The rock star of mens tennis, Bernard Tomic, has been named as the ambassador of Tennis Australia’s Junior Development Series, now sponsored by Medibank in a new three-year deal.
I know Tomic is the top Australian Male tennis player at the moment, but seriously Tennis Australia.. is he a good role model?
Points:
In a lot of trouble with Police over driving his BMW M3
Was banned from the ITF Tour for a month because he walked off court refusing to play and finish a match against fellow Australian Marinko Matosevic
Parents are Croatian and Dad put a huge amount of pressure on Bernard from the age of 10. Tennis training many hours per day…
David Nalbandian seemed to get ripped off in his Australian Open 2012 match against John Isner. It was 8 all in the fifth set and Nalbandian had a break point which was overruled. Then Nalbandian decided to challenge the call, but the umpire and tournament referee told him that he took too long to challenge the call. This is crazy! What a joke. In the end the ball left a mark on court and it was going to be a second serve for Isner at break point 8 all in the fifth set. In the end Isner won 10-8 in the fifth set, but really it should have been the other way!
Sacha Jones has decided to switch elegances and moves from playing for New Zealand to Australia. This move will allow the 21 year old Aucklander to play to Australia as of next week.
“I’m very grateful for the support that Tennis New Zealand has given to my career to date but, if I want to achieve my goals, I believe that being involved in the Australian program will give me the best opportunity to do it.”
With a New Zealand mother and an Australian father, Jones has dual nationality and had the option of playing for either country.
Matthew Ebden had a great 2011 for results and Tennis Australia has decided to award him a wildcard into the Brisbane ATP Tour event.
Ebden is currently Australia’s number 2 mens player, so Im sure we will be seeing a lot of him in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. I just hope he can play some great tennis and get the results he deserves.
Tennis Australia are really struggling to find decent journalists for their Tennis.com.au site. Here is Mark Tillman speaking with Brigitte Beck after her thrilling win over 3rd seeded Brooke Rischbieth at the 2011 Optus 16s Australian Championships at Melbourne Park. Mark struggled to even know that Brigitte defeated the 3rd seed, plus seems to speak slowly as if Brigitte could understand English. Terrible!
Tennis Australia has just released the promo video for the Australian National League tennis. However, I didnt realise its not a national league at all! Only VIC, WA and SA will be competing.
Ian Goolagong (brother of Evonne) has been appointed to Tennis Australia in the role of National Indigenous Coach.
Goolagong’s role as National Indigenous Coach will include:
visiting remote communities, local clubs and schools
be involved in creating talent search opportunities
provide coaching for the MLC Tennis Hot Shots programs
coaching at state and national camps
enhancing the scholarship program to attract and nurture indigenous talent.
“Creating pathways for the next generation of indigenous tennis players will be a major focus of my new role, for example – training pathways, National Academy and Australian Institute of Sport pathways,” Goolagong said.
Jelena Dokic has released a statement about her father being her new coach.
“I want to thank the Australian public for their incredible ongoing support and assure everyone that I remain Australian and will continue to play for Australia,” she said. “I would like to confirm media reports that I have reconciled with my father. My partner Tin Bikic and I have visited my father at his home to finally put an end to our disagreement. I initiated the meeting as I want to reunite my family and allow us all to get on with our lives and be happy. This has gone on too long. I am in a very positive and confident frame of mind in my life and I really wanted to do this because I believe it is the right thing to do both for me and for all of my family. My father was very receptive and I believe he has changed greatly. He understands that I am my own person who makes my own decisions.
“He is now accepting of Tin and I am very pleased we have been able to sort things out. This has been a very uplifting experience for me and for my family. I am very excited about the future. I plan to continue to work with my fantastic coach Louise Pleming with the ongoing support of Tennis Australia and am extremely thankful to both for their help. My next tour event will be in Linz, Austria.”
It has been reported that Luke Saville and Colin Ebelthite will play in the new National Tennis League (NTL) to be launched in Adelaide in November.
It seems like Tennis Australia is trying to bring European club tennis to Australia. Im not a big fan of the idea. I know it provides good opportunities for players, but it seems like a means to an end.
“It’s all go and people are pretty excited,” Tennis SA chief executive Alistair MacDonald said.
“Luke Saville has registered but I’m not sure which team he’s going to play for. There are a few who would want him.”
Instead of trying to keep the top players in Australia, why aren’t Tennis Australia just looking to set up more opportunities for players to travel into Europe to play real club tennis. Im sure Tennis Australia could set up a club in France or Germany and help the top players travel over, play for the club, then play a series of tournaments after the club season.
I’m still not impressed at all with Tennis Australia and how they aren’t really interested in pushing promising players into positions that will instant improve their games.
Liam Smith is now the Head Coach of Tennis Australia’s National Academy Sydney. Tennis Australia Developmental Manager Scott Draper made the announcement yesterday.
