Tennis: Chief keen to stop players fizzing out

Marina Erakovic. Photo / Brett Phibbs

The new head of New Zealand tennis is calling for an end to the 'L&P' syndrome that has permeated through the sport - which sees promising players "fizzle out".

Steve Johns, who started as CEO in June, says that for too long promising teens have been hailed as stars locally, only to fizzle out when they are confronted with the world stage.

"I like to call it the 'L&P effect'," says Johns. "There are often young players who become 'world famous in New Zealand' and think they are stars. They get ahead of themselves and then can't hack it when they go offshore.

"You might be the best 15-year-old tennis player in New Zealand but that doesn't mean much in a global context; they need to stay grounded and retain the hunger."

Johns hopes to provide more international competition for young players, to breed the mental toughness and desire common to Chris Lewis, Brett Steven and Belinda Cordwell.

There are plans to have national coach Marcel Vos available more to touring players, who often struggle to afford a travelling coach. Johns also calls for a more holistic approach - "it is not just about pouring money into our top players".

Not only does he want to increase investment in coaching, he also aims to use sports science to produce physically supreme athletes.

"There is no excuse for our players not being the fittest, strongest, toughest players out there," he says. Players as young as 10 or 11 years old needed to be educated about the importance of physical conditioning.

Too often in the past few years defeated local players at the ASB Classic and Heineken Open have trudged off the court admitting they struggled to compete physically.

All this is tough talk from a sport that is struggling to maintain relevance in New Zealand. The ongoing $25 million facelift of the Auckland Tennis Centre and the success of the summer tournaments give an illusion of health. Participation rates remain strong, with 40,000 active members in 400 clubs and the grasshopper programme for kids booming.

The reality is, the paymasters at Sparc don't view tennis as a high performance sport, more a recreational pastime.

Our top male player, Dan King-Turner is currently ranked at 281 in the world. Behind him are Michael Venus (306), Rubin Statham (399) and Marcus Daniell (770).

The women are led by Sacha Jones (226), Marina Erakovic (322) and Ellen Barry (411).

Erakovic climbed to 49 in 2008 and looked to have the mental mettle and game to prosper at that level before a run of injuries intervened; it now seems a long road back for the Aucklander.

No other player in recent times has come close to the top 150, generally seen as the place where you begin to make money. As a result, tennis received just $100,000 in high performance funding from Sparc across the current year and will have an ongoing fight to get more.

On a global level, Anglo-Saxon countries are struggling. Hundreds of millions of pounds are invested in British tennis each year for meagre returns.

For the first time in two decades there was not a single American male in the top 10 and Tennis Australia - with an annual revenue of $128 million (Tennis NZ earns $2.8 million) and a rich tennis heritage - has struggled for years to unearth a heir to Lleyton Hewitt.