02 Jul 2019

Tshenolo Mooketsi of BDF Table Tennis club was crowned the winner of the Independence Road to Finale National Open tournament hosted by the Botswana Table Tennis Association over the weekend.

The 21-year-old Mooketsi, who is ranked first in Botswana, whitewashed Thobo Matlhatsi beating him 11-8,11-9,12-10 to claim the men singles title with a 3-0 win. 

He bagged a gold medal, which was his second after winning the Mhabe Championship last year.

Both Matlhatsi and Mooketsi are not strangers to each other.

Their match was a case of the master against the understudy, as the Mooketsi refers to the more experienced Matlhatsi as his mentor both on and off the court.

After dropping the second game to fall even, Mooketsi reeled off six straight points to open the third game but quickly appeared to be on the ropes, trailing 10-9 in the final set.  “I felt I had more margin for error than I did last year,” said Mooketsi, who was looking for his first title this season since being crowned the Nhabe champion and receiving Jwaneng open runners-up medal last year.

His road to the final was not a rosy one as he had to overcome an uphill battle in the semi-finals in the form of top-seeded and tournament favourite, Boago Malomela.

In what was dubbed the final before the finals, the top two ranked table tennis heavyweights, had a fierce battled that needed a tiebreaker set and ended in a 3-2 win in favour of Mooketsi.

“My rivalry with Malomela is a healthy one and I am glad I got my revenge back as he knocked me out of the last Independence Road to Finale tournament in the semi-finals hence I was optimists of winning the championship the moment I crushed him out,” he said.  A flurry of upsets also saw Tshepiso Rabatenne being crowned the women’s champion defeating Olorato Ramagapu 3-1 in the finals while the duet of  Oratile Kedisaletse and William Olyn were crowned mixed double champions. Ends