APRIL 2020 Page 1 AGM Changes President Cecilie McIntyre [email protected] Page 2-3 Davis Cup Philanthropy Hon Sec. Angela Hart [email protected] Page 4 –7 Covid –19 Its effect on world tennis Vice President Russell Tills [email protected] Page 8-9 Catching up with Marina Erakovic Hon Treasurer Chris Ronayne [email protected] Page 10 Drop Shots Link to IC Council website www.ictennis.net Have a look through this website and click the flags to Page 11 Virtual Tennis see news of the other countries. Page 12 Patrick’s thoughts. Link to previous newsletters GREETINGS TO ALL OUR MEMBERS AND FRIENDS, IN NEW ZEALAND & OVERSEAS This is my 79th Newsletter for ICNZ members living in NZ and overseas and the most unusual of all, due to the Covid-19 virus which is affecting almost every country. The worldwide cancellation of all tennis tournaments at least until mid July and the fact all of us in NZ have been told to stay at home unless we are an essential service, or to buy food or medical supplies has turned our worlds upside down. We are encouraged to walk locally but the social distance of 2 m for all people outside our ‘household bubble’ is being enforced. We are now finishing our second week of at least four of lockdown. AGM changes …. Even before the strict enforcement our committee had decided to postpone our AGM and Dinner, scheduled for May 17th . As our constitution indicates the AGM should be held in the first 5 months of the year, and we have no way of knowing how long it will be before we can have meetings of over 100 people again we are making plans to keep our members up to date with the normal schedule of email pre-AGM notices. This will include the President’s Report, the Treasurer’s Financial Statement, the 2019 AGM minutes etc. We are arranging to hold a teleconference with a few more than the required quorum of 12 members. Our Hon. Secretary Angela will keep you informed with provision for any matters to be brought up by the due dates, the agenda and proxy votes for members at the meeting. It will be different, but we will manage !! This issue will have a few snippets of tennis news I have collected recently, mostly the reactions to the Covid-19 coronavirus. First though news of one of the last events able to be played: 2 Davis Cup. In the last newsletter I mentioned that, without much notice, NZ had been awarded the tie against Venezuela rather than hold it at a neutral venue in Florida. I asked Artem Sitak to write something about the Davis Cup and being ‘locked’ in here at home. “For the first time in 3 years, we had a privilege to host a Davis cup tie at home. Nothing compares playing in front of the home crowd, and I think that helped us get over the edge. I’m so happy I was part of that winning team, it was a very tough battle, huge respect to the Venezuelan team, they fought really hard and gave it all on the court. Looking back at that tie and seeing what’s going on in the world today, I cherish the memories of that weekend even more, with everything getting suspended and looking like we won’t play any competitive tennis for 4-6 months, I’m glad we got to finish that tie. I’m trying to stay fit by doing yoga in the morning. The one time we are allowed to go for a run, I use that to run sprints uphill, thankfully there are a lot of them in Ponsonby area:) then I’m doing jump rope, trying to stay somewhat fit tennis wise by doing lots of shadow stroking in the backyard, and of course there is plenty of time to work on abs and core:)” NZ and Venezuela were one match all at the end of the first day’s play in the Davis Cup NZ vs Venezuela World Group 1 Playoff Tie in Auckland Finn Tearney won the first singles rubber for New Zealand 6-4 6-4 against Jordi Munoz before Venezuelan number two Luis David Martinez beat Ajeet Rai 5-7 6-4 6-2 in the second singles rubber ATP doubles stars Artem Sitak and Marcus Daniell put New Zealand 2-1 up by beating Jordi Munoz and Luis David Martinez 6-3 7-6 in 1 hour 35. They had to save a set point in the second set so it was a very tense ending. Rubin Statham then replaced Ajeet Rai in the first reverse rubber and beat 20 year old Brandon Perez 6/2 6/7 4/1 .... early in the third set Rubin fought off break points and was leading when Brandon had a medical time out with cramp. He tried to continue but couldn’t so the third set and match went to Rubin to give NZ the overall win 3/1. 