08 Jul 2021

Local tennis players continue to excel overseas in college tennis.

Thato Holmes and Tshepo Mosarwa are some of the players who recently won the USA South Men’s Tennis Conference Championship.

Another player, 16-year-old Ekau Youri is in Spain, training with Barcelona Tennis Academy and she won two women open tournaments this year and reached the final of another tournament

Also, the national tennis team also raised the country’s flag high during the recent Africa Avis Cup that was held in Congo, Brazzaville.

The team finished in second position in their group, securing a spot in the playoffs.

Ten African nations took part in the tournament and they were divided into two pools, each made up of five teams and top two teams in each pool proceeded to the play offs to determine, which two nations would be promoted to Africa Cup III in 2022.

From pool A, Namibia finished on position one after winning all their four matches, followed by Botswana with three wins and one loss.

Botswana’s first tie in pool A was against Namibia and lost 3-0, during the second match against Angola, Botswana emerged victorious by 3-0.

The third match, Botswana won 3-0 against Uganda and went on to win their last match in pool A, beating the host Congo 3-0.

In the promotional play offs, Botswana lost 2-0 to Cote d’Ivoire, while Namibia won their encounter against Nigeria. Namibia and Cote d’Ivoire have now been promoted to Africa Cup III in 2022.

In an interview with BOPA, coach Petrus Molefe was pleased with the team’s performance.

The coach said at the beginning of the tournament, he informed his team of three areas which they had to improve each day, which were mental, tactical and focus.

“I promised them that if we could improve on these areas, everything would take care of itself,” he added.

He said they started working on those areas in camp, but had to emphasise their importance after losing the first encounter, which then paid off.

He indicated that at the tournament, he learnt that too much time should not only be spent on athletes’ technical ability but also on their tactical and mental strength.

The coach urged other local players who did not make it for the Davis cup team to train hard, as that would help them in securing space in the team and eventually assist in building a future strong team, as well as for preparations of Africa cup to be hosted by Tunisia in October 2021.

Meanwhile, Botswana Tennis Association said 2021 edition of Botswana Open Championships would be hosted in Gaborone from July 17 to 20. ENDS