KEY POINTS:
New Zealand tennis can look back on 2008 as a breakthrough year thanks to the effort of one player, Marina Erakovic.
For the first time in more than a decade, a New Zealander cracked the world's top 50 and, although she has struggled in singles of late, she has made up for it with success in doubles, where she is ranked 43.
Beyond Erakovic, however, New Zealand's tennis stocks remain desperately thin.
The top men's player, Rubin Statham, is ranked 426 in the world while Sacha Jones slots in behind Erakovic in the women's rankings at 320.
In fact, Erakovic's tournament earnings of US$234,157 in 2008 outstrips the total earnings of New Zealand's other professional players, both men and women.
Despite this, NZT chief executive Steve Walker looks back on a highly successful year.
"I feel very confident that we have made some gains and taken some very good steps in the right direction," he said.
"We have a stated ambition of a 10-15 per cent collective improvement in rankings of our top five men, women, boys and girls. In the first year we have gone up on average 30 per cent."
It's an impressive number, but gains at the lower levels can often be significant.
Men's No 3 GD Jones, for example, is now ranked 620 after starting the year at 1214. Likewise, promising 19-year-old Marcus Daniell, the fourth-ranked New Zealander, slots in at 833 after starting 2008 at 1484.
It's in women's tennis that the most potential lies. High hopes are held for Sacha Jones, who is still only 18, while 19-year-old Ellen Barry improved from about 420 to 250 before a wrist injury curtailed her year.
"On the women's side we are really pleased," Walker said.
Former Kiwi No 1 Dan King-Turner fell 118 spots on the world rankings to 462 but there was a reason for that.
Instead of being content with making finals and semifinals at futures tournaments, the 24-year-old tried his luck at the higher challenger events.
"I was in a comfort zone playing futures and could have kept my ranking around 300-320 but my goal isn't to be that ranking," King-Turner said.
"To make the next step up you need to start competing in the challengers. My ranking dropped but I have had some of the best wins of my career.
"I beat a couple of guys ranked around 100 so I think I am heading in the right direction." He also made some good money playing German club tennis.
New Zealand will always find it harder than most nations to produce top-class tennis players because of our isolation geographically and the difficulty and expense of playing overseas. NZT's budget to spend on elite players is also miserly compared to other nations at about $700,000.
Walker said: "Our objective is a 10-15 per cent improvement. If we do that year on year we'll have a good stock of international players."
