Tennis: New Zealand junior star to play at Mount Maunganui Sunday Shootout

YOUNG GUN: Top Kiwi junior Valentina Ivanov will play in the Sunday Shootout. PHOTO/FILE

Western Bay fans will get a rare chance this Sunday to watch a New Zealand tennis player in the top 100 under-18s in the world compete.

Valentina Ivanov, 16, competed in her first junior Grand Slam at the Australian Open last month. In a tournament before the open she nearly beat the 11th-ranked player in the world, which has given her the confidence to aim for a top-50 ranking.

Currently ranked 98, she hopes to play in other Grand Slams later this year to reach that goal.

Ivanov has flown to Tauranga from where she lives in Australia to compete in the Sunday Shootout at Mount Maunganui Tennis Club, a move tournament director Jason Helms says "is a coup". She will play in Auckland next week.

Sunday Shootout is a unisex, one-set tennis competition in which 16 single players compete over a three-hour period. Into its fifth month, the tournament has seen world-ranked players enter as well as rising junior players and ex-pros.

Helms says in the past 25 years New Zealand has only qualified for the World Junior Teams (U14) or the Junior Davis Cup/Fed Cup finals eight times. Ivanov has led four of those eight New Zealand teams and holds five New Zealand national titles and three Australian national titles.

"If you loved the Australian Open, you need to come to Sunday Shootout, because some of the players in our competition are real possibilities of one day making it at that level," Helms said.

"Ivanov has what it takes to go to the top and that she went out of her way to play in our tournament is a testament to the format we have created and a testament to her love of New Zealand — that she is making such an effort to come to the provinces."

Ivanov says she has always loved representing New Zealand and many of her best tennis memories are from competing alongside her New Zealand team mates.

"My long-term goal is to play pro tennis and represent New Zealand in the Fed Cup, and hopefully at the Olympics someday," she said.

Helms created the Sunday Shootout to have the effect on tennis that T20 has had on cricket. T20 is a shortened version of test cricket and has transformed the game. Spectators love the shorter format and players can earn more in less time.

Helms was coached by Bobbi Riggs, who famously played against Billie Jean King. He also played college tennis in the US in the 1990s under the coaching of Guy Fritz (father and coach of Taylor Fitz who played in the men's third round of last year's US Open), gaining back-to-back state championship wins. He had the opportunity to train with the Davis Cup teams of the United States, Canada and South Africa and gained a wild card to play in the Indian Wells ATP tournament.

Sunday Shootout
Sunday, Mount Maunganui Tennis Club, Blake Park, 3.30pm start
DJ and bar open, free entry
Instagram @sundayshootout