September 2014

Morning Teas in January President Des Shaw [email protected] Hon Treasurer Paul Thomson [email protected] Update on French IC Visit Hon Sec. Pam Sowter [email protected] News of Members Editor Cecilie McIntyre [email protected] Obituary Mark Otway

Link to IC Council website www.ictennis.net Drop Shots

Morning Teas and Tickets for the 2 International Tournaments in January 2015.

As mentioned in the last newsletter the morning teas on the 2 Mondays will follow the pattern of this year's tournaments.

These will be paid for by ICNZ with supplying tickets and ground passes to IC members only.

T A will supply one free ticket for an IC Member and a free ground pass for their guest for the Monday of the appropriate tournament. (Females ASB Classic, Males Heineken Open) and 2 free ground passes for the other tournament in each case.

This will enable you to attend one or both of the morning teas.

Of course if your partner or guest wishes to sit in the stand with the member another ticket will need to be purchased

IC MORNING TEAS & ORDER FORM FOR TICKETS FOR 2015 MAJOR EVENTS

Most of you will have already ordered but for those who haven’t just a reminder that the closing date for ticket orders is 19TH SEPTEMBER.

As seats have been put aside by Tennis Auckland we need to have your confirmation or otherwise by no later than the 19th September so that any unwanted seats can be put back into the system for sale.

Looking forward once again to the two major events and thanking Tennis Auckland for their very generous offer of tickets for these events to our IC members.

The form was sent on August 4th. Contact Pam or Cecilie if you need it re-sent.

Please also confirm with Pam the numbers coming to each morning tea as the form is sent to Tennis Auckland.

Pam Sowter

Hon.Secretary Ph 09 828 7322 or [email protected]

While writing Pam’s name here it reminds me of the email I received from Russell Simpson from L A.

I just got my copy of Pam's book. Please pass on to her what a wonderful job I think she did.

A monumental task well done. May I suggest she do it every 25 years from now on.

Hope all is well. Best Russell 1 The French are coming. Billets

We are excited to have an IC group from France , visit our country in January 2015. The French team arrives on Tuesday 13th January and will depart Saturday morning 17th January. We will be participating in some social/competitive tennis with them and will also be arranging other entertainment and possibly sightseeing trips out of Auckland.

To this end we have intimated to the French team that we would endeavour to provide billets in our homes and would be pleased if you were able to indicate your willingness to take someone for those four days. If you could advise Pam Sowter early at [email protected] and indicate how many you would be able to host we would be very grateful.

Since last month’s newsletter we have been pleased to receive quite a few offers but would like to have more . Billeting used to be a tradition and the ideals of the IC Movement around the world are “ Hands across the net, friendship across the ocean.”

The French are very grateful for the chance to meet us in our homes but also realise their numbers coming are quite big. The President of IC France Thierry Pham has supplied these details. Sorry I have to put it in two halves here.

2 News of Members

NZ IC Members and players , and .

From Artem : Hi Cecilie! How are you? I was waiting for the US Open acceptance list to come out and to write a little story on how I got in.

Road to US Open:

5 weeks ago I wasn't planning that I would be in a contention to get to the US Open main draw in doubles. I was ranked 134, had points to defend and just lost 3 first rounds in a row. But tennis is, as we all know, an amazing sport. I won ATP event, having never won a round at an ATP event before that. My ranking jumped from 134 to 88, and I had a specific goal coming into 4 week North American challenger swing with Marcus. (Pictured ) I needed 10 more spots to get in. And we start- ed strongly by winning the first challenger in Granby, Canada. Then came a quarterfinal loss, but we came back strong at a 100k challenger in Vancouver, losing a very high quality match in the final 10-8 in the third set. All I needed to go to achieve my 10 spot goal is win first round at the last challenger in Aptos, California. Funnily enough, that's where I played the most epic match, we saved 9 match points, and ended up winning 24-22 in the third set. After a loss in the semifinal I'm on the 77th spot in the rankings and made US open main draw. There will be3 kiwis competing in the main draw this year, which is very exciting.

