It was a great weekend for Namibian tennis as national senior to junior teams excelled on the international stage. Namibia’s senior men’s team qualified for the Davis Cup World Group II after coming third at the Africa Group III tournament in Bujumbura, Burundi, on Saturday.
In a very close competition, the top three teams – Senegal, Burundi and Namibia – all finished with four wins and one defeat, but Senegal narrowly won the tournament with a better set win ratio.
The top three teams all qualified for the Davis Cup World Group II, with Namibia now doing so for the third year in a row.
Namibia got off to a winning start with a 2-1 victory against the Ivory Coast on 11 August, before losing 2-1 to Burundi the next day.
That was their only defeat, however, as Namibia made a great comeback to beat Senegal 2-1, Togo 2-1 and Benin 3-0 to clinch their spot in the top three.
In their final match against Benin on Saturday, Codie van Schalkwyk beat Sodick Noudogbessi 6-4, 7-5, while Codie’s brother, Connor, beat Alexis Klegou 6-1, 6-0.
In the doubles the Van Schalkwyk brothers teamed up to beat Noudogbessi and Kocou Kakpo 6-3, 3-6, 6-3.
Namibia will now once again play in the World Group II like they did earlier this year, where they lost to Estonia.
Burundi, which finished fourth, will remain in Africa Group III, while the bottom two teams, Ivory Coast and Benin, will be relegated to Africa Group IV.
Namibia’s coach and team captain Gerrie Dippenaar says Namibia’s qualification for the Davis Cup World Group II is a great achievement.
“I’m extremely proud of this Namibian Davis Cup team. We qualified for World Group II for the third consecutive year which is an unbelievable achievement for our country,” he says.
“We had to beat Benin in our last match to make sure that we qualify for World Group II for next year, and we did that to tie with Senegal and Burundi with four wins and one loss. In the end it was only one set that we lost against Burundi that prevented us from winning the tournament, but we qualified and we are extremely happy.
“We’re looking forward to competing in World Group II again next year, and I just want to thank the people in Namibia for all the support and messages that we received,” he adds.
Dippenaar made special mention of Namibia’s top singles player, Connor, who won all his matches and didn’t drop a set throughout the tournament.
“Connor is our number one player, he’s our superstar. He was the best player at the tournament, he didn’t drop a set in the singles and in the doubles he and Cody only lost one match. So congratulations to Connor and Codie, and our other team members Steyn Dippenaar and Daniel Jauss on a great effort – we are extremely proud of you,” he says.
Meanwhile, Namibia junior tennis players also excelled at various International Tennis Federation (ITF) tournaments in Africa over the weekend.
In the Rwandan capital of Kigali, Israel Dowie beat Nicolas Moravec of the Czech Republic 6-0, 4-6, 6-4 to win the boys’ under-18 singles title at J60 ITF tournament, while Mari van Schalkwyk beat compatriot Joanivia Bezuidenhout to win the under-18 girls’ singles title at the J30 ITF tournament in Gaborone, Botswana.
Van Schalkwyk and Bezuidenhout also won the silver medal in the doubles competition.
In Maputo, Mozambique, Namibia’s under-12 boys team came fourth out of 10 teams at a CAT ITF junior tournament.
