THE Namibia Tennis Association will host a high-profile ITF junior tournament in Windhoek from Monday, 9 January until next week, Wednesday, 18 January.
The top under-14 and under-16 players from 12 southern African countries have registered for the tournament, with 75 boys and 63 girls having arrived in Windhoek over the weekend.
The tournament is organised by the Confederation of African Tennis (CAT) in conjunction with the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and the Namibia Tennis Association (NTA), with the support of the Grand Slam Development Fund. NTA chairman Samson Kaulinge said “Namibia is proud to host this important junior tournament for the first time. We will do our best to make it a success”.
Each nation is entitled to send a team comprising a maximum of 12 players (three boys and three girls each for the u14 and u16 events) and one coach for those nations with up to six players, or two coaches for those nations with seven players or more.
As the host nation, Namibia was allowed to enter more players for the tournament. The Namibian players have prepared thoroughly at an intensive three-day tennis clinic organized by the NTA. Some of the Namibian players to watch out for include Risto Shikongo of the FNB development programme; the Van Schalkwyk brothers, Codie and Connor, who are currently training at the ITF High Performance Centre in Morocco; and Gina Moolman of the Karas region, who is being coached in South Africa.
Matches start this morning at both the Nampol courts and the Central Tennis Club in Olympia. The u14 and u16 singles competitions will be run on a round-robin basis over the first two days, progressing either to the main draw or to the consolation draw to be held over the following four days. The feed-in system will be used, which will allow the competition to progress as normal, but ensuring that every player, win or lose, will play a match every day. The doubles competitions will be run on a knock-out basis in both age groups.
The Teams’ Championships will be played out during the second week of the tournament. Each nation is allowed to enter one team per age group and gender. The winning teams in each age group will qualify for the final event of the African Junior Teams’ Championships, which will take place in June 2017. At the end of the Junior Championships, a final country ranking will be determined on the basis of the accumulation of points in the boys’ and girls’ singles and doubles events.
Only the four best singles results and the four best individual doubles’ results of each country will be considered to determine the total and the rankings of the countries for the zone and consequently, the winner of the Junior Championships Team Trophy. The best nation in the country ranking will win the Junior Championships Team Trophy.
The top seven players in singles in the u14 and u16 categories at the Southern African Junior Championships in Windhoek will qualify to play in the main event of the African Junior Championships, which will take place in March and April this year. In addition, in each of these age groups, one wildcard selected by the ITF/CAT will be offered to a player from the region.
“The organization of an international tournament of this magnitude is not possible without the support and engagement of many volunteers. I am grateful to have such a dedicated team of coaches and a number of parents who have done their outmost to help with the preparation of the courts and the accommodation of the players,” tournament director Kallie Heese said.
“We have to thank Coca Cola Namibia, which came on board as a sponsor at short notice. We are also grateful for the support of the Namibian Ministry of Home Affairs, which went out of their way to facilitate the issuance of visas for players and their international coaches,” he added.
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