This week’s heavy rains have disrupted the 39th African Junior Tennis Championship, scheduled for 9 to 18 March at the University of Pretoria tennis club.
The first two days were interrupted and the possibility exists that the rainy weather will continue for another few days.
A total of 120 players from 28 countries are set to take to the hard courts to contest this year’s individual and team trophies in the u.14 and u.16 events.
Also up for grabs will be the all-important team trophy, which was won by Egypt in 2015. Egypt, who has already wrapped up the boys’ singles title at the recently contested u.18 tournament will be facing stiff competition this year from hosts, South Africa, along with Tunisia which claimed the girls’ singles title of the u.18 event at home and in Morocco.
Most of the players arrived over the weekend to get used to the high altitude conditions in Pretoria.
The girls u.16 event will be headed by Sada Nahimana of Burundi, who will be looking to win her third African Junior Championships title in as many years, after winning the u.14 title in 2014 and 2015.
Yousef Khamis of Egypt, ranked 230 in the world junior rankings, heads the entry in the u.16 boys’ event.
Following some strong performances in the Southern African Junior Championships held in January, the South Africans look like a dominant force in both the girls’ and boys’ u.14 events.
According to Leon Freimond, high performance manager of Tennis South Africa, the ITF offers big opportunities for the top performers in this tournament, as well as the finalists of the u.18 tournament which has already took place in Tunisia.
The u.18 finalists will have the opportunity to participate in the ITF’s so called “Grand Slam Tour”, which includes the chance to play at the junior championships at Wimbledon and the French Open.
For the u.16 winners there will be an opportunity to play in various ITF-tournaments in Casablanca in Morocco, while the top achievers in the u.14 division will be taken along on the ITF Young Stars tour in Europe.
This year’s African Junior Championships will be taking on a new format with an extensive round robin stage followed by play-off draws. The event comes to an end with the finals on 18 March.
The participating teams are South Africa, Algeria, Angola, Burundi, Benice, Botswana, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Egypt, Gabon, Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar, Morocco, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Mauritius, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia and Zimbabwe.
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