1 February 2018 President Des Shaw [email protected] AGM May 20th P 1 January Morning Teas P1 & 2 Hon Treasurer Paul Thomson [email protected] ASB Classic Tournaments P 3 Hon Sec. Angela Hart [email protected] Australian Open P 4 Blast From the Past P 5 Editor Cecilie McIntyre [email protected] News of Members P 6 & 7 Link to IC Council website www.ictennis.net Drop Shots P 8 Possible London Cocktail Party P 8 AGM Date for May 2018 In our last newsletter we mentioned the date for this year’s Annual Dinner and AGM. We hope this gives members from outside Auckland time to organise arrangements to join in. It will once again be held at the Carlton Cornwall Bowling Club Lounge, on Sunday 20th May. The cost of the dinner will be very generously covered by an “anonymous donor” which is a wonderful gesture. Please note the date now, more details to come. Morning Teas This year our January morning teas for both tournaments were even bigger than usual. Tennis Auckland made a special effort to arrange a new area known as the Legends Lounge and decorated this with framed photos of many NZ and overseas players who have played here in the past. Members from further away were Claude & Norma England from USA ; Pat Guiney, Marion & Doug Law, Betty Knight from Wellington; David & Sue Hawkes from Tauranga; Ruia Morrison Rotorua and Liz Odgers Morrinsville. We thank Jill Bignell and Angela Hart who each year spend a lot of time organising the food and tickets for these very successful get togethers There is only room for a few photos here and the next page but anyone who would like to see more can join the Cluster link which is a private way of sharing photos. Click https://cluster.co/i/XVX3DXDD and if you need to enter a Password just use ICTennis18 or your own Password. Gilles de Gouy, Greg Long , John Lawrence 1 2 Ruia, Raewyn and Judy . Following this Ruia was part of the opening ceremony, accompanying players on to Centre Court for the Maori Welcome. Ruia and Karl Budge. Above: Sue & David Hawkes, Chris Ronayne and his daughter, Claude & Norma England, Roly Russell & Jeanine Brown. Centre right : Des Shaw, Brian Woolf, Jade Lewis and Kevin Long Below right. Cecilie McIntyre, Bev Billington , Patsy and Les Fleming, Murray Billington and Jill Bignell. Onny Parun 2 3 Auckland ASB Classic. We were fortunate to once again see many players in Auckland in the first 2 weeks of January who went on to star in Melbourne. In our last newsletter Karl Budge’s article mentioned how pleased he was to have 4 of the top ranked 21 and under men coming to Auckland. Denis Shapovalov showed in his 2 matches why he is such an exciting young player before losing to Juan Martin Del Potro. Similarly the Australian Open semifinalist Hyeon Chung beat John Isner second round here and gave David Ferrer a wonderful battle in the quarterfinals. In the Women’s several earlier matches and the final between eventual winner Julia Goerges and Caroline Wozniacki were very good quality matches. The ‘fun’ story of the fortnight was the progress here of 26 year old Tennys Sandgren before he went on to be a giant killer in Melbourne. He lost in the final round of Qualifying but when Kyle Edmund rolled his ankle in a Brisbane quarterfinal and pulled out of Auckland, Tennys was the Lucky Loser who took his place. He played an exciting 3 set match against Chung before going on to Melbourne to reach the quarter finals there, including a surprise 5 set win over 5th seed Dominic Thiem in the round of last 16. Winners of the Auckland ASB Classic were Julia Goerges who beat Caroline Wozniacki and Roberto Bautista Agut who beat Juan Martin del Potro in the finals. 3 4 Australian Open The TV coverage in NZ was excellent this year via Sky Sport having 3 tennis channels. The results are now well known and we congratulate Caroline Wozniacki on her first Grand Slam title and return to the No 1 ranking. Caroline has played in Auckland about 6 times and been runner up twice, maybe next year she will win here. Roger Federer continues to amaze worldwide fans, winning his 20th Grand Slam tournament. He is such a pleasure to watch. The blisters on Hyeon Chung’s foot which caused his semi-final mid match withdrawal. Caroline and Simona both saved match points in earlier matches before playing a thrilling final 7/6 3/6 6/4 . During the event we saw Evonne Goolagong Cawley receive the AC, the Companion in the General Division of the Order of Australia for her years as a player and for her charity work with indigenous youth. 