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Home , Arthur Ashe, Brian Fairlie, Clark Graebner, David Lewis (tennis), David Mustard, Dennis Ralston

August—September 2017

President Des Shaw [email protected] January Morning Tea Notice Council AGM

Hon Treasurer Paul Thomson [email protected] SEED ...Jade Lewis News from Ron Dutton

Hon Sec. Angela Hart [email protected] Peter Doohan &

Editor Cecilie McIntyre [email protected] Blast From the Past Fed Cup Link to IC Council website www.ictennis.net Wimbledon Snippets Drop Shots

Our Annual Morning Tea Notice. Last week all members email were sent details of how to reserve your FREE ticket and gate passes to the morning teas held on both Mondays of the International Tournaments in in early January. (Women to the ASB Classic Women’s week on Monday 1st January, and Men to the ASB Classic Men’s week on Monday 8th January..

We must stress that although there is no charge, and you can ask for a ground pass for a partner to come with you to both the morning teas, if they want to sit in the stand with you, you must pay for those tickets. The cut off date for requests is 29th September and forms, with or without extra ticket payments MUST be returned to Angela before then. Every year since we have been doing this there have been last minute requests….but no late applications will be accepted this year. In the past the return forms have gone to Auckland but now, although payment is still made out to Tennis Auckland they need to be sent to Angela. DON’T leave it till the last days. Work out now whether you will be able to join us for one or both days and any ground passes needed. The original order form and details are attached with this newsletter .

Catching up ! A couple of photos from the second morning tea in January this year.

David Mustard, , Malcolm Elley Roger Harvey, Greg Long, Brian Woolf, John Barry

1 .

John Mills represented our committee at the recent IC Council AGM held on the middle Sunday of Wimbledon. He is on the right of the second row.

At another function held during Wimbledon , and enjoyed a catch up. Members of the ICNZ team which played in the IC75 event held at Wimbledon in 1999 will recognise Mark’s tie! A special one to commemorate 75 years since the Interna- tional Clubs were started with the Great British one.

SEED Supports a promising NZ Player.

The headlines said, on January 5th this year, “Rising Kiwi tennis player Jade Lewis needs cash not compliments” This was after her very strong display as the NZ Women’s Champion and a wild card into the ASB Classic. There were enough signs in Jade’s 7-6 6-2 loss to Williams to be optimistic about her future, especially as she had a set point in the first set. Lewis showed she's a fighter and her emotions after the match demonstrated that she was not satisfied just to be competitive against Williams. Venus meanwhile, was full of praise after making hard work of disposing of Kiwi wildcard Lewis, an effort that produced an arm injury to curtail her latest stay here. Venus reckons Lewis has a future in the game. "I loved her intensity," Williams said of teenager Lewis. "She wanted to win and she expected a lot from herself. Those are all the things you want to see from a young person. I think she could do a lot in this game. She loves it and she wants more and I was happy to see that." The reality is it's going to be very tough for Jade to get anywhere near the status of either of the Williams sisters unless she gets some help. As a result of this the SEED Foundation has decided to assist Jade over the next 3 years to enable her to play tournaments around the world without the full stress of worrying about many of the costs. The 18-year-old is the recipient of significant investment from SEED an independent organisation set up to fund promising tennis players from this country. After her January efforts in Auckland Jade spent five months back at State University where she excelled, making the All American singles team and finished the college season ranked 17. The SEED Foundation's money comes from private benefactors, keen to see have high ranked players again. Jade will not receive money but having many of her travelling and coaching expenses covered should make it so much easier for her to give 100% in chasing her dream.

Jade came to our morning tea with her father David in 2015 and here shaking hands with .

