The NZ team for the tie against Luxembourg include Rubin Statham. Photo / @brentonhophoto
The NZ team for the tie against Luxembourg include Rubin Statham. Photo / @brentonhophoto
One of New Zealand’s top tennis coaches, Clint Packer, has embarked on a new role with the governing body to enhance men’s tennis in the country.
Packer explains his new role as Davis Cup coach will support captain Artem Sitak — who has taken over from Kelly Evernden — this weekend as New Zealand face Luxembourg in the World Group II tie in Palmerston North.
Packer told the Herald his primary goal in this role, which extends beyond this weekend’s tie, is to elevate New Zealand’s standings in global men’s tennis.
“Initially, the end goal would be to obviously have a new cluster of successful players.
“We’ve been really blessed with recent high-level professionals and realising that we need to regenerate, I think the end goal would be to try and reproduce some of those players that we’ve had in the past.”
In recent years, New Zealand have seen success in doubles, with Marcus Daniell and Michael Venus winning bronze together at the Tokyo Olympics and Venus claiming the 2017 French Open title.
New Zealand's Michael Venus (right) and Marcus Daniell with the Tokyo Olympics bronze medal. Photo / Photosport
However, singles results have lagged, with all New Zealand male singles players ranked outside the ATP’s top 400. Pannu holds the highest ranking at 454.
Chris Lewis, who competed in the 1980s, is the most recent New Zealander to reach a major singles final.
Women’s tennis has had more success, with doubles player Erin Routliffe winning the 2023 US Open and reaching this year’s Wimbledon final.
In women’s singles, 23-year-old Lulu Sun has surged over 200 places in the rankings over the past 12 months to a career high of 53, the highest singles ranking for a New Zealand player since Marina Erakovic more than a decade ago.
Packer told the Herald he’s taking lessons from the success in the women’s game.
NZ Davis Cup coach Clint Packer. Photo / Supplied
“Instilling the right environments for these players to ensure that we can get some longevity throughout the entire system.
“I really do think we’re blessed with amazing females.
“We’ve got Lulu for 10 years, we’ve got Erin Routliffe for 10 years, we’ve got some good young females that are going to help the sport across the board so for me; I think that’s exciting and I think we can leverage that on the men’s side.
“It’s up to us to regenerate alongside them.”
Lulu Sun grabbed the world's attention with her Wimledon run. Photo / AELTC
Packer explains how another immediate goal is to instil a better culture among the male players.
“It’s probably been no secret that there’s been, I wouldn’t say division, but I think we could get better aligned with our players across the board at the professional level,” he said.
“It’s unusual to come from a country of this size and actually not have a collective group of players who are more together.
“It’s up to me to teach these guys how to get value out of each other on the road.
“It’s not necessarily the individual players’ fault; it’s more that we’ve gone through systems within New Zealand that for some reason keep us apart at some level.
“We just want to get the point across that there’s a lot of value in doing a lot more together and being a collective.
“It’s no surprise to anyone that’s in such an individual sport, such a global professional sport that you’ve got to put yourself first ...That’s just the fact of the sport.”
“But I think we can take advantage of our nature and our togetherness coming through in New Zealand and leverage that moving forward to help each other.”
“They’re certainly getting used to the speed of the court, and I think we’ve got a very good chance against Luxembourg.”
The action starts at noon on both days.
Bonnie Jansen is a multimedia journalist in the NZME sports team. She’s a football commentator and co-host of the Football Fever podcast and was part of the Te Rito cadetship scheme before becoming a fulltime journalist.