4 5 Blast From the Past Touring players these days have very different experiences from many older ICNZ members who went to play in the European tournaments . Most travelled by sea to get to Europe and some stayed during the winter to play another season the next year. Wellington Member Pat Guiney ( Nettleton) found these old photos for our Blast from the Past Series. Pat lives in Wellington but often comes to our IC functions in January and May. With Lew Gerrard in Hamburg August 1959. They lost the mixed doubles final to Billy Knight and Yolda Ramírez after defeating Pierre Damon and his future wife Mexican Rosie Reyes. Yolanda and Rosie won the French Open Doubles in 1958. Pat choosing her prize as the Singles winner in the German Alps town of Oderstdorf in September 1958. No big cheques in those days !! Judy This photo of long time Member Judy Tinnock (Burke) is on the wall of the Next Gen Club. In the future we will have more as a Blast From The Past feature. 5 6 News of Members Ron Dutton In August we had a page article about Ron Dutton looking forward to returning to become the Head Coach at Browns Bay this year. Unfortunately he has had a severe health scare , even though he is very fit after teaching tennis since 1984 and living in Zurich Switzerland since 1999 where since 2006 he has had his own Tennis School. He collapsed twice while just walking in the city and was rushed to hospital and was then flown to a special hospital where he was kept for a week . He says he will be OK, but having to have medication for the next year means it is not possible to move with his family back to NZ. He was looking forward to being part of our IC activities as well as ‘striking the fine balance between creating the ultimate family orientated tennis club and producing top performing tennis players of the highest level.’ We wish him good health and hope one day he will be able to continue that dream. Lan Bale During the Australian Open while watching Ben McLachlan playing doubles so well, I heard the commentator mention Ben’s mentor Lan Bale and how he was setting up a new Academy in Queenstown. Lan is an ICNZ member who originates from South Africa. He played for many years on the ATP circuit, including 23 Grand Slam Tournaments with great success including winning one of his 4 doubles titles with Brett Steven. Since 2002 he has been based in Queenstown and has been trying for years to extend his coaching group. I asked him about his latest venture and he referred me to the recent article in the local Mountain Scene newspaper. The centre Lan is proposing is a Philanthropic venture by 2 Lakes District Developers. It will include two covered and six outdoor courts and he hopes that by next year the academy will be able to take up to 16 high school aged students, but this year using his existing facilities he will start with some local students. It is a very interesting article which you can read fully by clicking http://www.scene.co.nz/digital-edition/?edition=MSC_2018_02_01 Some of you will know that Lan was the coach of Ben and Riki McLachlan when they played for the NZ Team which won the first IC Junior World Finals here in Auckland. ( Below with Kevin Woolcott) He is another young player who has ‘Got Away’ from TNZ. As his mother is Japanese Ben was able to qualify to play Davis Cup for Japan and since leaving the University of Berkeley in California his rankings have improved, going from the Futures to Challengers and now playing doubles on the ATP circuit. We wish him well. 6 7 News of Members continued Paul Smith Paul was recently inducted into the Wichita State University Hall of Fame. IC Member Sir Tom Eichelbaum comes from Kapiti Coast to watch the last few days of the Men’s Classic each year. With Tennis Auckland CEO Brent Robinson. Davis and Fed Cup Last week the NZ Davis Cup team was beaten by China in the first of the newly introduced rules at this lower level. The matches are now played best of 3 sets to enable the Tie to be completed in 2 days. Rubin Statham won his first match and then the first set of his reverse singles against Yibing Wu before losing in 3 sets. Some of you will recall seeing Yibing playing a great and very close first round against David Ferrer in Auckland. Karl gave him a wild card as 18 year old Yibing is the top ranked Junior after winning the US Open Junior singles last year.