2 Ron Dutton is an Overseas ICNZ Member and has written this for our newsletter. I am very happy to say I am returning to New Zealand next year with my wife Marcela and my two children Angelina aged 9 and Michael aged 7. We will be moving to the North Shore, Browns Bay where I have been given the chance to be the coach at BBR tennis club. In Feb this year while visiting Auckland with my family I was able to meet up with old friends that I haven't seen in over 25 years, Greg and Kevin Long and who I hadn't seen in 35 years. I have been teaching tennis since 1984 and have been living in since 1999 and since 2006 I have had my own Tennis School. During my time in Switzerland I have grown and developed my coaching skills, gained extensive experience and qualifications, especially the 9 courses I have done with Swiss Tennis and very proud to have received highest marks for Tennislehrer mit Eidg Fachausweis Swiss Tennis which is the highest state recognized Tennis Diplome. I have been privileged here in Switzerland being involved with Swiss Tennis, State Tennis, and club tennis. It all begins at a club level for young players and for me it’s very important that I can offer my experience and knowledge to all. I believe BBR will set an example as a club that is moving forwards in a direction that is only positive. Over the last 17 years living in this beautiful country I have learned so much about Tennis and life. I believe tennis coaches should mix more with each other and even those coaches who think they know it all should attend courses on coaching. Having spent years learning about being a better coach, every day I learn about being a better coach, mixing with other coaches, exchanging ideas which I feel could be done more everywhere. New Zealand Tennis was very good to me when I was a young boy and supported me which helped me to win many New Zealand and Australian titles. Browns Bay is a wonderful area for me and my family to settle. The whole family love tennis, especially my son, he loves tennis like ice cream. I am currently No 1 ranked singles player in Switzerland for my age but coaching tennis is my number one priority, tennis I say is schooling for life, it teaches one so much about themselves, respect, discipline, health, fitness, coordination and so on. Everybody is different and so a coach needs to feel everybody's needs that will help them in a positive way. I think New Zealand tennis can improve much more on top of the wonderful success they have had over the years and are currently having. Appointing Simon Rea is one big step in the right direction. Meeting , being around him when he has trained and talking with him has been one of my tennis high lights in Switzerland. My children look at him as if he is God, after me of course:-) Swiss Tennis has great fitness trainers which shows especially with Roger and Stan and I work with a fantastic trainer who works with Swiss Tennis and Federer’s trainer. This is magic what they do and has given me insight to what these great players are doing to stay so fit for so long. All in all I am so passionate about returning to Browns Bay with my family and striking the fine balance between creating the ultimate family orientated tennis club and producing top performing tennis players of the highest level. Tennis is my life and I love everything about tennis. So, I’m looking forward to meeting everybody and being involved with the IC of New Zealand and with New Zealand Tennis. I have been privileged that through my tennis it has really created for me so much. Regards Ron

With Greg & Kevin Long

3 The last IC Newsletter was sent just as Wimbledon was starting. As it is our winter there is not a lot of local news, but we hope you find some of the articles and photos here of interest. Some refer to events from the time there was a distinction between the amateur and professional players….. some of these players were the trail blazers who fought to have tennis ‘open’ to all. The All England committees of the late 1960’s deserve praise for their decision to end the ‘sham’ under the table payments and make Wimbledon 1968 the first open to all.

In only 3 days in July Australian Tennis lost two very prominent former players : Peter Doohan who died on July 21 at the age of 56 and Mervyn Rose who passed away on July 23 at the age of 87. Peter gained world wide fame when he beat at Wimbledon in 87 while Mervyn won title in 1954, the German in 1957, the Italian and French in 1958. In the last newsletter I mentioned the sad story of Peter Doohan being diagnosed with Motor Neuron disease. The ‘good thing ‘ was that former friends and players, including , were able to get in touch with him in his final few weeks. "The tennis community rallied around Peter during his battle with a particularly aggressive form of MND which was diagnosed just nine weeks before he died.

A moving tribute to Peter, led by former captain , along with a fundraising auction, were featured at the annual Australian International Club Wimbledon Dinner at Kooyong in July.

