The Long Road Ahead

"To achieve their sporting goals New Zealand's top young tennis players must follow the domestic and international circuit around the globe. The cost of attending these events presents a barrier in achieving their potential, and there are very few avenues of support funding available to help them in these emerging years. Tennis players develop at different rates and much can be gained by battling away on the Futures and Challenger tours. This process takes time and it is important for New Zealand's young players not to be discouraged if success is not immediate. For that reason, on their behalf, we ask your help." - David Frank (Tennis Northern CEO)

Wednesday 23 May 2012

Tennis stars reaping the benefits of the regional centre working hard to graduate its players towards the USA.

Becoming a professional in any sport is no easy task and this is especially true for New Zealanders in individual sports such as tennis. With a rich history of producing great junior tennis players in recent years, the progress onto the senior circuit has proven more treacherous and unfortunately players have failed to reach their full potential after they graduate high school.

The highly competitive, expensive and sometimes nocuous transition from juniors to seniors has been coupled with the dilemma on trying to train and compete with the worlds elite in a sport with limited resources in NZ is one that player and parent alike have struggled to navigate successfully. This has often culminated in a shortened playing career as players have had no choice but to retire at a young age due to a lack of initial success and limited options from other avenues on their continued development.

However in the last few years the regional association based in Albany, Tennis Northern, have decided to take matters into its own hands and have formed a relationship with Play Atlantic, an Auckland based US college scholarship company. 

The purpose was to give their young players a realistic and achievable pathway in which they could graduate from the regional academy and continue to develop their skills in a world class environment at a college in the USA over the course of four years.

David Frank, CEO of Tennis Northern, says “This relationship provides our players and their parents with the motivation they need to train and compete year on year. It is a fantastic pathway that we have developed because it guides our kids into a system that will not only provide them with a degree after four years, which in turn means they will be more attractive to future employers, but it also gives our top athletes the opportunity to progress onto the professional circuit at a more mature and sensible age once they graduate”.

Director at Play Atlantic, Sheridan Adams says “It is hard to argue against the US college system, which is consistently ranked amongst the best in the world and has proven to be a hugely successful breading ground for professional athletes (2010 Heineken Open winner John Isner went to the University of Georgia). If parents and their children are looking for a great education, an invaluable life experience filled with traveling and tremendous career prospects after graduation, all in the form of a sports scholarship that will significantly help fund the process then America is for them”.

One recent player that has been through the system at Tennis Northern has included former Junior Davis Cup player Chester Espie, who is currently studying and competing at Stetson University in Florida. Chester trained at Tennis Northern throughout being a junior under former NZ Davis Cup coach Jeff Simpson and recently finished his first academic year and playing season at Stetson, which culminated in an All-conference honour.

He says “The college system is pretty sweet, everything in tennis is paid for and because of the amount we play it is basically impossible not to improve”.

That sentiment has been echoed by a further fifteen graduates from the Tennis Northern Academy in the last three years who have all taken the same path as Chester and are currently applying their skills across the USA.

So now with this well- structured pathway for the tennis players in the Northern region well established it will be very interesting to see which ones are able to break through from being a good junior to a senior professional. But whether they are able to or not one thing is for sure, we will look forward to watching them try and with the added benefits of a university education for them at the same time this has made this relationship a no brainer.

Tuesday 24 April 2012

Chile to Germany


Arrived in Chile to find out that my coaches flight had been cancelled not once but 3 times. Found my way to the tournament in Quillota about 
2 hours bus ride from Santiago. Nick arrived just in time for the start of qualifying. I made it through and then lost first round against LONDERO, Juan Ignacio (ARG) 2-6 6-2 1-6 ranked 640. 

Found it hard to get use to the surface in Chile and then had some problems with my glute and hip area which was very frustrating as it hindered my progress for the further two tournaments in which I was unable to qualify. Although I had this injury I was still there with Nick and we were able to work on other things which was good.

