Tennis NZ appoints High Performance Director

Tennis NZ has appointed Christophe Lambert to the role of High-Performance Director replacing Simon Rea who returned to Australia in January. Lambert has been Tennis New Zealand’s National coach for the past 23 months.

“There were 29 applicants for the role. Christophe was the standout candidate considering his significant previous experience and his alignment with the high performance and performance development philosophy implemented with Simon.” Tennis NZ CEO Julie Paterson said.

The 54-year-old who will start the role immediately, has a Kiwi partner of 21 years and they have been living back in New Zealand for 5 years. Lambert has more than 25 years of High-Performance coaching experience and has previously worked at Tennis Canada where he was the Head Coach of the Toronto National Junior Centre and was the private coach for current US Open champion Bianca Andreescu as a junior in 2016.

Earlier roles include coaching the Chinese Davis Cup team, top Chinese player Li Zhe and five years as National Travelling Coach for the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA). His players there included Andy Murray Jamie Baker, Andrew Kennaugh and Chris Eaton.

“I am very happy and honoured to become TNZ HP Director.” Lambert said. “I want to carry on the task Simon Rea initiated, creating an optimal high performance environment for our players, and work with the tennis community in the regions to bring more players to an international standard”.

“With Christophe’s appointment there is of course a vacancy now for National coach, but we will be taking time to review the current High Performance needs and assess what the future requirements will be before advertising.” Paterson said.

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In other exciting news...the Davis Cup is coming back to Auckland for the first time in three years.  The Kiwi team of Artem Sitak, Marcus Daniell, Ajeet Rai, Rubin Statham and Finn Tearney will be action 6-7 March at the ASB Tennis Arena. Join us in supporting them as they take on Venezuela.  Adult tickets only $10, kids 14u FREE!  

Friday 4pm | Saturday 12pm

TICKET INFO HERE