November –December 2017 President Des Shaw [email protected] ASB Classics 2018 Hon Treasurer Paul Thomson [email protected] AGM and Annual Dinner Date 2018 P 2 Hon Sec. Angela Hart [email protected] From Karl Budge P2 Davis Cup 2018 P3 Editor Cecilie McIntyre [email protected] News of Members P 4 & 5 Yana Novotna P 5 Link to IC Council website www.ictennis.net Drop Shots P 6-8 Morning Teas ASB Tournaments January 2018 Those members who returned their forms re the morning tea, gate and stand passes, have been contacted by Angela. Angela will be posting these tickets in the next week. No new passes will be available. Next ASB Classic Tournaments January 2018 Well done to ASB Classic Tournament Director (and ICNZ Member ) Karl Budge on once again assembling a great field for both our tournaments. I asked him to write a piece about the prospects, written just before the recent ATP Finals when Mike Venus had qualified for the doubles with Ryan Harrison. Since then Michael and Ryan have surprised many. They were seeded 8th, but reached the semi-finals, winning all 3 of their group matches before bowing out to the top seeds. A great effort, not to mention how handy the US$200.000 they share will be. They also won 600 ranking points each to assist them being seeded in tournaments next year. The overall winners were Henri Kontinen & John Peers. To show how close the men’s doubles teams are, Michael and Ryan beat them in the round robin section 6-4 7-6. If you watched any of the ATP Next Gen event from Italy, featuring the top ranked 21 and Under players you’ll know what a treat we have in store with 4 of the finalists coming to the Men’s ASB Classic, including the winner and runner up…Hyeon Chung and Audrey Rublev. Hyeon Chung Audrey Rublev Karen Khachanov Denis Shapovalov 1 AGM Date for 2018 We like to plan ahead to give those members from outside Auckland time to organise arrangements to join in our Annual Dinner and AGM. It will once again be held at the Carlton Cornwall Bowling Club Lounge on Sunday 20th May 2018 The cost of the dinner will be very generously covered by an “anonymous donor”. This will be for financial members only (we are still following up several subs which were due in July) Continuing ASB Tournaments January 2018 From Karl Budge…… “The ASB Classic is fast approaching and we are very excited about the fields that are starting to come together. Whilst there is still some work to be done, there is a real mix of top end talent, the most exciting wave of youngsters coming through and some of our favourites coming in career best form. The Women’s event will be headlined by Caroline Wozniacki. Caroline has had her best year on tour in some time and finished the year as world number three off the back of her victory at the Season Ending Championships – the biggest title of her career. Off court it has been a big year for Caroline also getting engaged to her boyfriend, recently retired NBA player David Lee. David and Caroline actually popped in to Auckland for a quick lunch on their way to getting engaged in Bora Bora. A casual eight carats was all it required… Joining Caroline will be former world number two and 2013 ASB Classic champion Agnieska Radwanska and 2017 champion Lauren Davis. We are still hopeful of securing at least one more big name player in the Women’s field and a couple more top 20 players. For the Men’s, Jack Sock will be our top seed. Jack has had an incredible year including three ATP Tour Titles, his first Masters 1000 level victory, broke in to the world’s top ten and qualified for the ATP Tour Finals. As of writing this, Jack had narrowly gone down to Roger Federer overnight 6-4 7-5. {Jack won his next 2 rounds to reach the semifinal where he lost to eventual winner Dimitrov} Other notable names include two time champion John Isner and 2016 winner Roberto-Bautista Agut. However the excitement for me surrounds the next generation of players we have been able to secure. This is the most exciting group of youngsters to come through since Federer, Hewitt, Roddick and Monfils back in the early 2000’s. Andrey Rublev, Karen Khachanov, Hyeon Chung and Denis Shapovalov all played at the inaugural ATP Next Gen Finals. Chung went undefeated to win the title against Rublev in the final. Make sure you get out and see these young kids. They are future top ten players and between