Namibia: Windhoek Hosts ITF Junior Tourney

JUNIOR tennis players from more than ten countries are currently competing in an International Tennis Federation J5 under 18 tournament at the Central Tennis Courts in Olympia.

The tournament has a J5 ranking and with international ranking points on offer, young players from as far as Sweden, France and Austria in Europe have turned up to compete.

Most of the competitors, however, are from African countries, including Namibia, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Swaziland, Madagascar, Angola and Egypt.

In the boys singles competition, most of Namibia's participants were knocked out in the first round, with only George Louw managing to record a victory.

Louw, who is seeded fifth and has a junior world ranking of 1 013, beat Antonio Tchivanda of Angola 6-0, 6-1, to book a second-round date with Elias Hoxha of Austria, who beat Rueben Rueben of South Africa 5-7, 6-3, 6-4.

The top-seeded Benedict Badza of Zimbabwe got off to a comfortable win, beating Tefy Rabarijaona of Madagascar 6-0, 6-0 in the first round.

Badza, who is ranked 454 in the world, will now take on Jovan Lubbe of South Africa, who beat Namibia's Joel Hiveluah 6-0, 6-0 in the first round.

The second-seeded Mark Nawa of Botswana, who is ranked 769 in the world, also had a comfortable first round victory after beating Namibia's Dian Calitz 6-0, 6-1 yesterday.

The third-seeded Yarona Morule of SA, who is ranked 700 in the world, had an easy 6-0, 6-0 win against Namibia's Stephan Koen, but the fourth-seeded Calum Jestin of SA went down in three sets to Yoshka Sborowsky of France, 6-7, 7-6, 6-4.

The sixth seeded Hayden Loffler of Swaziland beat Daniel Jauss of Namibia 6-3, 6-4.

Namibia's other competitors all lost their first round matches with Juan Kuhn going down 6-1, 6-0 to Francois van Wyk of SA; Ruan Calitz losing 6-1, 6-0 to Peet Karsten of SA; Phillip Jauss losing 6-3, 6-1 to Theo Nilsson of Sweden; Ruben Yssel losing 6-0, 6-0 to John Coetzee of SA; and Sarel Janse van Rensburg losing 6-3, 6-3 to JP van Wijk of SA.

In the girls singles competition, the top seeds all received first round byes to progress to the second round.

Dune Vaissaud of France, who has a junior world ranking of 610, is the top seed, while Shahd Habib of Egypt (world ranking 800) is the second seed.

Erin McKenzie of SA is the third seed, with a world ranking of 833, while Naledi Raguin of Botswana is the fourth seed with a world ranking of 918.

In first round matches, Harena Voaviandraina of Madagascar beat Che Nel of SA 6-4, 6-2; while another Madagascan, Andriana Voavy beat SA's Rune van Wyk 6-4, 6-3.

The tournament continues today through to the weekend when the finals will be held, and will be followed by a second ITF J4 Junior tournament next week.

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