Botswana Fails To Qualify For Africa Tennis Championship
Calistus Kolantsho | Monday January 15, 2018 17:00
Botswana coach, Kagiso Kelebeile told Sport Monitor that with the ongoing Championships, they had wanted five players to qualify for the continental showpiece.
“The draw did not favour us. We won the first matches nicely, but the next matches we met strong players,” he said. Kelebeile said the challenge is that the championship was held at the wrong time when players are just coming from the festive break and had not been training.
He said they did not have enough time to prepare the players for the championship. Kelebeile decried lack of enough local tournaments.
“If we had more tournaments, it would give our players enough game time. Players from other countries are exposed to many tournaments and they do not have stage fright compared to ours.
They are well prepared and know what it takes to win. The most important thing we need is to have more tournaments,” Kelebeile said.
Botswana Tennis Association (BTA) official, Oatsi Thipe said Botswana has shown improvement from the first tournament moving into the second tournament. He said there is a pool of talented players especially the Under-14s. The Under-14 boys beat Madagascar 3-0.
The Under-16 girls followed by beating Lesotho with the same score margin. “With great investment in them in terms of development, by the time they finish Under-18, they could be competing with the world and rated amongst the top players,” Thipe said.
He said there is also a need to invest in coaches, increase the number of tournaments they host and to monitor players especially those who are based outside the country. Thipe said players must be given an opportunity to go into training camps in developed countries in Europe.
He however said that will be determined by the funds. Regarding the heat, Thipe said players had to acclimatize. He said big tournaments such as Australian Open are also played under high temperatures.
Participating countries are Botswana, Malawi, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Swaziland, Mauritius and Madagascar.
Angola and Zambia did not attend the championship, which come to an end tomorrow.
On the final day, countries would be graded according to positions.
Botswana has fielded Tsholofelo Tsiang, Thabang Mosupi, Batsomi Marobela, Jonathan Gaetsaloe, Thato Madikwe, Anele Phatshwane, Lilly Poely, Kao Lenkopanye, Katlego Mogorosi, Abia Bleskit, Arnold Bleskit, Mark Nawa, Oabona Keobatlile, Amantle Dishebo, Kefilwe Sebitola, Keoratile Gwapela, Leungo Gaobotse, Bangu Maekejo and Ekua Refilwe Youri.