International junior tennis event starts in Gaborone

MQONDISI DUBE
Staff Writer | Tuesday December 7, 2010 00:00

 

The five-day tournament has players from Italy, Madagascar, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Egypt, Mauritius, Namibia, Malawi, South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe.

The competition is a Grade Five International Tennis Federation (ITF) event. Botswana Tennis Association (BTA) technical manager, Boikobo Gaolebalwe said they are hosting the tournament in order to give local players international exposure.  'It is a Grade Five tournament which means that players are here to collect points. This will have a bearing on their rankings,' Gaolebalwe said. He said the advantage of staging the tournament is that hosts are allowed to field more players.

Botswana usually sends four representatives to the tournament but in this edition, it is allowed to field 20, mostly through wild card entry. Gaolebalwe said they fielded mostly Under-14 players to develop young talent.

'They are young players without experience but at the end of the day, we want to develop them.' The oldest player is 17-year-old Lame Botshoma who holds the country's medal hopes. Another promising Botswana player is young sensation, Innocent Tidimane, who is currently based at the High Performance Centre in Pretoria, South Africa.  He played towering Italian, Riccardo Chessari, in the opening match yesterday morning. The unseeded Italian hit some booming drives but did not unsettle his younger, diminutive opponent who responded well with some savvy play.

Warren Kuhn of South Africa is the top seed in the boys' singles with a world ranking of 185. In the girls' section, Katy Dunne of Great Britain is the top seed. Gaolebalwe believes Botswana players will be in top condition for the third leg of the ITF/CAT Under-18 circuit, which starts in Gaborone on Sunday.

Botswana was supposed to host the Grade Four ITF circuit in August but it was postponed due to change of guard at the BTA. Former BTA president, Judge Mookodi, resigned after he joined the Botswana Football Association (BFA) as chief executive officer.  He has been replaced by former BTA spokesperson, Oshinka Tsiang after elections held on Saturday.