New Tennis New Zealand CEO Julie Patterson admits she won't understand the challenges the sport faces until she gets into the role in July.
The Mystics netball boss takes over from long serving CEO Steve Johns, who resigned in January to head up Swimming NZ.
Tennis is not funded by High Performance Sport NZ primarily due to the absence of top ranked singles players.
Patterson says her first job will be getting to know the people who are currently engaged in the sport.
She says she will talk to them about what it is that they want to achieve and what their vision is for tennis in New Zealand and collectively working together.