‘Scraping teeth’: NZ’s best tennis player faces career uncertainty over money woes

New Zealand’s best tennis player’s career could be cut short due to the lack of financial support.

Kiranpal (KP) Pannu, 27, is currently living paycheck to paycheck on the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) tour as he tries to boost his rankings.

Pannu told the Herald that it’s become the norm to take shortcuts and organise his tournament schedule around what he can and can’t afford.

“I can’t travel with my coach; I can’t play the schedule that I would want to; I’m trying to play in cheaper parts of the world,” he said.

He’s even forced to make the calls on whether to get his racket restrung for a match or push through.

“That’ll save me, $15-$20 bucks USD but then the strings will break [mid-match].”

Pannu became the country’s No 1 player in May, having surpassed Ajeet Rai and Rubin Statham in singles ranking points. He has also earned Auckland’s ASB Classic’s local wildcard at the last two tournaments.

On Monday (NZT) he won the men’s $15,000 Santo Domingo ITF, beating China’s Fnu Nidunjianzan 6-4, 5-7, 7-6 in the final. The result saw him reach his ATP career-high singles ranking and enter the top 500 in the world.

Despite the ideal outcome, Pannu chose this particular tournament in the Dominican Republic because it was affordable, as he found an Airbnb for $30 a night.

As the mental stresses of finances dictate his schedule, Pannu said he could get by on the tour for another few years but would be scraping his teeth.

The Wellington local hoped the achievement of becoming New Zealand’s No 1 could serve as leverage, positioning him as more marketable for sponsorship opportunities.

“I just want to try to find partnerships and stuff off the court to really help fund the operation and maybe make it a little less stressful having to live paycheck to paycheck,” he continued.

“This is the first time that I’ve been the New Zealand No 1 and I’ve been asking my dad to help me [find a sponsor], and I’ve been reaching out to people, but it’s just so tough.”

Pannu doesn’t blame the governing body, Tennis New Zealand (TNZ), for the position he’s in, instead acknowledging it’s because the sport is unprofitable in this country.

“We have the ASB Classic once a year and that [TNZ] don’t even have full ownership of that.”

He also believes Kiwi tennis success is far more complex than funding, more so because of the country’s sheer isolation.

“We’re so far away from Europe, Asia, North America, South America, everywhere,” he explained.

“We have Australia close, which is amazing. They have a Grand Slam and they’re a very profitable – Tennis Australia is making a lot of money and doing great things for the sport, so we’re lucky in that sense.

“But to just say it’s funding, it’s far more complex than that – the main reason is logistically it’s so tough.

“If you look at all the top players in the world and where they’ve played growing up and how they’ve done it, it’s not possible to take that same route as a Kiwi.

“You got to spend six months in Europe a year as a 12-year-old, which is tough.”

“[New Zealanders] definitely have an uphill battle.”

Julie Paterson, TNZ’s chief executive, told the Herald that it’s well-documented globally how tough it can be to break through to a level where players can make a comfortable living from professional tennis.

“Tennis is an expensive sport to compete in, with extensive travel needed in order to compete for rankings points,” Paterson said.

“New Zealand players are particularly disadvantaged by the relative distance to the Northern Hemisphere where the majority of events are played.”

Pannu does not meet the criteria for TNZ’s Targeted Athlete programme, and he is not one of the two male players who receive financial support from High Performance Sport New Zealand.

Patterson said the Targeted Athlete criteria is based on their strategic aim of having top 100 singles players and uses established data – primarily world rankings at different ages – to determine who meets the criteria.

“Instead we support him and our other top men’s and women’s players through our Davis Cup and Billie Jean King Cup national team programmes,” said Patterson.

Pannu says unless he can find more funding or a sponsor, he won’t be able to cover expenses until he’s good enough to play in Grand Slam Qualifiers – but reveals it’s within reach.

“I’m just inside the top 500 now [and] to get to the Grand Slam qualies, I’ve got to about 250.

“I still have work to do, but I’m not too far off.”

But he’s naturally hungry to go further: reach the top 50 and play in a Grand Slam.

“I’ll be really satisfied and proud of myself if I can sit back at 45 years old and be like, ‘wow, I reached my ceiling’.”

Bonnie Jansen is a multimedia journalist in the NZME sports team. She’s a football commentator and co-host of the Football Fever podcast. She’s equally passionate about women’s sport and was part of the Te Rito cadetship scheme before becoming a fulltime journalist.