On Saturday, about 35 players entered a special doubles tournament to raise money to help Dan Milburn, 17 and his younger brother Noa, 15, travel to tournaments in Asia next year while also bolstering a fund to resurface the club’s top two Queenstown Gardens courts.
Before the tournament, about $40,000 was needed to reach the $200,000 target for resurfacing.
The boys’ father and coach, Mark Milburn, said about $11,000 was raised from the auction of eight "professional" players on Saturday morning — Dan, Noa and Mark Milburn, former doubles professional Ben McLachlan, former United States professional Doug Bohaboy, Perry Crockett, Bjorn Pollock and Harry James.
Anyone could bid on those players to be their doubles partner for the day in a special "pro-am" tournament — those who did not score a professional went into the draw for separate division one and two doubles tournaments.
Milburn said the final of the pro-am was hotly contested and came down to Reece Gibson, who won Bohaboy, and Teresa Chapman, who won Noa — eventually the former pairing took the crown.
An exhibition match between the talented siblings also proved fiercely competitive, but it was Dan who won, 6-3, Milburn said.
After a successful New Zealand winter in Asia, where Dan’s U18 International Tennis Federation ranking dropped from about 1600 to 500, and Noa’s dropped from about 2500 to 800, the brothers were now focused on the upcoming New Zealand nationals, being held in Christchurch.
Dan, who won the New Zealand 16-and-under title last year, would now be competing in the 18-and-under junior championships, from November 29 to December 3, then Noa would compete in the 16-and-under championships, December 4-8.
Meanwhile the boys’ brother, Kai, 18, is in his first year of a four-year tennis scholarship at the University of Mississippi in the US.
Last month, he and Isac Stromberg won the ITA southern regional doubles championship to qualify for the NCAA doubles championships, being held later this month in Orlando, Florida.