Mervyn Rose, an Australian tennis player who won seven Grand Slam tournament titles in the 1950s and later coached champions like and Margaret Smith Court, died in Coffs Harbour, . He was 87.

4 Rose, a left-hander, was somewhat overshadowed in the Australian tennis elite by Ken Rosewall and — and later by Rod Laver, who is considered the country’s greatest player. But he was a tough, sometimes temperamental player known for strong volleying and what was called his “chip and charge,” in which he would chip, or slice, a return and rush to the net.

In 1954, at the Australian Championships (now the ), Rose defeated Rosewall in five sets in the semi- finals, avenging his loss in straight sets to Rosewall in the finals a year earlier. Rose then needed just 70 minutes to beat in the final to win his first Grand Slam singles championship. He and Hartwig also won the tournament’s doubles title. Afterward, , Australia’s long time Davis Cup captain and coach, praised Rose’s victory as a breakthrough. “At the beginning of the championship,” he said, “Mervyn was an outsider among the top men, but he came through and showed great fight to win. “

Another piece of nostalgia is in this article I found about and ‘The Title he shouldn’t have won. Our younger members will know of Tony as a superb coach of players like , , and Roger Federer. It just shows how much tennis has changed over the years in this Blast from the Past.

"I went into Roland-Garros in 1966 knowing I had a real chance of winning it. I'd reached the final the previous year and had won in Rome and Prague before arriving in . When my compatriots started to fall by the wayside, it certainly helped my cause [in his five other Grand Slam singles finals appearances, Roche lost to a compatriot each time]. In those days, the Aussies were dominating. It wasn’t unusual for three of the four semi-finalists to be Aussies in all the Slams… It all sort of fell into place for me I guess. So, when beat , whom I was due to meet in the semis, I told myself that I couldn't afford to let that title get away. It was meant for me." "I was in the singles final– which in those days was played on a Saturday, and the women’s on Sunday – and on the Friday evening and I were playing in the doubles semi-finals. We were up against an American pair [ and ] and I was serving, running to the net, and something in my ankle just went. I had to forfeit the match; I couldn’t walk. I was rushed off to hospital and the doctor said there was no way I could play the final the next day. So Australia’s official selector and team manager went to the tournament’s management committee and asked if there was any way the final could be postponed. They said they’d have to speak to my opponent, who was Istvan Gulyas; he was a Hungarian, 34 years of age, and the final meant a lot to him obviously, he wasn’t going to get too many more chances to win a Slam. He said, yeah, no problems. And then they had to get the women to agree to play their final on Saturday." [ In that beat , who had beaten Margaret Smith in the semi-final.] "It all fell into place – I ended up playing on Sunday. I had to get injections of painkillers in my ankle. And anyway, I went on and I won this final I shouldn't have played. But it was only through the generosity of Istvan, which was something very special. I couldn’t imagine a similar scenario playing out in today’s game. I have an extreme respect for Gulyas, a player who up until then I knew little about because he spoke no English, and he hailed from a country with a position behind the Iron Curtain that made inter- national travel difficult for its athletes. But he was a real gentleman on the court. He was just one of those guys who would never ever question a call. I will always remember that he would always talk to him- self. Whenever he would miss a shot, he would mutter to himself: ‘pardon Vischy’. That must’ve been his nickname, and he would say sorry to Tony is still putting on his jacket , the Cup has himself for making a bad error. already been presented! He was a very special person." 5 The NZ Fed Cup team had a couple of new faces last month when they travelled to Tajikistan under the guidance of Simon Rea. Erin Routliffe joined the side for the first time along with Paige Hourigan from Wanganui and Auckland’s Jo Carswell. The team were hoping to win promotion out of the 13 team Asia / Oceania Group but finished in 5th place. Although Erin was born in Auckland she played Junior Fed Cup for Canada in 2011, but has successfully received the sanction from the ITF to play for NZ. As a junior, she got to 17 in the world and then chose to take the US college route rather than go straight onto the professional circuit. Now 22 she has finished at the University of Alabama and will go onto the circuit. Paige, Erin Jo and Simon ready to practise.

