Tennis

Some of the top junior tennis players from southern Africa and abroad are currently competing in the International Tennis Federation’s South and Central African Junior Under 18 competition which started in Windhoek on Monday.

The tournament forms part of the ITF African series and with international rankings points up for grabs, a strong field has entered with players from as far afield as India, Australia, Germany and Great Britain also amongst the contestants.

In Tuesday’s matches the top seeded players all easily won their matches to qualify for the second round.

The Namibia Tennis Association (NTA) received a sponsorship of N$750 000 over three years from the FNB Foundation for its development programme that was launched on Saturday.

The president of the NTA, Bob Mould said the NTA’s development programme had taken a bit of a dip over the past few years, but was revived in June with the appointment of Kallie Heese as the NTA’s national development coordinator.

Namibia finished fifth in the Africa Group III category of the Davis Cup after beating Kenya 2-1 in Tunisia on Friday.

Kenya took an early lead when Ismael Ruwa beat Tuki Jacobs in three sets 5-7, 6-3, 6-2.

Jean Erasmus however fought back to tie the series at 1-1 when he beat Mohammed Khan 7-6, 6-3 in the second singles match.

In the deciding doubles match, Johan de Witt and Jean Erasmus comfortably beat Ismael Mzai and Ibrahim Yego 6-2, 6-0 to clinch the match and fifth place overall for Namibia.

Namibia only managed to win one of its three group matches this week and will now meet Kenya in the fifth position play-off match in Pool A at the Davis Cup Africa Group III competition in Tunis, Tunisia.

This means that they will miss out on a chance to gain promotion to Group II and will once again play in Group III next year.

Namibia beat Ghana 2-1 on Monday, but then lost 3-0 to Tunisia on Tuesday and 3-0 to Zimbabwe on Wednesday.

Namibia got off to a good start against Ghana on Monday as Tuki Jacobs thrashed Enock Godi 6-0, 6-3 in their singles encounter.

Namibia will participate at the Davis Cup for the first time in three years when a five-man team competes with six other countries in the African Zone 4 group in Tunisia next week.

The Namibian team last competed in 2009 in Group 3 but when they did not return the following year they were demoted to Group 4.

Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday evening, the president of the Namibia Tennis Association Bob Mould said that they were very pleased to be competing again and promised that they would remain in the prestigious competition.

Michau Basson and Amanda van Dyk were the singles winners of the Alexander Forbes Open Tennis Tournament in Windhoek over the weekend.

In the men’s singles final, Basson won the first set 6-3 and was leading 2-1 in the second set when his opponent Nicky Buys retired due to an injury.

Basson was in great form and only lost one set throughout the tournament. En route to the final he beat Leon Engelbrecht 6-0, 6-1 and Mwize Gondwe 6-1, 6-3.

Namibia finished bottom of the Africa/Euro Group III at the Federations Cup which was completed in Egypt over the weekend.

Namibia lost all five their group matches against Lithuania, Egypt, Tunisia, Moldova and Cyprus to finish 11th out of 11 competing nations in the group.

Namibia suffered a comprehensive 3-0 defeat in their opening match against Lithuania on April 16, and although they also lost 3-0 to Egypt in their second match, Carita Moolman did well to take a set off Egypt’s top player Magy Aziz.

Namibia will compete in the ITF Federations Cup for the first time since 2006 when a young team competes in the Europe/Africa Zone Group III tournament in Cairo, Egypt from April 16 to 21.

Namibia will be represented by a young team consisting of 18-year-old Kerstin Gressmann, 17-year-olds Carita Moolman and Lyniques Theron and 14-year-old Sedi Jacobs.

All four players have been competing on the ITF Junior African circuit over the past year to varying degrees of success.

Louis Botha and Kerstin Gressmann were the men and women’s singles winners at the Namibia Tennis Association’s second tournament of the year over the weekend.

In the men’s final, the top seeded Botha received stiff opposition from Johan de Witt, before he won the match in three sets - 6-1, 4-6, 6-2 - to take the title.

The quality of the match was of a high standard and the intensity was just as high causing the players to show their emotions at stages and interact with the crowd.

Siblings Tuki and Sedi Jacobs were Namibia’s best performers at the ITF African Junior Tennis Championships which are currently underway in Potchefstroom, South Africa.

Tuki Jacobs and his doubles partner Tunde Segodo from Benin, who were seeded second for the Boys Under 18 doubles competition, reached the semifinals where they were knocked out by an Egyptian pair.

After receiving a first round bye, Jacobs and Segodo beat Clayton Gilbertson of South Africa and Amadi Kagoma from Burundi 6-0, 6-4 in the second round.