Terry Maddaford: Personal touch draws big tennis names to Auckland

COMMENT


New Zealand's international tennis tournaments continue to fight above their weight.

It is no fluke that the ASB Classic and Heineken Open are popular stops on the ATP and WTA circuits, and big-name players are keen to play here.

Tournament directors Richard Palmer and Graham Pearce are well respected for their annual recruitment efforts and their hands-on running of the showpiece tournaments, and retain professional relationships with players and their agents.

In these times of wheeling and dealing in the annual scramble for signatures, this personal touch plays a significant role in luring players to the ASB Bank Tennis Centre - the correct name now Stanley St has disappeared to become part of Auckland's expanding motorway network.

Minutes after beating Spaniard Rafael Nadal in Saturday's Open final, Slovak Dominik Hrbaty echoed the sentiments of the players who play in Auckland as their first, or in a few cases, second tournament of the year.

Without prompting, Hrbaty spoke enthusiastically of the Open, saying it was getting stronger and more popular by the year.

His enthusiasm is shared by most of the players who continue to make the trip to Auckland.

Others, including legendary tennis writer Bud Collins and his wife, who attend the Open as part of an annual early-year vacation, look beyond the tournament as a reason for making the trip to Auckland.

They say New Zealand is a friendly, relaxed place in which to ply their trade and get by without the pressures so evident on and off the court in other parts of the world.

That atmosphere - including the low-key security - is a huge plus for players using Auckland as part of their Australian Open build-up.

The crowds continue to support the tournaments in encouraging numbers. Apart from one day, the Open was a sell-out.

The Classic, too, had great support, bettered only by the "one-off" appearance of Anna Kournikova a couple of summers ago.

The sport survives, and plays a significant role in raising money which is used to foster tennis at many levels.

The sport now has no big-name New Zealand players. Auckland and New Zealand Tennis bosses recognise this.

But they would love nothing more than being able to point to a Brett Steven, Kelly Evernden, Julie Richardson or Belinda Cordwell as a genuine New Zealand contender.

Accepting there are no Nadals hiding under a pohutukawa tree waiting to explode on to the world stage, tennis must continue its collective efforts to foster the sport at all levels.

By retaining these tournaments as the shop window, tennis gives the public, and budding champions, a second-to-none opportunity to see the best playing their trade in events well-run by Auckland Tennis and its huge band of volunteers.

The really big names - the Williams, Agassi, Hewitt, Clijsters and one or two more - might not have made it yet.

But their absence has made little difference.

The players who turn up in most instances come to play.

That they bother to compete in tournaments at the lower end of the scale is testament to the high regard in which they are held.

Professionally run with a perk or two - including the popular big yacht races on the Auckland Harbour on the evenings before the Classic and the Open, and world-class accommodation - thrown in, these tournaments deservedly remain popular with male and female players around the world.

There are the special touches - the birthday cake for top seed Guillermo Coria - the day before he was forced out of the Open by injury - and the chocolate cake Hrbaty delights in after each of his victories.

These touches, as much as anything, ensure there are always players knocking on the door looking for an invite to return to a venue once described as the Wimbledon of the South Pacific.

The two tournaments will celebrate their 50th anniversaries next year, and there is no reason for their popularity not to continue.