Wimbledon 2017

It seemed most tennis fans around the world celebrated with Roger Federer when he won the final. I think we all realise this year it has been a real bonus and privilege to watch his skills and the enjoyment he gets from his tennis and his family. Here are a few snippets you may not have seen. Roger Federer sent a cryptic message to followers “Nice having Arthur at the dinner table” Roger Federer has named his eighth Wimbledon trophy Ar- thur - and the reason is perfect. Federer quickly followed it up by chal- lenging his 7.9 million followers to guess why he had come up with that particular name. “Can you guess why I called him Arthur? “ The answer was actually very clever – with it making reference to it being his 19th Grand Slam win and his eighth Wimbledon title. It is named after , who won Wimbledon in 1908. Get it?

I noticed this after the first 7 games of the semi-final.

Fans cheering Roger on the balcony, even lining the top of Court 2 in the background!

Artem and Marcus through to the 3 rd round of the doubles with their respective partners. It’s not hard to see why people confuse the NZ and Australian flags!! 6

News just through that and have beaten the top seeds in quarter final 12/10 in the deciding set tie break !! At Wimbledon they lost in 5 sets to the same players Kontinen and Peers who were top seeds then too. They are tracking well to be included in the ATP World Doubles Finals to be played in November 12-19th

Drop Shots Nadal hit his head while Katherine McEnroe, the mother of John and Patrick died jumping just recently aged 81 just weeks after being diagnosed with cancer. This was just 6 months after their father died. before going on Kay worked as a surgical nurse at Lenox Hill Hospital and to later the Deepdale General Hospital in New York. In to play Gilles 1974, she became the first woman named to the Board Muller in the 4th of Trustees of Buckley Country Day School. Round. He lost 13/15 in the 5th set!

Andy Roddick and were among recent Tennis Hall of Fame inductees. Known for his powerful and his often biting wit, Roddick was inducted into the Hall along with Belgian star Kim Clijsters, six-time Paralympic medallist Monique Kalkman-van den Bosch and journalist and historian . Tennis instructor and innovator , who died in 2014, was inducted posthumously. The inductees took a tour of the museum where they got to see their mementos alongside those of some of their heroes. Roddick took special pleasure in seeing the racket used when winning Wimbledon in 1975, or the one Rod Laver used at Forest Hills. “It’s almost like your childhood flashes through your head," Clijsters said. "It's very humbling. I'm just trying to take it all in." Clijsters won four Grand Slam singles titles and 31 overall, including the 2009 U.S. Open as an unranked, wild-card entry after coming out of retirement following the birth of her daughter. Roddick said in a speech that was sometimes funny and sometimes poignant…"I'm not the best of all time. I'm not going to win Wimbledon. I'm not the best of my generation. I'm not the most well-behaved. I'm not the most polished. I'm also never going to take this honour for granted," he said. "I may not be a lot of things, but from this day forward, I'm never going to be anything less than a Hall of Famer."

Wilding Park Update . After six years of waiting on insurance claims and building consents, Tennis Canterbury finally opened its $2.4 million Trustpower Tennis Centre in May by hosting Tennis NZ’s junior high performance camp and a senior fixture between Canterbury, Canterbury Country, Tasman and Otago. The tennis centre comprises 18 outdoor and six indoor courts after a huge re-landscape of the entire area, six years after being damaged in the 2011 earthquake. The facility has been reopened since 2013, and a Davis Cup match was held against India on the Indoor Courts in 2015 …but there has been a lot of money and work put in since then.

Correction to the email address listed in the membership update sent to all NZ based members with the latest IC Council brochure. David Frank should be [email protected]

Don’t forget to reply if you intend coming to the morning teas in January. We hope many members from outside Auckland will join us. Please send any news to add to the next newsletter. For the committee, Cecilie [email protected]

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