Tennis academy to serve underpriviliged

Tennis coach Byron Werbeloff hopes to revolutionise South African tennis and take it to the next level.

Werbeloff, a University of Johannesburg Sports Psychology graduate, has established a tennis academy that aims to develop players who can compete with confidence and achieve with integrity.

Since its inception almost two years ago, Centre Court Tennis Academy has seen the development of two branches, one at Wits and another at King David School in Linksfield.

“We have taken more of a scientific approach to the academy where we feel that there is quite a big gap between overseas tennis and the how academies are run in South Africa,” said Werbeloff, who has witnessed the gap while travelling oversees.

Werbeloff teamed up with Wits coach and former Lesotho national team player Sebastien Moeletsi to develop skills of children as young as three years old.

“We want to develop underprivileged children that don’t have a chance to learn because of their financial background,” Werbeloff explained.

Werbeloff and Moeletsi will host a series of fundraising events under their Help a Child campaign, the first of which will be a competition held on World Tennis day on 3 March.

Through this campaign they hope to gain sponsorship for the underprivileged children they train.

The events will take place at King David School from 3.30pm to 6pm and at Wits from 5.30pm to 8.30 pm.

Werbeloff and Moeletsi also offer private and school lessons and invite strictly high-level tennis players to join their Wits high performance training groups every Wednesday at 5.30pm.