Local tennis coaches bring home gold title

BRUCE Young and Lettica Venter recently played in the 2016 International Tennis Federation Young Seniors World Championship, which was held in Umag, Croatia.

They won the mixed doubles title and Young got to the semi-finals of the men’s doubles with his partner, Rob Dick from Cape Town.

Young is a professional tennis coach he coaches in the upper Highway area, namely Highbury School, St Mary’s Primary and High School, Atholl Heights and the Kloof Tennis Club.

“I started playing tennis at the age of six. I’ve represented SA schools and KZN,” said Young. He loves the sport and hopes to inspire more children and adults to play the game.

Venter started playing tennis at a young age because her family was very big on tennis, so she said it was a family affair. Venter is part of the Westville Tennis Club and is also a tennis coach at Crawford College.

She loves to keep fit and when she is not playing or coaching tennis, she enjoys being with friends. Young is also a sporty person who enjoys the outdoors and playing golf.

They have played together for four years now and have hopes of defending their title next year in the 2017 ITF Young Seniors World Championship, which will be held in Cape Town.

The duo encourages children and adults to take up the sport and its never too late to start: “You need to be part of a club to get a national ranking,” they said.

Young and Venter both feel the sport is not well represented. “The sport is not where it should be in South Africa, especially in sponsorship or the lack thereof,” said Venter.

The pair also mentioned that most international players they compete against are well-sponsored, which puts them at an advantage.