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.