22 Jun 2022

Botswana Tennis Association (BTA) has begun preparations for the Davis Cup and Billie Jean King Cup slated for July 4-9.

The men’s national team will travel to Rwanda to compete in the Davis Cup while the women will participate in the Billie Jean King Cup in North Macedonia.

In an interview, BTA president, Oaitse Thipe, said their aim was to win this year’s Davis Cup after finishing third in last year’s competition.

On one hand, Thipe said Botswana would be competing in the Billie Jean King Cup for the first time in 16 years.

He added he was hopeful that the team will perform well owing to the calibre of players called for national duty.

“But we cannot underestimate our opponents,” he said.

Thipe was also optimistic that most players would be in the grand slams in the next five years, adding ‘results have started showing. For example, we have Denzel Seetso, who improved his ITF junior ranking to 282 after his win last week in South Africa.

He is surely getting close to grand slams and it is possible that he could play the Junior Australian Open in January next year.’

He urged Batswana to follow games on the BTA Facebook page.

“We will also try our best to live stream the matches,” he added.

The men’s team comprises Seetso, Thato Holmes, Tshepo Mosarwa, Tsholofelo Tsiang and captain, Petrus Molefhe.

Ernest Seleke will lead the women’s team, which is made up of Tshegofatso Tsiang, Refilwe Yourie, Chelsea Changanyuka and Thato Madikwe.

All players are based overseas except Changanyuka and Seetso.

Meanwhile, Thipe said the association had been doing well in grassroots development and recently placed a coach in Maun to identify talent and register young players with Maun BMC Club for training.

“The idea is to develop young players who would replace our current stars,” he said. ENDS