An unsuccessful attempt at becoming a professional tennis player was probably one of the best things that happened to former Silver Ferns’ legend Margharet Matenga.
Matenga recently came over from the Cook Islands to attend the funeral of her former Ferns’ team-mate Marg Forsyth, which brought back a lot of memories for the 65-year-old.
Her father, the late Teanua Dan Kamana, a talented sportsman himself and one of the Cook Islands’ longest-serving parliamentarians, had a huge influence on her sporting pursuits.
The fourth of six children, Matenga played netball growing up, but tennis was the sport that dominated.
Her father had big ambitions for her after she beat the Cook Islands tennis champ at just 14.
Her dad took her to see a movie on Evonne Goolagong – the first Indigenous Australian to achieve success in tennis on the world stage.
“It was shown at the cinema in Rarotonga and he took me along. He said ‘look that lady’s got two eyes, two hands, two legs, the same as you and I think you can make it like her’.
“To get into professional tennis overseas you’d have to start at the age of five, six…I was at college at the time,” laughs Matenga.
He sent her to Auckland when she was 17 to pursue a pro career. It made the newspapers in Rarotonga.
“It was in the headlines in the newspapers in the Cook Islands that I was going to New Zealand to get professional coaching and I would make it big.”
But after a couple of months in Auckland, everything fell by the wayside when she barely heard a peep from tennis officials.
“For me it was too late…I was too old to start getting into professional tennis …I just got my coaching from Dad, you know being on the sideline. I didn’t have a good background in coaching from someone that knows.”
Matenga was staying at her aunty and uncle’s in Auckland for a couple months doing nothing, when her father came over.
He stopped off on his way to Christchurch as the manager of the Cook Islands team for the 1974 Commonwealth Games.
Matenga said coming back home wasn’t an option.
“He was so upset, and of course it would have been embarrassing for us if I had to come back with him with nothing achieved …and especially our people, they had high hopes for me …it would have been disappointment and embarrassing for my family.”
