The Voice (Francistown)
Monnakgotla Mojaki
1 April 2008
Francistown — Having more players enter the international and continental tennis championships has helped Botswana get more players earning vital points. This is despite the fact that a few local coaches feel players need enough time to prepare for tournaments of such magnitude.
Two Botswana players, Thabiso Mabaka - who prior to the tournament received a personal sponsorship from KIM's auto - and Lame Batshaba progressed to the second round of this year's competition. The two are the only local players to have gone to the second round by virtue of winning matches and not through the normal BYE technique which gives players a chance to continue competing even when they have been knocked out of the competition.
In the doubles, Lefa Sibanda and Batshoma managed to reach the semi-finals and thus set a new record for the local players who have never gone thus far.
Four other young players managed to break yet another record in the ongoing African Junior Championships. These players, according to a Botswana Tennis Association Sports Development Officer, also earned points to be graded and compete in other continental competitions.
"There are tournaments where the highest ranked players in the continent are invited and if we have players earning points it gives them an opportunity to compete in many other tournaments and still improve their grading. A female player, Katlego Gouwe, also broke the record and became the first player to qualify for the second round in the ladies category until she pulled out because of injury," Serufho told Voice Sport.
There have also been good benefits for umpires because they stand a good chance of being graded. Last year, when Botswana hosted the tournament, there were many officials from outside because there were less qualified officials at home and this year the number of those sent have been reduced because more umpires were graded after last year's tournament.
"Last year, we had four of our umpires going for level II and three passed so we are hoping after a job well done this past week more maybe recommended. Above all, since the tournament kicked off we've had coverage from both the electronic and print media and awareness was created. A couple of parents have been making enquiries about how their children can join, so it shows we have made progress," Serufho explained.
South Africa has so far won three matches from the six singles category with Morocco, Egypt and Tunisia managing one apiece. South Africa looks to walk away with more wins than all the other countries and Serufho attributes this to the more players they have sent because they have the second highest number of players after the hosts.
"Our new and upcoming coaches have also gained valuable experience by participating for the first time at this level. Besides having an opportunity to coach players at a higher level they interacted with our own local coaches and, of course, the international private coaches," an excited Serufho revealed.
One of the newcomers in the coaching at the highest level concurs with Serufho that indeed they got experience.
"As an upcoming coach I have learnt a lot from these experienced coaches. I asked them a lot of questions and benefited in our defeats. The other players we were competing against were well grilled and they had had more match practice as compared to our players. This alone can be a deciding factor in a game." Ernest Seleke explained.
Meanwhile, the annual general meeting for the tennis bosses ended yesterday where a number of issues, ranging from coaching, administration, marketing plan and development projects were discussed.
According to Nelson Amanze, a member of the Association of Southern African Tennis, the AGM helps identify problems and how to tackle them through each zone. Botswana is in Zone V with other SADC countries and other regions that attended are Central, East, Northern and West African countries.
Meanwhile the tournament ends on Sunday with qualification for the Davis Cup, Federations Cup and World Junior Championships where the top four countries at under-16 will be known by the end of the weekend.
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