Marcus Daniell and I joined up in Switzerland for the next round of tournaments. After training for a week in Taverne I was still struggling to move well and had some tough losses.

I arrived in Crete, Greece where I meet up with my friend Miles Bugby from Bath UK. We played 3 tournaments all in the same place. I was able to make the main draw on all three tournaments but didn’t manage a win to gain ATP ranking points.. but in the doubles, Miles and I lost to the winners three weeks running. Losing all in quite tight matches!

I am now on my way to Germany where I will have a week of light hitting and fitness to try and get my body back to 100%. I will be playing for a club in a place called Rastatt, which is near Karlsruhe and the French border by Strasbourg ( this was set up by Frank Moser who is a top 100 doubles player). Playing for only three matches which will help me earn some money for the next part of my trip. 

After Interclub finishes, Davis cup player Rueban Statham and I will meet up to get back into the Futures tournaments and hopefully I will be 100% fighting fit.

Any support would be greatly appreciated and thank you sincerely for helping me to achieve my goals.

Kind regards
Anton Bettink
bettink@xtra.co.nz

Saturday 4 February 2012

Heineken to Chile


Another Goal Achieved!

A wild card into the qualifying round of the Heineken Open 2012 was a great experience. In the first round I played Sebastian LAVIE, NZ and won 6/4, 7/6. The second round was against the 6th seed Benoit PAIRE, FRANCE, ranked 92 in the world. Unfortunately I lost to him 6/1, 6/2. PAIRE went on to qualify and then to win against Juan Carlos FERRERO 6/3, 6/2, then another win against Juan Ignacio CHELA (4th Seed) 5/7, 6/2, 6/2 before losing to Olivier ROCHUS 6/7, 6/1, 6/4 in the quarterfinals. I didn’t feel that bad about losing with PAIRE doing so well.

During the week of the Heineken I was fortunate enough to be able to attend. There I was able to associate with the top players, which was awe inspiring. 
Great experience.

I will be travelling to Santiago, Chile with my coach Nick Turner in early February to start the 2012 circuit. Nick was able to spend two weeks with me last year but he is hoping to have more time this year. 

After Chile I will be heading back to Europe for more Futures events.

Any support would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks and kind regards

Anton Bettink

Saturday 24 December 2011

Merry Christmas


Thanks for all your support throughout 2011. 

This year I have experienced an exciting period of growth, in my game and also in my rankings. In July, I won my first ATP point in the UK and in September I reached my first ITF Futures ¼ finals in Mexico. My current ATP ranking is 1174 and my national Ranking has improved from No. 35 to No.5 (No.2 for North Harbour).

Since being back in New Zealand I have played Scarbro Caro Bowl for Parnell Lawn Tennis Club where we reached the semi finals. During the Caro Bowl season I went to Australia for two weeks and played two ITF tournaments. Unfortunately I ended up with a throat infection, but I did play the No 2 seed James Lemke, ranked 298 from Australia but had to retire in the third set. Next I played the money tournaments and got to the semi final in both.

To continue to work toward my goals for 2012, I will be travelling back to Europe and the US, leaving early 2012 (hopefully January). After travelling most of the last 2 years alone, I hope to spend some time travelling with my coach.

I am looking forward to getting back into it in 2012.

Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Kind regards
Anton Bettink

Saturday 8 October 2011

October update

Since you heard from me last from Dublin I have been busy travelling, training and playing tournaments. After Dublin I flew straight to Nice and trained at an academy just outside of Nice before I trekked off to play some money tournaments. France was a good experience and the people from the clubs took very good care of me cooking me fresh snails most nights!!

I started to play futures again, this time in Mexico. First in Leon (middle Mexico). It was a big eye opener there as 90% of Mexicans are living in little shanties. In the last round of qualifying I played, I lost to a friend of mine from Australia, tough loss. Next tournament was in Tijuana, I did well to qualify but had another tough loss first round 6-4 7-6 and then the same situation in the next tournament where I drew the 6th seed first round main draw. These 3 tournaments were at altitude which didn’t suit me.
I had a 10 day break before my the next tournament in California. I stayed with some tennis mates in Laguna Niguel where myself and Marvin Barker were training but unfortunately both fell ill before the tournament and were forced to withdraw.

