Tennis New Zealand is delighted to announce that Peter Lumsden has been appointed to the position of Peak Performance Manager – Women’s.

 

Lumsden, an experienced coach, project manager and educator will take up the part-time role in mid-June. The role will be based at the Tennis NZ office in Auckland during the peak summer period, when the majority of players are in the country, and will also divide time between his other roles with Tennis Australia and Tennis Victoria, which are based from country Victoria.

 

Lumsden who has an Elite coaching qualification has worked with many aspiring and professional players. Most notably he coached Stephen Huss to his 2005 Wimbledon doubles title (with Wesley Moodie), in a project type fashion, similar to the requirements of this important role with Tennis NZ.

 

Tennis NZ CEO Steve Walker announced, “We are delighted with the appointment of Peter. Our women’s programme, spearheaded by Marina Erakovic, Ellen Barry and Sacha Jones, is heading in a great direction. 

"Peter’s expertise and desire for success will complement this and push things further into the right direction”. 

He added, “This appointment complements the roles played by James Greenhalgh on the men’s side of things, and Pete McCraw who looks after the overall development of coaches. It also builds on the great network of coaches we have at RPC level including Peter Blow, Jeff Simpson, Lan Bale, Glenn Wilson, Werner Venter and Clint Packer.”

 

Lumsden is similarly pleased to be joining the team at Tennis NZ, “I am looking forward to working with the team at Tennis New Zealand along with all players, coaches and stakeholders involved in the women’s game. The role of Peak Performance Manager is certainly a challenge I accept and a role that will deliver world class expertise and support for the female tennis players in New Zealand going forward.”

The appointment comes at a time when the peak performance objectives that Tennis NZ set have been well and truly exceeded. The objective of 10-15% annual improvement in the aggregate rankings of the top five men, women, boys and girls, has actually reached 30%, 11%, 41% and 31% respectively at the completion of year one of the plan. 

The Fed Cup team also exceeded its initial objective for the year, and the Davis Cup team, in the Asia/Oceania II final, is in a strong position to do the same. The Lumsden appointment provides Tennis NZ with another great resource so as to capitalize on this progress and further drive it.