Riki and Ben McLachlan are the Tennis Academy's biggest success story to date. Although they have now moved on to new pastures and challenges, the two young men represent the very best in Queenstown's tennis talent and show what can be achieved by learning from Lan's experience and advice plus shear dedication and hard work.

 

Riki and Ben started training with Lan when he first came to Queenstown in September 2002 when Riki was 11 and Ben 10. Both boys, who had been playing a number of sports, decided to focus on tennis with Lan's arrival. With great dedication from both coach and players, the boys achieved some excellent results before both heading away to the University of California at Berkeley on tennis scholarships at the end of the last decade.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Riki represented NZ at 12/Under, World Junior Tennis Champs (14/U) and Junior Davis Cup (16/U) before reaching an ITF Junior World Ranking high of 46 in 18/U. He played in all four Junior Grand Slams (Australian, French, Wimbledon and US) before going on to join the UC Berkeley Bears in August 2009.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ben represented NZ in the World Junior Tennis Champs (14/U) where NZ came 4th at the world finals in the Czech Republic in 2006 - including a win over the USA! Two years later he played for NZ in the Junior Davis Cup (16/U) and reached an ITF Junior World Ranking high of 45 in 2010. Ben also played in all four Junior Grand Slams before going on to join Riki at the US Berkeley Bears in August 2010.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Both boys went to Queenstown Primary School and Wakatipu High School before doing their schoolwork through the NZ correspondence school for the last two years, in order to have more time for tennis training and travel.

 

You can keep in touch with how Riki and Ben are doing at college in the US at http://www.calbears.com/sports/m-tennis/cal-m-tennis-body.html

 

Craig and Yuriko, the boys' parents, are extremely grateful for the efforts of Lan Bale, Mark Milburn, members of the Queenstown Tennis Club and members of the Queenstown community as a whole, who supported Riki and Ben as they dedicated themselves to achieving their goals.