09 Mar 2016

The Francistown School of Tennis will this weekend host the Babolat Tennis Series.

Speaking in an interview, the director of the school, Dominique Raguin said the tournament, which is sponsored by Orange Botswana, Camusat, Air Liquide and AGS Fraser starts on Friday with an official opening by the French Ambassador and is expected to end on Sunday.

Raguin said players aged 4-12 years from around the country and five from the neighbouring Zimbabwe are expected to participate in the tournament.

He said just like the school of tennis, the tournament will help athletes embrace evolutive tennis, explaining that evolutive tennis is about the game progressing with the child’s physical growth.

Raguin said it involves players of different ages playing with different types of balls on courts that vary in size.

“The athletes use balls that differ in terms of bouncing, racket that differ in length and the courts are also divided differently to reduce the size,” he said.

He said the evolutive tennis, which is embraced by the International Tennis Federation (ITF), helps young players to enjoy the game as they learn proper skills and it also avoid injuries.

“Evolutive tennis help to make it possible for young children as early as four years old to genuinely enjoy the game while learning the proper technique from the onset,” said Raguin.

He said since its inception in 2013, the school of tennis has hosted 20 local tournaments and 10 national ones, adding that the weekend one is a national and the first ever to be sponsored.

Raguin noted that it is encouraging to see companies supporting high quality events that develop sport from the grass root levels.

He called on other companies to emulate Orange Botswana, Camusat, Air Liquide and AGS Fraser in nurturing talent and giving an opportunity to young players.

Raguin said by supporting such tournaments, the sponsors will be helping to develop local athletes to compete internationally, which is something that is in the Botswana National Olympic Committee (BNOC) long term development policy.

He said it is important for companies to invest in the development of sport at the grass roots level because that way the country could  have more stars in the future. Ends