OPPORTUNITY: Canterbury coach Matt Meredith has been appointed the Tennis New Zealand high performance advisory group. Photo: Cashmere Tennis Club.

Canterbury tennis coach Matt Meredith is keen to use his new national role to improve the pathways for young players to progress in the game.

Cashmere’s director of coaching has been appointed to the Tennis New Zealand high performance advisory group.

“We’re trying to develop a pathway for our players to reach the top of the ATP or WTA tennis,” he said.

“It’s not a paid role but it’s about helping the national coach (Christophe Lambert) with advice and how we can best support our players through tournaments and national camps.”

Meredith said the road to playing top level tennis can be challenging for emerging Kiwi players because of our geographical isolation and size, so it was important players were given opportunities to thrive internationally.

“Tennis has changed a lot in the last few years... no one is really cracking it until they are 22 these days and they’re playing until they’re 34,” he said.

“That’s where the American college system comes into play really well.

“I believe New Zealand has always produced technically good junior players but we have found it hard to have a crack at that elite level.

“Financially it’s very tough and geographically it’s hard - it’s not like being in Europe where you can easily pop between countries to play tournaments and gain experience.

“My belief is we need to keep players through that transition from juniors to elite.

“The top 100 in the world are the only ones making good money so it’s quite cut-throat.”

Meredith said Canterbury continued to produce strong junior players like national No 1 under-18 Reece Falck, and Abby Mason.

“Reece is probably limited with who he can hit with and play with down here so he has to play inter-club in Auckland on a Friday night and he’s at that stage where he was meant to be playing the junior grand slams and that’s been taken away from him,” he said.

“I imagine he’ll be off to college sooner rather than later.”

Meredith said it was important to stay in touch with emerging players overseas and offer them opportunities when they return home.