Smith will work closely with the state’s most talented tennis players aged 10 to 17 years inclusive at the Sydney Olympic Park Tennis Centre.
“Liam has a strong commitment to excellence and will play a leading role in developing the future stars of tennis in Australia,” said Draper.
“He has worked with some of the world’s top junior players and will bring a wealth of international tennis knowledge to Tennis Australia and the National Academy in Sydney.”
Will be interesting to see if Smith can develop some great Aussie talent out of Sydney.
It seems like Australian tennis is slowly getting it right, but it still seems they have the eye on the wrong prize. Luke Saville recently won the junior Boy Singles at Wimbledon 2011 and there was an article published this morning on the Tennis Australia website that stating: “Saville eyes No 1 Junior Ranking“. I find this to be the wrong mindset all over again!
Its great to be the number 1 junior in the world, but as Saville stated in the press conference embedded in the article, he only wants to focus on his ITF ranking. Tennis Australia really need to get some focus on pushing these young players into the top 100 adult players in the world and not letting them focus on their junior careers, because at the end of the day adult tennis is everything!
Saville keep on playing great tennis and working on your game. Focus on bringing home those ITF points and pushing up the rankings. We dont want to see yet another top junior tennis player fall by the way side when trying to make it to the professional ranks.
Last week you might have noticed that there were limited posts about Wimbledon 2011, this was because I was on holidays (I know what a stupid time to have a holiday). Anyways, I noticed that Bernard Tomic has been the surprise packet of Wimbledon 2011 so far.
I remember about 6 years ago when I was back home in Australia, I used to help coach Tomic when he was only 11. Tomic was a leading junior with great talent (however, his father was a nightmare!) and he started receiving coaching at the academy where I played and coached. Great things were expecting from Tomic for many years and now he is showing the world what he can do.
Tomorrow at Wimbledon Tomic will take on Xavier Malisse in the round of 16 at Wimbledon, after he defeated Robin Soderling (5) in the previous round. Im hoping he can keep this amazing run alive.
Its brilliant to see a young Australian player getting some good results. Australia has been lacking heavily in the Mens game for many years now. Tennis Australia needs to wake up and help more juniors make it to the next level.
The tennis class of 2011 is formally inducted into the Australian Institute of Sport, and some of our future hopefuls take us on a tour of the facility.
Its good to see that they dont put to much pressure on the players to perform!
Still Lleyton Hewitt is the only Australian Male in the top 100.
I have been wondering why Tennis Australia cant even afford to produce a decent quality when it comes to the videos they have been posting across their YouTube channel. The introduction to the results segment looks great, but it cuts to a guy reading out the results who looks out of focus and behind a crappy green screen. I cant really think of anything worse and it even seems completely pointless in the first place to just read out Australian results.
Sydney lawyer Stephen Healy was elected the new president of Tennis Australia in a secret ballot held on Monday morning.
Healy succeeds the retiring Geoff Pollard, who has held the position since 1989.
Healy, the Tennis NSW president, beat former Australian Open director Paul McNamee in the ballot.
Healy congratulated McNamee on his campaign and said he was looking forward to working with Pollard in a hand-over phase over the next six months.
“I am excited about the appointing and leading tennis in Australia,” Healy said.
“There are many challenges and issues that need to be addressed if we are to appeal more to the community and if we are to produce champions.”
Healy’s challenges include ending the in-fighting in Australian tennis ranks, boosting participation at club and junior level and getting a better representation among the world’s elite players.
Australia has just Lleyton Hewitt (ranked 32 in the world) and Peter Luczak (73) in the top 100 in the men’s rankings, while Samantha Stosur (No.10) has only Anastasia Rodionova (96) and Alicia Molik (97) for company in the top 100 in the women’s.
“It is possible for us to do a lot better, no question,” said Healy, who will resign from his position as Tennis NSW president to concentrate on the top job.
“It is a very competitive world game, there’s 160 countries trying to squeeze players into the top 10 or 20.
“It’s different to what it once was back in our glory days of the `50s and `60s, but I think we can genuinely expect to have more players up there.
“I think the strength of Australian tennis has always been where a group of players come along and they pull each other up.
“At the moment in the juniors there is a really outstanding crop and that’s what I hope is going to happen in the next three to five years.”
Healy said he was excited about working to address Australia’s slide, and said the issues of a shortage of elite players and finding more aspiring juniors were linked.
“You could argue which end drives the other end, whether it’s participation driving player development, but my personal view (is) if you have players at the very top level and you have role models for the kids it drives participation,” he said.
Healy planned to invite discussion among former players, tennis officials and coaches in a bid to unify the sport, and would approach overseas-based coaches in a bid to lure them home.
