTS:
Tennis New Zealand have targeted a medal at next year's Commonwealth Games in Delhi and for the first time have Sparc funding to help achieve that.
Tennis joins the Commonwealth Games programme at Delhi, encouraging TNZ to seek funding for their top women.
Tennis has been out in
the cold for some time when it comes to high performance money but has secured $50,000 of the contestable pot of close to $5 million.
It is separate to the $1 million Sparc has invested in a TNZ three-year revitalisation.
Conditions are attached to the high performance money, specifically that Kiwi No 1 Marina Erakovic commits to Delhi 2010, plays next month's Fed Cup and attempts to play some doubles tournaments with either Sacha Jones or Ellen Barry in the hope of forging a good combination.
The money is for coaching support to put together a doubles combination involving Erakovic and Jones or Barry.
"We haven't been eligible for high performance funding from Sparc in the past so we were delighted when they said there was a possibility of getting some contestable funding," TNZ chief executive Steve Walker said. "We have tried to make the point to Sparc that tennis is a multi-national professional sport which should be considered differently to other sports. Whether that has been listened to, I'm not sure.
"It is largely dependent on Marina and her commitment to the Commonwealth Games, and she has given a commitment that if she can play that event she will. There is some fine print we have to sort out [with Sparc] after the Fed Cup in February but generally speaking, we are [happy with the conditions set]."
At 68 in the world, Erakovic is the fifth-ranked singles player in the Commonwealth, behind Canadian Aleksandra Wozniak (33), Australians Samantha Stosur (46) and Casey Dellacqua (55) and England's Anne Keothavong (53).
Her doubles ranking of 52 also places her fifth. Zimbabwe's Cara Black (1) heads the list followed by Australians Renae Stubbs (9), Stosur (13) and Dellacqua (21).
Jones is 325 in singles and 507 in doubles, while Barry is 326 and 730.
"At the time of the application, they were ranked 16th and 17th in the Commonwealth," Walker said of Jones and Barry. "With their age and ranking, which is on the upward slope, they were considered reasonable contenders and, if one of them pairs with Marina, they would be considered a strong medal prospect in the doubles."
Sparc's general manager of high performance, Martin Toomey, said they hoped Erakovic would play doubles with Jones and Barry throughout the year - dependent on one or both improving sufficiently to play in WTA tournaments.
"If their schedules don't allow that to happen, we have to work out other ways. We want to see how they perform together."
The first chance is at the Fed Cup in Perth, where New Zealand is in group one of Asia/Oceania zone with Australia, India, Korea, Thailand, Chinese Taipei, Indonesia and Uzbekistan. There will also be next year's Fed Cup.
Erakovic, who played at last year's Olympics, admitted she hadn't given much thought to competing at the Commonwealth Games, but would see what happened.
