WITH all the ATP Tour and WTA Tour tournaments on hiatus for the time being, Draft Central will take a look at various nations across the globe and analyse how the top players from that nation are performing. Our next nation is New Zealand.

Top ATP player: Ajeet Raj
Rank: 917th (as of March 9, 2020)
Age: 21
Points: 13
Tournaments Played: 18

The 21-year-old is currently the top ranked singles player in the nation, with a singles ranking of 917th, and a doubles ranking of a slightly higher 833rd. He has a considerably higher career-high ranking of 694th in the world for singles, but has only played the three ATP Tour matches in the format over his career, and just the one this year. That was a loss in the Davis Cup Group 1 clash between New Zealand and Venezuela where he went down in three sets to Luis David Martinez after a strong start, 5-7 6-4 6-2.

With his three previous tournaments coming in Cancun, Mexico at the M15 level, he had made the trip from his home nation over the summer where he took place in the ASB Classic in Auckland. While one would think the top ranked player would earn a main draw wildcard, Raj had to fight his way through qualifying, but unfortunately drew world number 86, Thiago Monteiro in the first round and was knocked out 6-4 6-2 in the process.

Having only been touring three years, Raj is yet to compete in Europe. He won his maiden – and only – ITF Tour tournament back in October 2018, when he broke through in Hua Hin, Thailand in an F6 event. Yet to match it against the top players, Raj has a long way to go but has time on his side.

Other notable New Zealand ATP players: Rhett Purcell (#923), Finn Tearney (eq. 1019th)

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Top WTA player: Paige Mary Hourigan
Rank: 442nd (as of March 9, 2020)
Age: 23
Points: 93
Tournaments Played: 15

New Zealand has four players that are either inside the top 1000 or on the verge of breaking into the top 1000, led by Paige Mary Hourigan who is safely inside the top 500. The 23-year-old has played 15 tournaments in the past 12 months and has been able to get around the ITF circuit, though her 2020 Australian experience has not been great, losing in the first round three consecutive times after winning through qualifying in Burnie with a victory over local hope, Zara Brankovic 12-10 in the third. Hourigan earned a wildcard in Auckland for the ASB Classic, but unfortunately copped fifth seed, Caroline Wozniacki who showed no mercy on her way to a 6-1 6-0 win in what would be the Danish Grand Slam winner’s penultimate tournament.

Hourigan won an ITF15K event in Cancun last year, and made a couple of semi-finals along the way. But her best work has come in doubles, where she reached the final in Perth at the most recent completed event with partner, Abigail Tere-Apisah. Tere-Apisah is a Papua New Guinea player who most notably stunned Australian, Arina Rodionova 6-4 6-0 in the Round of 16 at the Perth ITF25 event. Hourigan has also partnered up with Australian, Destanee Aiava in Burnie where they made a semi-final, and former top five singles player, Sara Errani in Auckland where the pair unfortunately bombed out in the first round.

Keeping in mind that Hourigan is still 23, she is touring well across the hard court circuit and could be one that becomes a strong doubles fixture on the WTA Tour, or increases her singles load year-by-year going into the future.

Other notable New Zealand WTA players: Emily Fanning (#590), Erin Routliffe (#773), Valentina Ivanov (#1008)

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Summary:

New Zealand is not known for an abundance of tennis stars, but there are a couple of young guns filtering through, and enough to suggest that Davis Cup and Fed Cup squads could maintain a solid overall ranking, though are still someway off the world group just yet.