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It's a fair indication of the state of New Zealand tennis when the country's number one player says his aim is to be about 250 in the world by the end of May.
Following a 6-2 6-3 straight sets loss to American top 50 player Robby Ginepri at the Heineken Open in Auckland yesterday, Rubin Statham said he hoped to improve his ranking from its current position of 413 to the qualifying tournament for the French Open in June.
That would mean improving his ranking to about 270, possibly lower, and he's likely to have just Challenger and Futures tour matches to enable him to do that following yesterday's loss.
"I wouldn't say I'm despondent but I'm not happy with the state that we're in and I'm sure the other elite players in New Zealand aren't happy," Statham said.
"We're not a second rate sporting nation and we shouldn't be a second rate tennis nation and hopefully we can do something to get out of that."
Statham's words came on a day when both he and New Zealand number two Dan King-Turner both lost first-round matches at the Heineken Open after gaining entry to the tournament via wildcards.
Statham's best result last year was making the semifinals of a Challenger tournament in the United States city of Baton Rouge, where he lost to Bobby Reynolds, a man who today qualified for the Heineken Open main draw.
He said it was difficult for New Zealand tennis players internationally without a northern hemisphere base allowing them to be full-time players.
"There's tournaments in New Zealand and Australia up until April and then nothing until September so you've got six months where you have to be overseas playing.
"At the moment I don't believe we have any base overseas so it is a long period. It's quite gruelling to be overseas for such a long period."
Statham, 21, who improved his ranking 144 places in the past 12 months, now plans to focus on the Futures and Challenger tour events on the Australasian circuit until May.
Yesterday he ran hard and produced some powerful first serves against Ginepri.
But a weak second serve and a lack of power in his groundstrokes compared to his opponent meant he had a tough job and Ginepri rarely let him into the match.
Ginepri broke Statham twice, in the fourth and eighth games, to easily take the first set on his second set point.
Statham lost an opportunity when he could not convert four break points in the third game of the set but broke Ginepri's next service game to take a 3-2 lead.
But the New Zealander immediately lost his serve, despite fighting back from 0-40 to deuce at one point. He would not win another game.
King-Turner, ranked 463 in the world, stayed close to world number 36 Sam Querrey of the United States for most of his match but paid for a low 38 per cent first serve percentage and nine double faults.
Querrey's only first set break came in a game when King-Turner double faulted three times.
King-Turner also lost his first service game in the second set, but gave himself hope when he broke Querrey's serve when he was serving for the match at 5-4.
However, King-Turner immediately lost his serve, and Querrey didn't allow the New Zealander a second opportunity.
"My game's always based on my serve so when it's not going well it's tough," King-Turner said.
Also through to the second round yesterday were last year's beaten finalist Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain and the big-serving Serbian Viktor Troicki.
Ferrero, the former world number one, progressed after his Japanese opponent Kei Nishikori withdrew with an arm injury while Ferrero was 5-3 up in the first set.
"It's always nice to go through but not like this. I wanted to play this match to get some rhythm," Ferrero said.
Troicki, ranked 53 in the world, was in top form against world number 43 Igor Kunitsyn. He served 11 aces and won 86 per cent of points where his first serve was good and looked likely to be a handful for his second-round opponent, who will be either Victor Hanescu of Romania or the eighth-seeded Juan Monaco of Argentina.
- NZPA
