31 Aug 2021

The national Under 18 team is in South Africa for the International Tennis Federation/Confederation of African tennis tournament.

The tournament started on August 29 and would end on September 10.

The team, which is led by coach Aobakwe Lekang is made up of four boys; Denzel Seetso, Mark Nawa, Batsomi Marobela, Loago Saleshando and three girls; Chelsea Chakanyuka, Ekua Refilwe Youri as well as Naledi Raguin.

Speaking in an interview on Monday, Botswana Tennis Association (BTA) president, Oaitse Thipe, was optimistic that the team would perform well considering their recent achievements.

“Naledi has been preparing by playing open tournaments in France. Ekua has already won two open tournaments in Barcelona while Denzel won Botswana open in July,” he said.

He highlighted that players were selected looking at their ITF rankings and they wanted them to qualify for Africa Junior Championships to be hosted by Tunisia in November.

“We only selected seven players due to budget constraints”, said Thipe.

A communication from the association indicated that the tournament would offer the team a great opportunity to earn International Tennis Federation points, hence improving international rankings.

It further said the tournament would also be used to prepare players for upcoming national team engagements such as Africa Nations Cup in October and the AUSC Region 5 games to be hosted later this year in Lesotho.

The association said it hoped to send more players to other Under 18 ITF/CAT events in an endeavour to offer players more game time, exposure to international games, match fitness and in the process creating highly competitive players. ENDS