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Murray Wilson / Manawatu-Standard It will not be until New Zealand is at level two that tennis training can resume.
Aces are being cared for and volleys are lost in tennis clubs across the country as tennis takes a tentative step toward a return under government alert level three.
More than 45 clubs have signed up to join the New Zealand tennis scheme for contact tracing, while other clubs have established their own programs that adhere to government rules on social distancing.
Tennis NZ CEO Julie Paterson said they want to make sure everyone stays safe when they play again.
“We have come up with some really clear guidelines on expectations, from a club and player perspective,” said Paterson.
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“The guys worked really hard on it over the weekend, so it was released on Monday for those clubs that were desperate to open on Tuesday.
“Not everyone has and we have been very clear that it is a club decision if they feel comfortable enough to handle all the health and safety requirements.”
“So there will be some clubs that are not comfortable about it and there will be others that take a little longer to open.”
At level three, all players must complete a contact tracking form before playing, clubs must remain closed, there can be no training sessions, and players can only play with other people within their bubble.
When the country was briefly at level three for a few days before going to level four, individual training was allowed, but Paterson said this rule changed as the nation returned to three.
“When we established the guidelines since Friday, when the announcement was made (by the Minister of Sports and Recreation Grant Robertson), we reworked the guidelines to meet the current guidelines of the Ministry of Health.
“So we knew that what happened at level three on the way up was not necessarily going to be the same at level three on the way down.”
The Campbell Park Tennis Club in Auckland, which has six outside courts, is one that has decided to reopen to a certain extent below level three and the club’s coach, Dwayne Cleugh, said meeting the new requirements was easy.
“It has been reasonably easy to follow government safety guidelines and standards,” said Cleugh.
“Our club was created with online booking, so we can accept payment that way.
Robyn Edie / Things
Julie Paterson at the Te Anau Invitational with Luke Saville this summer.
“We will have a staff member remotely administer the six hours of the day we are open and players will need to complete an online tracking form before entering the venue.
“We will keep the intermediate courts unused, so there will be a gap between each group that plays and then we will make sure that people play within their bubbles and do not touch anything other than their own team.”
“We also removed the group that just played before allowing the next group to enter the facility.”
For the country’s tennis coaches, they still can’t work below level three, but there is hope that when New Zealand goes to level two, they can return to the court.
“We anticipate that we will be allowed to have one-on-one coaching at level two,” Paterson said.
“We don’t expect there to be a larger coaching group, but we do see it heading into a normal coaching environment.
“We will wait in advance to see what the Ministry of Health guidelines are when we go to level two and we are going to rework our current level two guidelines to fit that.”
Cleugh, who trains some of the best young players in the country, says he is eager to train at level two again, but acknowledges that there will still be a need for restrictions.
CATHY WOOD / SUPPLIED / Not for syndication
Dwayne Cleugh has helped attract top young players like Ke Ren, Shona Nakano and Elyse Tse.
“The great hope for us is that we will train again,” he said.
“There are many players and children who are desperately trying to get back on the court, but they are trapped at home and there are many employees who want to return to work.”
“We feel that we can be a safe environment, with the nature of tennis and the measures we can implement.
“So we are hopeful that we can return to training in smaller groups and one-on-one. But we are realistic in the sense that we believe the players should be monitored.”
“We hope Tennis New Zealand continues to campaign on behalf of the coaches and the club to have the ability to re-train on court at level two.”
