01 Sep 2013

The Francistown school of tennis hosted a three-day development tournament for 38 participants aged between 4-12 years.

The tournament was played in four categories, the under-12 and under-10, which had three categories, the green balls, orange and mini tennis with red balls. School of tennis director, Dominique Raguin said the objective of the tournament was to nurture grass root development by offering young players opportunities to practice extensively. 

He explained that they had acquired a professional tennis coach and the young players were offered classes weekly through development programmes depending on the programme they joined under.

“Our belief is that the country has to train its talented youth into professional players, they need to start training in a structured and stimulating environment at an early age”, sad Raguin. He said recently, they took part in Selibe Phikwe junior championships and Bulawayo Open and at the end of September the school of tennis will send players to take part in Gauteng North spring junior tournament in South Africa.

Raguin said they organized multiple tournaments for the BISA northern region for both junior and senior schools. They plan to approach Botswana Primary School Sports Association (BOPSSA) to start working with local primary schools to introduce children to tennis at an early age.

The school’s coach, Oaitse Thipe said developing talent at young age is important because the players learn proper techniques, movement and coordination, which they will apply to their game as they grow. He said the development tournament gives match practice, which enables them to evaluate players’ progress.Thipe called on the corporate sector to invest in the development of tennis sport, adding that the  focus of the school of tennis is to produce professional tennis players, hence they choose to start with 4-12 years children. ENDS