London Climax For Men’s Tennis – Kāpiti and Coast Independent

What a difference a year makes

By Roger Childs

The Barclay’s Indoor Tournament is the year’s finale for men’s tennis.

It’s also the toughest event of the year, as only the top eight seeds take part.

They play round-robin in two groups and the best two in each, contest the semi-finals.

This year there are players from eight different nations, and six of them were not in the 2016 draw.

Gone from last year’s group are injured players Andy Murray (winner in 2016), Stan Wawrinka and Novak Djokovic, as well as Kei Nishikori, Gael Monfils and Milos Raonic.

The team of 2017

Last November Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer were on the injured list, but they have been back with a vengeance in 2017. Between them they have won over half the major tournaments and have shared the grand slam two apiece.

The two survivors from the 2016 Barclay’s are Austrian Dominic Thiem and Croatian, Marin Cilic. Germany’s Alexander Zverev is the third seed, Grigor Dimitrov from Bulgaria is 6^th and Belgium’s David Goffin 7^th.

The eighth spot in the race to London, was hotly contested with Americans John Isner and Jack Sock in the mix, along with Pablo Carreno Busta from Spain and Argentine Juan Martin Del Potro.

Delpo couldn’t quite make the final eight

Delpo had some impressive results in the second half of the year:

Semi finalist in the US Open
Semi finalist in the Shanghai Open
Winner in the Stockholm Open
Finalist in Basel.

However, he needed to win last week’s Paris Masters to get to London. Unfortunately, he was beaten in the quarter finals by John Isner. As it turned out, it was Jack Sock (seeded 16^th), who leap frogged over the other contenders to win the Paris tournament and take the number eight spot in the Barclay’s.

The big guns are the favourites

The two best players of 2017 started the year as finalists in Melbourne

Back in January, Nadal and Federer were seeded 12^th and 17^th for 2017’s first grand slam. They met in the Melbourne final, and Federer won in a the thriller 6-3 3-6 6-1 3-6 6-3.

This outcome set the pattern for the year. Nadal would win the French and US grand slams while the Swiss won at Wimbledon. Furthermore, they won another nine major tournaments between them.

Going into the Barclay’s next week, the Spaniard had 10,645 ranking points and Federer 9005. The next best is Zverev on 4400!

So Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer head the two round-robin groups and could meet in the final.

However, tennis is never predictable, and the line up for the tournament is the best available. There are no easy games!

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STORY OF THE WEEK

Kāpiti Coast councillors have toured of one of Aotearoa's unique buildings, the heritage - listed Rotunda at the former Otaki Health Camp, the country’s first.

Jeremy Smith reports that the 105-year-old, eight-sided rotunda predates the Health Camp.

It wasn't actually built in Otaki, but was one of two built in Rotorua in 1915 as part of a military hospital, on the site of Rotorua’s present public hospital.

Later they were taken to Otaki for the opening of the health camp in 1931.

Full story in the main column (December 19).

100 Years Ago — and the Maori Long March begins

Māori politics was dominated by the influential MPs (and sometime Cabinet ministers) Māui Pōmare ( Waitara statue photo above) and Apirana Ngata.

The 1920's also saw the rise of Tahupōtiki Wiremu Rātana’s religious movement, and the emergence of Te Puea Hērangi in Waikato.

Ngata worked hard to foster Māori scholarship and education and preserve traditional arts and culture.

He convinced the government to establish a Board of Maori Ethnological Research (1923), a Maori Purposes Fund Control Board (1924) and a School of Maori Arts and Crafts in Rotorua (1927).

The Reform government also took the first, tentative steps towards settling longstanding Māori grievances.

Agreements with Te Arawa in 1922 and Ngāti Tūwharetoa in 1926 recognised their respective rights over the Rotorua lakes and Lake Taupō, and led to the establishment of trust boards with some government funding.

Commissions of inquiry which examined Ngāi Tahu grievances (1920–21) and the Waikato and Taranaki confiscations (1926–27) recommended that modest compensation be paid.