On a warm July afternoon, in front of a vociferous crowd, Denzel Seetso held all the aces, as he pushed Botswana to the brink of promotion to Division IV. In fact, at one stage of the match, it was a matter of when not if Seetso would wrap up the match. Across the court, was the intimidating gangly figure of Gabonese player, Herve Antchandie. Antchandie is a willy-old fox and has been exposed to some top levels of tennis, but here he was, a set down, and Seetso saving for the match at 5-0 in the second set. A win for Seetso would have seen Botswana progress to the fourth division, and it appeared a mere formality at that stage. But little did the bellowing crowd know that the Gabon star had something up his sleeve. Below the raucous melodies of the home fans, a storm was bubbling. Up to that point, Antchandie had seemed disinterested and dejected, resigned to handing the match to Seetso who had been unplayable up to that point. Antchandie spring up like a whirlwind, and within seconds he was battering Seetso from all angles, delivering an assortment of missiles from backhands to aces, all served with chilling accuracy. Seetso buckled under pressure despite efforts from the crowd to lift the local favourite. 5-0 became 5-1, then 5-2 whilst the fans kept hope that Seetso needed just one service game to wrap up the business. But Antchandie was unrelenting and he sent booming drives on his way to a truly shocking 7-5 victory.
The National Tennis Centre fell silent as the up to then subdued Gabon camp, found its voice. It was a stunning upset which was aptly summed as salvaging defeat from the jaws of victory. Now 12 months later, Botswana has been presented with a picture perfect opportunity to erase the bitter memories of last year's winter. It is more or less the same faces who are tasked with delivering promotion to Division IV. Seetso is still the team's top seed, with Mark Nawa and Ntungamili Raguin participating in the first two assignments against Libya on Wednesday and Congo yesterday. Botswana cruised to identical 3-0 wins over their opponents, and they are all but guaranteed progress to the promotion play-off spot on Saturday. Today (Friday) Botswana will play Ethiopia with the winner progressing to the last four phases. Progress to the promotion play-off match did not prove a problem for Botswana last year, and they are in cruise control again this year.
