Namibia's Israel Dowie got off to a great start at the International Tennis Federation U18 J30 tournament in Windhoek yesterday with an impressive 6-1, 6-0 victory against Lukas Calitz of South Africa.
Dowie gave a powerful performance with strong serves and groundstrokes to wear his opponent down and clinch a place in the second round of the competition, where he will face Jean Joubert of South Africa, who beat Henrik Aaman of Norway 6-3, 3-6, 6-3.
Dowie, who is only 15 years old, is one of Namibia's top rising tennis talents and has been based in Cape Town for the past few years, where he attends the Anthony Harris Tennis Academy.
"I moved to Cape Town when I was nine for my tennis. My mom and dad sold everything we had here in Windhoek, we just decided to move, so we moved there and it's been going well so far," he said after his match yesterday.
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Despite his youthful age, he has already made quite an impression in South Africa, where he is ranked fourth in the U16 category, while he has been ranked second for the J30 tournament in Windhoek.
At the South African National Championships two weeks ago, he reached the U16 boys' final where he lost 7-5, 6-4 to top seed Daniel Brink. He then teamed up with Brink to win the doubles title.
"It was a good match - I think I played well," Dowie said.
"The key was going to be to hold my serve. It's so tough because he has a big serve, so I was just trying to hold my serve and try and return well so I can break his serve," he added.
With international ranking points up for grabs, young players from all over the world have entered the tournament, ranging from South Africa and Zimbabwe, to further afield like Germany, Austria, Norway and even the Philippines.
Another Namibian junior, Ruben Yssel, however, was knocked out after he had to withdraw due to injury against top seed Oluhle Senti of South Africa. Senti was well in charge, leading 6-0, 4-0, when Yssel withdrew due to a groin injury.
Another Namibian, Johan Theron, put up a good fight before losing his first round match against Nicholas Kruger of South Africa in three sets, 6-4, 1-6, 5-7.
Most of the first-round matches went according to seedings, with the only upsets being that of fourth seed Tshepang Maisela of South Africa and eighth seed Connor Miller of South Africa.
Maisela lost 6-1, 6-2 to Tobias Lassacher of Austria, while Miller lost 7-5, 6-3, 3-6 to Kevin Schnell of Austria.
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Third seed Kei Badenhorst of South Africa beat Brice Baisa of the Philippines 6-2, 6-4; fifth seed Stefanos Roussos of Greece beat Levi Marks of South Africa 6-3, 6-3; sixth seed Mattis Thorsnes of Norway beat Tadiwa Mombeyarara of Zimbabwe 6-0, 6-0; and seventh seed Alexzander Petrov of South Africa beat Noah Stensrod of Norway 6-3, 6-2.
Dowie, meanwhile, said he hopes to go far in the tournament.
"It's a tough tournament, but it's nice playing out here so I'll try my best and see how it goes. I've played and beaten most of the players here before, including top seed Oluhle. The last time we played I beat him 7-6, 6-3 so that was pretty good," he said.