Good luck to Mike and Marina! And I will do my best to have a very successful first Slam.

PS Since sending this last week, Artem and Benjamin Becker won their first round before losing 6/3 in the 3rd and Michael won 2 rounds with Mikhail Kukushkin before losing to the 2nd seeds 6/3 6/4.

Michael Unfortunately Marcus and Artem's combined ranking was not enough to get them intp the US Open together. However on last months form it's only a matter of time before they can play the slams together.

Marcus writes a very interesting blog, and occasionally we add a link to it. Here is a piece from his August report...

3 Obituary Mark Otway There was sad news last week with the death of talented tennis player and IC member Mark Otway. In his High School days Mark was very good at many sports and was a promising rugby player. Mark won the tennis junior singles and doubles in 1949, and then went on to win the New Zealand Mixed Doubles with Judy Burke (now Tinnock) in 1951 and 1952. He then won the New Zealand Men’s Doubles with Bob Howe (Australia) in 1959 and again with Lew Gerrard in 1960.

He played Davis Cup for New Zealand in 1954, 1959, 1960 and 1961. In 1954 Mark had a great Wimbledon. He reached the semi finals of the Wimbledon Mixed Doubles with Judy Burke and he and Jeff Robson almost pulled off a huge upset in the Men’s Doubles against Americans Vic Seixas and Tony Trabert regarded by many as the top doubles pair in the World. The New Zealanders led 2 sets to 1 and 4-2 in both the 4th and 5th sets before going down 8-6 in the 5th. Mark after beating Martin

Mulligan in the final at Mark married his wife Bo, an English girl, on his 1954 trip and so 60 years of marriage Manchester in 1961. ended last week. Mark and Bo had been living in Queensland for many years.

Bruce Broun

Last month we mentioned that Bruce Broun had died and outlined his outstanding service to both Auckland Tennis and his home club Eden Epsom. A well attended memorial service was held later at Eden Epsom. Among the speakers were 2 of our members, Graham Johns, a friend for over 70 years and John Lockington.

Bruce’s son Howard, well known in tennis and squash circles in the 60's and 70's was back from Canada where he has been living in Calgary for many years.

Golf Day

This will be held in association with Tennis Auckland in early December.

Details will be confirmed in the next newsletter.

4 December 2013 Drop Shots

Visiting players in our 2 International Tournaments often comment on the great crowds we have in Auckland even for the early rounds. These 2 photos show the vast empty stadium at Connecticut during the 1/4 final of the WTA event 2 weeks ago with Wimbledon Champion Petra Kvitova playing. Petra won the final.

I have been asked to include information about the Oceania Regional Senior Tournament which will be held next March in Melbourne, played on the Kooyong Hard Courts.

Please contact David Smith [email protected] for details.

As I write this, Martina Hingis is into the doubles semifinal of a for the first time since 2002. She and Flavia Pennetta are playing their first major event together. Since she started playing tournament doubles again last year she has played with Daniella Hantuchova and Sabine Lisicki.

Marion Bartoli is also due to play again, but not on the main circuit. She and Martina and Tracy Austin will be playing in a Legends Doubles during next month's season finale WTA finals in Singapore.

Roger Federer has chosen to play the pre event in Brisbane again next January. This will be held from January 4th -11th.

Further to the update from Artem. Michael Venus has commented after the 3rd round loss to Peya and Soares. The 6-3 6-4 loss on a showcourt showed just how good the second seeds are and what a difference playing with the same partner consistent- ly makes. “That’s why they are the No2 doubles team in the world. They do everything well. We just came up a bit short today. They played a lot with each other and they put a bit of doubt in your minds with their movement etc,” said Venus who has now be- come a respected doubles player on the men’s circuit and will take away a share of US$32,000 in prize money. He has now played in all four Grand Slams this year in doubles making the third round at the Australian Open, first round at and Wimbledon and third round at the US Open.

Thanks to those who have contributed this month.

Please send any news or photos to [email protected]

For the committee , Cecilie McIntyre

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