He said tennis also had to do better at encouraging the thousands of people who supported the Australian Open every year to pick up a racquet themselves.
Tennis Australia has today advertised for a new coach for the Optus Australian Davis Cup team.
The position has been vacant since Darren Cahill resigned earlier this year.
Former national coach Wally Masur returned to his old job temporarily to help the team out for the Australian victory against Thailand in March.
The traditional responsibilities of the role have been expanded to make it a full time position overseeing the improvement and development of every member of the Optus Davis Cup squad as well as other leading athletes.
“The job is pivotal to the development of tennis in Australia,” said Tennis Australia Director of Tennis Craig Tiley.
“We are looking for a major commitment from a world-class coach,” he explained. “It will involve travel on the tour and on-court work with our very best players and coaches. The successful applicant will undoubtedly be one of the leaders in the sport in this country.”
The successful applicant will work closely with program coaches (including AIS and National Academy coaches) and have strong input into the technical and coaching direction for the tennis training and competition pathway.
Some of the key skills required for the job include:
• A proven ability to develop and implement successful, high performance tennis programs for evolving elite tennis athletes
• Successful and extensive experience coaching tennis at an elite national and international level with a proven ability to influence and motivate athletes
• Past playing experience at the elite international level
Australian tennis is not currently at its strongest, but with the return of Dokic this week, things are looking up. As well as Dokic doing well the Australian boys are also growing every single year. An Australian boy has won the singles title at the Australian Open for the last two years and they still have a chance to make it three in a row. The boys singles draw is currently into the round of 16 and there are still three Australian boys who have an opportunity to win the title. Keep a watch out over the next few days to see if one these boys can take the title. Australian tennis is going to be very strong in 5 years time if the juniors is anything to look by.
Health and beauty brand Garnier, associate sponsor of the Australian Open, this week broadened its support of tennis to a rising star of the game, signing Bernard Tomic as a brand ambassador.
The two-year deal will see Tomic appear in both print and TV advertising for Garnier and make personal appearances at the hugely popular Garnier World during the Australian Open.
I have seen Tomic grow up as a player when he was training back at school on the Gold Coast. He used to get coached by the same academy as myself. Bernard has grown up as a player and a person a huge amount in the last 3 or so years, and this new sponsorship is a great stepping stone for him to reach his goals on the ATP Tour. Plus it helps to have IMG on your side!
In 2008, Tomic became the youngest player in the Open era to win the Australian Open Junior Championships, and reached the finals of the Wimbledon boys’ doubles.
In 2007, Tomic led the Optus Australian Junior Davis Cup team to victory at the world final and hoisted his third Orange Bowl trophy. In 2006, at just fourteen, he announced his presence on the international scene by winning four International Junior Tennis Federation (ITF) 18/u titles in just two months, and was recognised with the Garnier Rising Star Award, a $10,000 tennis scholarship in January 2007.
Announcing the signing, General Manager of Garnier, Mark O’Keefe said, “Garnier is excited to announce a partnership with Bernard Tomic. We believe Bernard reflects perfectly the youthful energy and passion that lies at the heart of the Garnier brand.
The Blayney Chronicle wrote a very interesting article about Tennis Australia and how they are keeping the board and presidency re-election in October very quiet.
Tennis Australia has been under a lot of pressure over the last 3 years or so for the lack of results within the organisation. Thus, Tennis Australia president Geoff Pollard, chief executive Steve Wood and Australian Open director/player development manager Craig Tiley, are all under the microscope and are expected to be under a lot of fire at the re-election.
Currently, Australia has four players in the top 100, coupled with rising dissent about player development – debate is set to rage about whether change is needed at the helm.
Lots of people have been talking about Paul McNamee to step back into some sort of role with Tennis Australia, because McNamee was the man who really pushed the development of the Australian Open when he was in charge. McNamee is currently in the market for a new position after being sacked recently from the Melbourne AFL club. McNamee was a huge loss the Tennis Australia, but it would really be great to see him rejoin the fold.
Since I am from Australia and I have been playing tennis all over the country since I was about 14, I have spent a lot of time on the Tennis Australia Website. Im currently doing a lot of work in the technology and new media industry and I find it really funny how professional organisations with a lot of money to spend on getting their websites right, always seem to get it wrong.
For some reason Tennis Australia has had a dysfunctional website that takes an eternity to load. This considering I have high speed broadband which is not normally found in Australia and also im using Firefox (the fastest browser in the world). I just thought I would write and mention this, and I hope someone from Tennis Australia reads this article because it really needs fixing. If I had a dollar for every time I have loaded a Tennis Australia page and then closed it because I got sick of waiting for the article!
Sydney lawyer Stephen Healy was elected the new president of Tennis Australia in a secret ballot held on Monday morning.
Tennis Australia has today advertised for a new coach for the Optus Australian Davis Cup team.
The 
