New Zealand Courts Tennis Fever

A U C K L A N D, New Zealand, Jan. 20 -- The conventional wisdom is that Australia is a tennis-mad country, but who would have guessed New Zealand?

Here are some symptoms of a mild tennis mania observed in recent days in the land of Middle Earth:

The country awoke one morning last week to find The New Zealand Herald complaining that Television New Zealand had failed to broadcast enough tennis from the Heineken Open, an international men's tournament which drew dozens of talented competitors to Auckland. The event is a warm-up to the Australian Open, which opened Monday in Melbourne.

On its front page, The Herald reported complaints by viewers eager to watch Brazil's Gustavo Kuertan's attempt to repeat his 2001 French Open final victory over Spain's Alex Corretja.

Kuertan, cheered from the stands by dozens of young Brazilian tennis fans living in New Zealand, squeaked past Corretja, in three long sets. The Herald called it a "classic" match and harrumphed that viewers had been denied the opportunity to see it live because of poor scheduling by television programmers.

Last week, readers of The Truth, encountered a giant headline on newsstands: "Vice Girls Dress as Tennis Babes." In breathless tones, the tabloid newspaper reported that Auckland prostitutes had begun wearing skimpy tennis skirts to attract customers who were attending the ASB Bank Open, the international women's tournament which also precedes the Australian Open.

The facts presented by The Truth, which is similar in appearance to America's National Enquirer, seemed as skimpy as the skirts they allegedly discovered. (This reporter found many comments but no one who would be identified by name).

Still, it demonstrated that an admittedly sensationalist newspaper found tennis worthy of scandal, believing it would sell extra copies.

Dreams of Backyard Tennis

New Zealand's passions for sport run more deeply to rugby and yacht racing. The country's All Blacks form one of the world's premier rugby organizations. Team New Zealand is the nation's racing phenomenon, an athletic and marketing juggernaut which grew out of its success in winning the Americas Cup.