Namibia’s national women’s tennis team will remain in Africa Group III of the Billie Jean King Cup after finishing seventh overall in Botswana over the weekend.
The Billie Jean King Cup is the premier international team competition in women’s tennis.
A total of 11 African nations competed in the tournament at the National Tennis Centre in Gaborone, with the top two nations being promoted to Africa Group II while the bottom two were relegated to Group IV.
In the group stages Namibia were drawn in a tough group C against Nigeria, Madagascar and Burundi, with only the latter country ranked below Namibia.
Going into the tournament Nigeria was ranked 88th in the world, Madagascar 90th, Namibia 105th and Burundi 108th.
Namibia started off to a 3-0 defeat to Madagascar on 13 July, when Riekie Honiball lost her singles match 6-2, 6-2, while Taimi Nashiku lost her singles 6-0, 6-2.
Joanivia Bezuidenhout and Mari van Schalkwyk teamed up in the doubles, but lost a tough three-setter 6-4, 2-6, 10-4.
The next day Namibia once again lost 3-0 to Nigeria, with Honiball losing 6-0, 6-3 and Van Schalkwyk 6-0, 6-1 in the singles, while Bezuidenhout and Nashiku lost 6-1, 6-3 in the doubles.
Namibia finally got their first win when they beat Burundi 3-0 on 15 July.
In the singles, Bezuidenhout sealed an emphatic 6-1, 6-1 victory while Van Schalkwyk made a great comeback to win in three sets, 4-6, 6-1, 6-1.
Honiball and Nashiku teamed up to win the doubles 6-1, 7-5.
That put Namibia through to the seventh to ninth positional play-offs where they came up against the 99th ranked Cameroon, and Ghana, ranked 109th in the world.
On 16 July, Namibia suffered a setback when they lost 2-1 to Ghana.
In the singles, Van Schalkwyk lost 6-4, 6-3 and Nashiku 2-6, 6-3, 6-4, but Bezuidenhout and Honiball won the doubles match 6-4, 6-0.
On 17 July Namibia rose to the occasion with a great 2-1 victory against Cameroon.
Bezuidenhout gave them a winning start with a nail-biting 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 win in her singles match, but Cameroon drew level when Van Schalkwyk lost her singles match 6-4, 1-6, 2-6.
Bezuidenhout and Honiball, however, swung the tie in Namibia’s favour with a 6-1, 7-5 victory in the doubles. Cameroon, meanwhile, beat Ghana 2-1 on 18 July, with the result that Namibia finished seventh overall on aggregate games won, with Ghana finishing eighth and Cameroon ninth.
Botswana and Nigeria finished first and second, respectively, to be promoted to Africa Group II, while Burundi and Kenya finished 10th and 11th to be relegated to Africa Group IV.
Vekondja Kuzee, who was recently elected as president of the Namibia Tennis Association after the resignation of Samson Kaulinge, says he was encouraged by Namibia’s performance.
“We were in quite a tough group against Nigeria, Madagascar and Burundi, but after losing our opening two matches we fortunately rebounded with a win against Burundi, which was really a must-win tie, because losing that would have put us under unnecessary pressure,” he says.
“In the placement play-off matches we managed to beat Cameroon to finish seventh which was quite encouraging. Finishing seventh means that we got the same result that we got last year when we hosted the Billie Jean King Cup in Windhoek, so now we remain in group III,” he adds.
“The team responded very well after some difficult defeats, and we managed to finish above four other much bigger nations, which was encouraging. I think our position is quite respectable because we managed to avoid relegation quite comfortably, and we remain in a very competitive division,” he says.
“Going forward we will chase promotion and with the core of young players that we’ve got, the future looks bright and we’ll be looking to challenge for promotion within the next two or three years,” he adds.
