Queenstown's McLachlan brothers have seen the inside of plenty of airports this year and it shows no sign of abating.
As Riki McLachlan (24) lines up to compete at the New Zealand championships in Auckland next week, his younger brother Ben (23) finds himself in Nigeria, of all places, as he continues his push to gain ranking points and push up the world rankings.
The brothers, who base themselves in Queenstown and have been to the United States and played collegiate tennis, have previously won the New Zealand residential championships doubles title.
But they will not be teaming up this year, as Ben has flown all the way to West Africa to play in the Governors Cup in Lagos, Nigeria.
Ben, who is ranked No4 in New Zealand, has been on a mission this year to lift his world ranking, playing at futures tournaments in Sri Lanka, Turkey, Israel, United States, Japan and the Dominican Republic.
His singles ranking now sits at 920 in the world but his doubles ranking is at 407, which is a jump of about 400 places since the start of the year.
The hard-court tournament in Lagos is worth $US15,000 ($NZ22,450), so it is hardly massive money, but it does have ranking points, which most players chase to improve their ranking.
They are a step down from the challenger events and are played all around the world.
The Lagos tournament starts on Monday.
Riki McLachlan, who has a New Zealand ranking of 24, is in the main draw of the singles at the New Zealand championships and will team up with James Meredith in the doubles.
McLachlan has been playing club tennis for Cockle Bay in Auckland and played in the Auckland club final against Blockhouse Bay last night.
The club flies him up to Auckland every weekend to play, and also pays him.
The team tennis includes four players with two games of doubles and each player playing in a singles match.
He said it was an extremely high standard of tennis, with former and current Davis Cup players in action.
The national championships start at North Harbour and then switch to Auckland for the semifinals and final at the end of the week.
Riki McLachlan played last week for the Queenstown Lakes team, which had an easy win over North Otago and Otago in a regional tie.