them I am sure there will be a lot of grand slam titles. Shapovalov in particular is one of note. He is the youngest person to enter the top 50 since Nadal in 2004, the youngest ever Masters 1000 semi-finalist and has notched up wins over Nadal, Del Potro and Tsonga. Not bad for 18 years old! And we of course will have our own world beater in Mike Venus. I couldn’t be prouder of what Mike has achieved this year. We all know just how hard it is to make it as a tour professional however for Mike to win the doubles at Roland Garros, make the mixed doubles final at Flushing Meadows and qualify for the ATP Tour finals has been unbelievable. He doesn’t get the recognition in New Zealand he deserves and I will be lobbying hard to make sure he is shortlisted for sportsman of the year at the Halberg Awards. He deserves it. Any way my phone has just rung from an American number. Maybe it is Serena asking for a wildcard…” 2 Other players Karl mentioned for the Classic Tournaments….. Caroline & David Lauren 2017 Agnieska 2013 John 2010 & 2014 Jack 2017 Roberto 2016 Last newsletter we reported we were trying to arrange for a group from IC Australia to visit in November. In spite of many emails back and forth the visit could not be arranged. Hopefully another time. There are times when our local or overseas based members who are interested in playing in an IC event overseas may be able to combine with members from other clubs to enter a team. We often pass on invitations received, but look at the EVENTS section of the IC Council Website to see what is coming up next year. For instance in next May’s Potter Cup to be held in Spain a maximum of 3 clubs may combine to enter a team. DAVIS CUP 2018 NZ AND CHANGES: The New Zealand Davis Cup team will face off against China in February 2018 (Asia/Oceania Group 1). First round play will be held in China. The winner will face India in April. The 2018 Davis Cup was supposed to be an historical edition, but it will be only half what was envisioned. Especially in the zonal Group I and Group II ties, where the ITF is planning to trial the two-day format and best of three-sets rubbers. The trial will include two singles rubbers and the doubles rubber (to be played as best-of- three sets) on the first day and the two reverse singles rubbers to be played on the second day in the zonal Group I and Group II ties. In addition, a change has also been made with regard to playing the fifth rubber. As it currently occurs in the Davis Cup final, the fifth rubber will not be played, either in the World Group and in the zonal Groups I and II, if the result in the fourth rubber determines the result of the tie. If the score of the tie is 3-0 in favour of any team, only the fourth rubber will be played in a best-of-three sets format. 'The two-day, best-of-three-sets trial does not apply to the World Group, which will continue to play ties over three days and best-of-five sets in 2018,' ITF said. But that's not the only new rule. In both the World Group and in the zonal Groups I and II, team selection has been increased to five, from four players. 'We are as determined as ever to enhance our flagship team competitions for players, fans, host nations, broadcasters and sponsors,' ITF President David Haggerty said. 3 News of Members All 3 of our top men players have done very well in the doubles events. As well as Michael’s success, Artem Sitak and Wesley Koolhof have won their first team title in Poland . Marcus Daniell and Marcelo Demoliner were runners up in the recent ATP 250 World Tour Chengdu Open and Marcus was a semi-finalist at the Basel Indoors, an ATP 500 event after coming through qualifying. Their end of season rankings are: Ryan & Mike Michael 15th and as a team with Ryan Harrison 8th. Marcus Daniel 37th and as a team with Marcel Demoliner 15th. Artem finished 55th and in 2 teams his ranking is 23rd with Nicholas Monroe and 40th with Wesley Koohhof. Their next tournaments will probably be the NZ championships in December when they try to win the wild- cards on offer to the ASB Classic singles. Hopefully their rankings will see them all straight in to the doubles event. ………………………………………………….. 85 year old Ashley Wilson hits his highest ranking. International Tennis Federation (ITF) statistics show the Kohimarama stalwart now sits fourth in the world in the men’s 85+ category.