Michael Burgess: Rubin Statham's win one of the great occasions

Rubin Statham was 1-5 down in the first set before storming back to win 7-5, 6-3. Photo / Photosport

COMMENT:

Whatever Rubin Statham achieves in the rest of his tennis career, he'll always be able to look back on yesterday with immense pride.

That was the moment when he produced his best possible tennis, on the biggest local stage, at the ideal time.

His 7-5, 6-3 win over world No 25 Hyeon Chung was a stunner, the kind of result that just doesn't happen.

Thrown in as wildcards against hardened ATP professionals, who are used to playing a few levels higher, most Kiwi players can compete for a while but then struggle to maintain the intensity, the focus and the standards.

It's not a surprise, as tennis turns on fine margins.

But the 31-year-old, in the twilight of his career, touched the void yesterday, in one of the great occasions at the ASB Classic.

His fighting spirit over the years has never been in doubt, as he has shown many times in the Davis Cup since he made his debut as a teenager, going on to achieve more matches and wins than any other Kiwi.

But harnessing the physical, mental, emotional and technical aspects needed to perform at ATP level, and executing on the day, is a major challenge for anyone.

Statham showed his potential two years ago at the Classic, when he pushed former champion Jiri Vesely (then ranked almost 400 places higher than the Kiwi) on an outside court in a second-round match, and was a few points away from a career-defining result.

Yesterday, he got it. After years of toil on the tour, in some far-flung outposts across the globe, with little support from Tennis New Zealand, Statham got his day in the sun yesterday.

And what a moment.

At times, it was almost impossible to comprehend; on one side of the net, a player who had been battling away on the Challenger circuit for most of 2018, against the man who made a run to the Australian Open semifinals last year.

And remember Chung had beaten Novak Djokovic in Melbourne, as well as world No 4 Alexander Zverev.

Statham is only the second Kiwi male this decade to win a first-round singles match in Auckland against an overseas opponent, along with Michael Venus in 2015.

From a local perspective, it was surely the biggest singles result here since Marina Erakovic, then ranked world No 153, beat second seed and world No 23 Vera Zvonareva in the semifinals of the 2008 WTA event.

It's also the kind of positive jolt that the sport in this country needs, after the annual dose of hand wringing about the state of the game that accompanies the Auckland tennis fortnight.

While there is a lot of angst about the future, Statham, along with the impressive doubles exploits of Michael Venus, Marcus Daniell and Artem Sitak, have kept New Zealand tennis relevant across the globe.