SEPTEMBER 2020 President Cecilie McIntyre [email protected] Page 1 IC Dinner Cancelled. US Open Hon Sec. Angela Hart [email protected] Page 2 US tennis and Roland Garros Vice President Russell Tills [email protected] Page 3 News of members Hon Treasurer Chris Ronayne [email protected] Pages 4-5 Becroft Family Link to IC Council website www.ictennis.net Page 6 Looking well back...Kathleeen Nunneley Have a look through this website and click the flags to see Pages 7-10 Continuing Trans Tasman Junior History news of the other countries. Also previous Newsletters via the NZ flag and noticeboard. Page 10 Drop Shots . Cancellation of our Annual Dinner..... Covid-19 As members know, our usual May IC AGM went ahead via Zoom and we postponed the Annual Dinner part of the evening until the country was safely in Level One. However soon after the invitations went to members some Covid-19 links were found in the community and NZ was back to Level 2, with Auckland at Level 3. This has been reduced to Level 2.5 in Auckland but even if this dropped further it is still not considered safe to have around 80 members and guests together so the committee has decided to cancel the dinner. The tennis world has been turned upside down since March, and it has been unusual to watch the greatly restricted US Open being played over the last two weeks. Well done to the organisers and players for completing this under difficult circumstances. US Open Tournament Director Stacey Allaster said “The journey for the athletes, for their support teams, for the federations and the tournament organizers that we're partners with within the sport... this has been a blue- print to show everyone involved with our sport how we can return to play during this global pandemic.” 1 Two of our top doubles players, Michael Venus and Marcus Daniell lost their second round matches in the doubles. Marcus and his partner Philipp Oswald had a good win in their first, but although Michael and his regular partner John Peers won their first round they lost to a pair of Belgians who had upset the second seeds in their first match. Well known Auckland tennis broadcaster Matt Brown has been posting interesting discussions with our players on the Tennis NZ website and FaceBook pages. Our IC now has a FaceBook page and many of these conversations have been shared to this, so if you are on Facebook please search for International Lawn Tennis Club of NZ and follow (and Like) our updates. This week I have added a conversation with Chris Lewis and Eric Han, an hour long trip down memory lane. Also one with Rubin Statham chatting with Matt about Roland Garros. The Bryan twins. It's fitting on many levels that in the year the fans didn't come through the US Open's gates, neither did the legendary Bryan Brothers. For the first time in a quarter-century, Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan, the twins from Camarillo, Calif., did not grace a US Open doubles draw with their presence. The 42 year olds had been planning to retire this year and when it was known there would be no spectators in New York they decided to bring their retirement forward as they had been anticipating saying thank you to their supporters. They are the most successful duo of all time. They held the World No 1 doubles ranking jointly for 438 weeks, Bob had surgery which kept him out of the game for a while so Mike has been ranked No 1 for 506 weeks. They won a record 119 tour titles surpassing The Woodies ( Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde) who won 61. Bob & Mike were finalists on 59 other occasions ...a great record. However they lost first round in NZ at the 2010 Heineken Open and again first round in 2015. ROLAND GARROS At this stage plans are continuing for the French Open which they prefer to be known now as Roland Garros, to begin on Sunday 27th September. Spectators will be limited in the two main stadiums, the Philippe Chatrier and Suzanne Lenglen courts with 5000 people on each daily. The zone surrounding the third biggest court will host a maximum of 1,500 spectators a day. There will be no spectators allowed for the qualifying rounds. "Since the international circuit restarted, Roland Garros will be the first tournament with the privilege of hosting an audience," French Tennis Federation president Bernard Giudicelli said. As well as the new roof they have lights to be able to play in the evening. 2 News of Members Julie Richardson and her daughter Jamie will be back in NZ for a few months. They are happy to leave the Seattle smoke and fires behind and have started their quarantining here this week. I'm I’m sure many of you will be pleased to catch up with her. Check her Facebook pages to keep in touch. She will be happy to hear from friends as they plan to travel around NZ. Cameron Norrie. Recently Cameron accepted our invitation to become a member of ICNZ. Although he now plays for Great Britain he grew up in Auckland where his first coach was another IC Member Julia Sim. He spent the first part of the March-May Lockdown back in NZ with his family. There have been two “Getting to know you” articles about him , the most recent by Stuart Miller was after he caused an upset in the first round of the US Open. “It took five sets, and nearly four hours, but 25-year-old Cameron Norrie scored the first major upset in the men’s draw at the 2020 U.S. Open, taking down Diego Schwartzman, 3-6 ,4-6, 6-2, 6-1, 7-5. The 9th-ranked Argentine— who was a quarterfinalist in Queens last year—won the first two sets due to Norrie’s sloppy play. But the Brit, ranked No. 76 in the world, wisely changed tactics and started slicing more and coming to net more. The southpaw won the last three sets, including the final four games, in which he staved off two match points. His personal flag would cover much of the English-speaking world. Norrie’s father is Scottish and his mother is Welsh, but he was born in South Africa and raised in New Zealand. After showing potential in tennis, he moved to London on his own, declaring himself British to receive more financial support than he would have in New Zealand. Then, he decided to attend college in America. He may be unknown and unseeded but he does have some pedigree. Norrie attended Texas Christian University; playing for the Horned Frogs, the lefty was named an All-American three times (an outstanding amateur player) and was the first TCU player to become America’s top-ranked college player. He has three Challenger singles titles and three Futures singles titles, and has also reached the semi-finals of one ATP 500 tournament. He has tenacity. Norrie’s biggest win, prior to today, was his debut Davis Cup match in Spain in 2018—he had turned pro less than a year earlier and had not played on clay in five years, yet Norrie came from two sets down to win against Roberto Bautista-Agut. “ We certainly know Roberto as he has been the winner of the ASB Classic twice. In a series of articles about players’ First Coach and the most important lesson he/ she taught me, Cameron answered this way: “My first coach was Julia Sim. I played at the Bucklands Beach Tennis Club in New Zealand, and I actually started playing right-handed [for three, four months] so she switched me to left-handed. That was probably my most important advice... My forehand was horrendous because I did everything else left-handed. I wrote left-handed, so they just changed me, and from then on [I was 7], I played left-handed, and I was good. “ Read the article here Michael Venus and John Peers are off to a great start in the Rome Masters, beating Jamie Murray and Neal Skupski 6/3 7/5 in the first round. (Late News!!) They have just had a great 1 hour 40 minute win in the second round, beating Finland’s Henri Kontinen and Germany’s Jan Lennard Struff 7-6 (4) 3-6 14-12 after saving 4 match points in the match tie-break! 3 The Becroft Family. When we document some of the talents of our older members, we must remember the Becroft family and the wonderful achievements of them all. Peter Becroft and Elaine Stephanare long standing members of the ICNZ. They have been involved in NZ tennis for most of their lives, with their father, mother and sister, Yvonne, all showing a great interest in the sport and the achievements of the family. As children they grew up with a tennis court on their property so their love of the game began at an early age. Peter was a ranked NZ and Auckland player who played in the Benson and Hedges tournament in its early days and then continued on to play in the NZ Seniors events winning around 30 titles. He was a member of the Auckland Wilding shield team and travelled to the United States to complete a Doctorate in Philosophy in Los Angeles. Upon coming home to NZ he returned to his great love of tennis which is still part of his life today.