2 3 NZ will now play one of the top teams who lost in the Group 1 playoffs, in September. It has been announced that that will be Korea, to be played in NZ. Let’s all hope the tennis world is back in action by then. Well done to the team and Alistair Hunt as Captain. The tie marked the 100th anniversary of the first Davis Cup tie to be held in NZ between Australasia and the United States. On reflection they were very lucky to get all the Davis Cup matches played around the world that weekend. Three matches were played in front of empty stadiums. They were Italy against South Korea, Japan against Ecuador and Hong Kong against Poland. A group of children from Bairds Mainfreight Primary school, who have been learning tennis and life skills with our IC Philanthropy coaches, came to watch their first ‘ live tennis matches. Kevin Woolcott and Chris Ronayne and teachers were with them. They really enjoyed the experience. (Mentioned in the report below from Russell Tiills) Philanthropy The ACE Programme, the ICNZ philanthropy initiative, has aspirations during 2020 to work with four low decile schools in Auckland, teaching approximately 100 children life skills through the instruction of tennis. Led by Campbell Cramer-Roberts, and assisted by Kevin Woolcott, John Mills and Chris Ronayne, the lessons have been recrafted to work with a much larger class size. In Term 1 of 2020, working with our old friends at Bairds Mainfreight Primary School, in Otara, we managed 6 lessons before we ran into the early school closure due to the COVID-19 crisis. However, during this period, the children were incredibly fortunate to be able to attend the first afternoon of play of the Davis Cup Match at the ASB Stadium against Venezuela, courtesy of Tennis New Zealand. An outing to watch tennis was a golden opportunity for the children to see the sport in action and to teach some new life skills to the children around watching tennis. In addition, at the request of the school, Campbell and Mark Lewis held an ACE Programme professional development session with the teachers, which will allow them to work with the other classes during school time. A very successful, albeit shortened period, that gives us much confidence going into the rest of the year. We have agreed to provide the ACE Programme to Sir Douglas Bader Intermediate in Mangere in Term 2, however, as we write, there is much uncertainty around the next school term and beyond. The UK IC Philanthropy Trust have agreed to fund 50% of our 2020 programme with their funding already having been received. We have established the ACE Charitable Trust to facilitate our local funding aspirations. We remain hopeful of completing our programme during 2020, even if it means conducting the remaining lessons in Term 3 or Term 4. 3 A bit of frivolous fun ..... can you guess whose legs these are? The photo was taken late January when many of the top players held a charity event to help those affected by the Australian Bush Fires! Answer further on. Choose from: Caroline Coco Dominic Naomi Nick Novak Petra Rafa Roger Sascha Serena Stefanos Gradually, starting from Indian Wells in mid March, tournament organisers and the ITF, ATP and WTA have been announcing the cancellation of their tournaments. Roland Garros caught everyone by surprise by announcing they were moving their French Open to September dates, the rest of the clay court schedule was cancelled, and we all waited to see what the AELTC would decide about Wimbledon. That announcement became inevitable, softened a little by the foresight of the committee after the SARS virus in 2003 in paying extra for their premiums to include a pandemic insurance . One senior figure at the Club put the cost of the insurance policy at ‘around the low seven figures’. Wimbledon is the only Slam of the four - Australia, France and US - to have an insurance policy that includes a virus-related clause and it is reported that the French Tennis Federation felt they had no option to cancel entirely, risking a loss of £230m. The All England Club’s Risk and Finance Sub-Committee have long since insisted on a clause covering epidemics, and the policy has been accordingly upgraded in recent years. Outgoing chief executive Richard Lewis on Thursday warned that, despite the good insurance policy, Wimbledon would sustain a financial hit, although the knock-on effect for British tennis would be limited.