Thohoyandou — Two students from the University of Venda (Univen) will represent South Africa in the World Wheelchair Tennis Cup tournament to be held in Italy in June.

The country's undefeated female wheelchair tennis champions, Kgothatso Montjane and Sydwell

Mathonsi are the first South African wheelchair tennis players to qualify for the Paralympics.

According to the Director of Sport and Recreation at Univen, Kirsten Nematandani the tournament is being organised by the International Tennis Federation (ITF).

The 22-year-old Ms Montjane from Lebowakgomo in Limpopo has a record of scooping all the tournaments across the country between 2005 and 2006.

She won the Airports Company South Africa (ACSA) Open, the Free State Open, and the Limpopo Open as well as the South African Open.

As a result, the female wheelchair champion has a record of eight uninterrupted tournaments titles.

In 2006, the Paralympian represented South Africa at the Nottingham Open, the Belgium Open and the Amsterdam Open.

After she defeated her Nigerian opponent, Suzanna Dawudo in the Silver Fund Women's finals, the Univen student earned herself a wild card on merit for the 2008 Paralympics in Beijing, China.

Ms Montjane's leg was amputated in 1999 as a result of an infection and in 2005 she began playing wheelchair tennis.

Champion Ms Mathonsi started playing wheelchair tennis when she was just three years ago.

Ms Montjane, who is regarded as the strongest woman on the South African wheelchair tennis sport, is a third year Bachelor of Science student in Recreation and Leisure Studies.

According to Mr Nematandani, for people with disability the sport is played according to the conventional rules of tennis, except that the ball is allowed to bounce twice, but the first bounce should be within the usual court parameters.

Mr Nematandani said that both Ms Montjane and Ms Mathonsi and several other students performed well during the ACSA wheelchair tennis championships held in Pretoria and Johannesburg in the recent weeks.

"Following last week's ACSA championships, Ms Montjane, Ms Mathonsi, Tshilidzi Muanalo and

Desmond Monyane brought back awards from the tournament.

"This team was crowned the 2008 Goal ball Nedbank National Champions as they brought back the gold medals," said Mr Nematandani.

The director added that three more students represented Limpopo at the 2008 Nedbank National Championship for the physically disabled in Stellenbosch.

The three are Mpho Ramakonya (who represented South Africa during the All Africa Games in Algeria in 2007), Takalani Ndou and Thomas Nkosi.

He said the tournament will take place from 7 June until 16 June, adding that the University would hold a press conference to honour the two wheelchair tennis players on Tuesday.