Seetso Drops In Tennis Rankings
Calistus Kolantsho | Monday March 25, 2019 12:37
Botswana Tennis Association (BTA) vice president, Oatsi Thipe told Sport Monitor that the drop in rankings has nothing to do with the performance of the player.
Thipe said Seetso did not play a tournament that was held in Madagascar as he wanted to focus on another tournament in Reunion.
“He did not prioritise the Madagascar tournament because his focus was on Mauritius one, where there are lots of European players from France. That affected his ranking. So he dropped because he did not play Madagascar tournament. It was a plan by his coach,” he said.
Thipe said the aim is for Seetso to be part of the International Tennis Federation (ITF) European team if he reaches the finals of the Africa Junior Championship to be held in South Africa next month.
Seetso spent a year at the ITF Centre in Kenya after receiving the ITF scholarship. The player is now back home and is being coached by Phenyo Matong.
Meanwhile, it has been a busy period for local tennis players as they competed in various international tennis tournaments.
The highlights so far have been when Tshegofatso Tsiang who reached the finals of the Under 18 ITF Grade 5 in Bulawayo last week. Tsiang lost to an American player, Lauren Cooper.
Tsiang’s performance raised her ranking to 496. Thipe said the player has also reached two doubles semi finals of the ITF Under 18 in Potchefstroom and Benoni.
“Mark Nawa also reached two doubles finals in Madagascar at ITF/CAT Under 14 at the beginning of March. Nawa is ranked number 27 in Africa Under 14,” he said.
Nawa, Oabona Keobatlile and Loago Saleshando are currently competing at the South African national championship in Bloemfontein.
BTA had sent an Under 12 team to Bulawayo for the ITF/CAT team championship. The girls’ team came second after South Africa on Friday while the boys’ team scooped position four.