Back down in Mexico we would now play at sea level, I was travelling with Marcus Daniell which was good as I learnt a lot from him. I managed to qualify and win my first round (2nd point)  but had a tough loss to an opponent I later beat the next week. The last tournament of my trip I travelled all day only to get off the plane and play my first round of qualifying which I managed to get through 7-6 6-2 and the last round 6-0 6-1. Then I played main draw against the player I had lost to the previous week and won 6-4 6-1 for my 3rd point. Next round I played a German player who was a tough competitor but played well and won 6-4 6-2 (4th point). Also that day I played the doubles quarterfinals with Marcus Daniell against Marvin Barker (NZL) and Chris Letcher (AUS), we lost 7-6 6-7 10-8. Finally in my quarterfinal singles match I played the 2nd seed, former top 200 and Davis Cup player from Mexico. I went down in a tough 6-4 7-6 match after having set points in the 
2nd set. 

All in all, I had a really good trip, learnt a lot and look forward to being home for a while and training hard before setting off next year.

Thanks for all your continued support, it has been much appreciated. 

Kind regards
Anton

Wednesday 20 July 2011

My first point...

Hello, 
Since you last heard from me I have had some great experiences. Including getting my ATP point.
When I first arrived in England for the grass tournaments, I had never played any matches on grass before, so was tough to keep up at first but got used to it eventually.
I had a rough couple of weeks in quallies, but then in the third tournament in a place called Frinton on sea, I met up with my coach Nick Turner. Nick helped push me through the qualifying rounds and into main draw where I managed to take down an Italian player ranked somewhere in the 900s, this gave me my first ATP ranking point. Was so good having Nick, his family and my good friend Marvin Barker there supporting me... big thanks to those mentioned. In the second round I faced Great Britain number 3 and Davis Cup player Daniel Evans who is ranked 300 and a very good player, I lost that match but took a lot from it!
This week in Dublin I qualified and played another Brit who is ranked about 640. I had a good first set but lost 3-6 6-4 6-1.
Feeling much more confident and ready to compete with the much higher ranked players after the last couple of weeks.
Bettink out!

Sunday 19 June 2011

On the road again

Since my last blog I have still been battling with my shoulder injury and was in Holland for a month doing rehab, getting back into some training, interclub and tournaments.

I played interclub matches for the ETV Volley Tennis Club, winning my singles and for the first time I played a mixed doubles which was certainly an experience, but we won so that helped the team a lot!

A few of the players from the academy and myself travelled up to Almere to do a Futures tournament. It was tough, I lost first round qualifying against a guy from Belgium ranked 720.  Didn't play as well as I had hoped!

Overall I had a good time in Holland, met plenty of nice people. The family and club took good care of me. I would like to thank Rhis Siegers, the physio on the off chance he sees this for the healing of my shoulder. Thanks Rhis.

Just last week I played my first tournament back on hard court in a small town in inland Spain. I still wasn't feeling that good mentally, although having a couple of good wins in the first rounds of qualifying was good before going down to the top seed in a tight 2 ½ hour match 4 and 4.

This week I am in Melilla, which is a small coastal town in northern Morocco, but Spanish territory, so I caught a ferry from Malaga to here, which was a peaceful experience as I just sat in the lounge for 3 hours. Lots of fog so no photos from the ferry. No extra fees for overweight baggage either!

Feeling a bit more positive this week, I am staying with a friend from Holland - Miliaan Niesten who scraped through into main draw. We are training hard together and trying to stay healthy, I have to remember I am now in North Africa and the water is not drinkable from the taps here like at home.

That's all from me for now, just looking forward to seeing some NZ faces soon in England!

Anton