The draw for the NZ v Philippines Tie was confirmed yesterday, with the order of singles going the way the NZ Captain James Greenhalgh had hoped. The Tie kicks off on Friday at 10am (their time - four hours behind NZ) at the Philippine Columbian Association, Manila, with NZ's number one Dan King-Turner facing Philippine's number two Treat Conrad S. Huey.  Huey is ranked 962 in the world compared to King-Turner who is ranked 325. The second rubber sees Jose 'Rubin' Statham (NZL) take on Cecil Mamiit (left). Statham is keen to get back on the court this Friday after illness ruled him out of the July semi-final.  Mamiit is a veteran of the Philippines team and its rumoured this will be his last Davis Cup appearance.  With their rankings within 50 of each others the match will be a tight one. The home court advantage and heat will be tough for the Kiwis but they have had a good preparation leading into the Tie and will be focused each day as it comes. King-Turner and GD Jones (above) have been named in the doubles with the Philippines naming their number three and four Johnny A Arcilla and Vicente Elberto Anasta.  Both captains have the opportunity to change their doubles combinations up to an hour before play on Saturday - and the New Zealand team management thinks a switch in the Philippines line-up is highly likely. Draw Friday Dan King-Turner (NZL) v Treat Conrad S. Huey (PHI) Jose 'Rubin' Statham (NZL) v Cecil Mamiit (PHI) Saturday Dan King-Turner / GD Jones (NZL) v Johnny A Arcilla / Vicente Elberto Anasta (PHI) An article from The Philippine Star newspapers says their team intends to come out firing right from the start.  To get the local perspective Click here

After the great win over Swiss five-times US Open champion Roger Federer, Juan Martin del Potro (below) won his first Grand Slam at only the age of 20.

The big question mark for New Zealand is now, whether del Potro will return to defend his Heineken Open title next year. And whether del Potro's Auckland-based fans (above) will see their man in action again!

The 2010 ASB Classic featuring the Kia Motors Singles and Doubles has scored an early coup with the confirmation that the world’s No1 doubles team and yesterday’s US Open doubles finalists, Zimbabwe’s Cara Black and Liezel Huber of the USA (above)  have confirmed to play in Auckland in January.

As a team, Black and Huber have won a total of four Grand Slam doubles titles at Wimbledon, US Open and Australian Open, over 27 Sony Ericsson WTA Tour doubles titles. Between them they can boast over 100 titles in total with various partners.

Black and Huber have been co-ranked No1 since November 2007. Black has spent the second most weeks in history as the world's No1 doubles player, trailing only Martina Navratilova. Huber has spent the sixth most weeks at No1.

For the full story, click here

Sacha Jones through to quarter-finals in Darwin

Sacha Jones (left) is playing this week in the $25,000 Futures tournament in Darwin, Australia.
There, the seventh-seeded Kiwi faced wild card host country player Bojana Bobuscic. With a 6-1, 6-0 score, Sacha cruised through to the quarter-finals.

The next encounter could be more difficult for Sacha because she will have to play against second seed Shannon Golder, another local player.

Ellen Barry knows that second-seeded players are hard to defeat.
She played against Christina-Madalina Stancu from Romania in the Futures tournament Doboj in Bosnia/Herzegovina. After a close match, Barry exited the tournament with the score of 4-6, 5-7.

Elsewhere, on the American continent, Matt Simpson had his first round match against Sebastian Rivera from Ecuador in Claremont. Unfortunately, the match ended with a 5-7, 7-6(5), 6-4 victory to Rivera.

Nikki Matheson, the coach at Mairangi Bay on Auckland's North Shore, is our featured coach this week. She's pictured with two of her proteges -  Emily Ogg and Zahlee Buckley, both nine years old, and all set to play interclub for the first time this season.

Nikki provided us with this profile of herself:

I joined Mairangi Bay Tennis Club from England. I have been coaching as part of Mairangi Bay Tennis Club for four years.

In England my experience was in the fitness industry being a qualified personal trainer and fitness leader working with both adults and children. As part of Vision Tennis headed by Tennis NZ Club Coach of the Year Justin Megraw I am running programmes for Beginner and Intermediate Ladies, Junior and Intermediate beginners, Cardio Tennis for all abilities and tennis specific Swiss ball conditioning. The latter being something I specialised in when I first came to New Zealand.

I have taken part in coaching courses both in England and New Zealand but the Tennis Australia Junior Development Course that I have recently taken part in has helped me immensely. The course was so professional and inspiring. Lots of new ideas and different ways of thinking. I came away from the course filled with confidence knowing that there is always a way to help and make things even better!

Since taking part on the course I am fully booked a lot of the time with lots of cool people and juniors that I am sure I would not have had the chance to meet otherwise. I have a student with me once a week working for his Duke of Edinburgh Award.

He has also been and taken part on one of the TNZ community coaching courses and thought it was brilliant. He was also inspired and is going to help with some junior coaching in the future.

My highlight having finished the course was running a coaching day for 36 ladies, six courts, six coaches and a champagne lunch!  The sun was shining- thank goodness!

I am so glad that I took part on the TNZ course and I hope that I can pass on the knowledge to lots of children and adults and make tennis fun for life.

Reminder - coach registrations

With the end of September fast approaching there are only a couple of weeks to become a TNZ registered coach and remain on Find-a-Coach on the website.

After 30 September, only registered coaches will be listed.

To read more about the TNZ Registration Policy or obtain a registration form click here

Grasshoppers - new tennis for kids is going great guns!

The latest development is that Grasshoppers Challenger Tournaments are being launched, as a transitional competitive step for those young players (aged between 5 and 12) who have done Grasshoppers at school, played in a mini tournament, and are now ready for more tennis!

The Challenger events are aimed at those children who are able to play matches but who would like more experience/confidence before playing in regular tournaments. This might include children such as those either wanting to or already playing U10 interclub or those slightly older who would like to gain more experience in order to play more competitively.

The tournaments will use the Green Transition balls and be played on a full size court. Each match will last for 20 minutes and the tournament will be on a round robin basis.

Normal tennis scoring will be used i.e 15/30/40/Deuce/Advantage/Game. Three matches will be guaranteed for each player, and as far as possible, the Challenger Tournaments will be held on indoor courts.

The first event is this weekend at Remuera Racquets Club in Auckland (watch the Tennis NZ website for pics, next week!), with others coming up around the country in the next few months. Click here for the Grasshoppers Challenger Tournaments calendar.

Sunday 20^th September – Remuera Rackets - the first Grasshoppers Challenger Tournament
Contact: Troy Turnbull to enter
troy@tttennis.co.nz
www.tttennis.co.nz
Time: 12.00pm to 4.00pm