Botswana hits Davis Cup bull's eye
Mqondisi Dube | Tuesday July 29, 2025 12:45
The sun-kissed hard court was turned into a witness to an exhilarating display of Davis Cup Africa Group 5 tennis as both teams had fans on the edge of their seats, marking a fitting end to the four-day competition. Ntungamili Raguin gave Botswana the perfect start after he beat his Madagascar counterpart, Lucas Andriamasilalao, 6-3, 6-2 in the first singles match. Eyes shifted to Denzel Seetso, who faced French-based Valentin Rakotondrasoa, and the two treated the crowd to a nail-biting contest. Seetso took the first set 6-4, but Rakotondrasoa hit back to claim the second and third sets, sending the contest into a decider through the doubles. Raguin teamed up with Mark Nawa, and despite dominating the opening set, the pair was pegged back in the second. It meant the third set was to be the decider, and the duo did not disappoint, firmly putting last year's disappointment of failing to clear the promotion hurdle.
Last year, Botswana came agonizingly close to promotion, but fell to Gabon in another epic encounter. This year, captain Phenyo Matong was spoilt for choice as most of the players came into the tournament on the back of good form. Raguin has been particularly impressive on the circuit and rightly got the nod ahead of Nawa for the decider in the singles against Madagascar. Matong sees a bright future for tennis with a team made up of young stars. 'The future is very bright. For depth on the team, we have Batsomi Marobela, who was part of the team but didn't play. There is Seabo Saleshando, also on par with guys in our team, having recently made the semi-finals in ITFs in South Africa. There is Tshepo Mosarwa, also capable of being part of the team, who could not take part due to commitments in the USA with his school,' Matong told SportMonitor.
'I see these guys continuing to do amazingly for the next few years,' he added. He also said the aim is to stay in the Davis Cup Africa Division IV or even go further, as Botswana has the talent to compete. Botswana Tennis Association (BTA) president, Oaitse Thipe, said the team deserved elevation to Division IV. 'Our team's performance was outstanding. They fought for every point and deserve to be promoted,' Thipe said. He said it was beneficial for Botswana to host the Davis Cup Group V qualifiers as there were downstream benefits. 'The organisation of this tournament shows the role that sports play in our economy. We had 100 people working on this tournament, and all 14 nations flew into the country. Local vendors were able to sell food, hotel accommodation value was close to P700,000,' Thipe said. Meanwhile, Mozambique took the other promotion spot after defeating Rwanda 2-0.