African Junior Tennis Championships interrupted by rain
Africa's best junior tennis players are currently playing in the African Junior Tennis Championships at the University of Pretoria Tennis Club.
The 39th African Junior Tennis Championships is presented from Wednesday 9 March to Friday 18 March at the University of Pretoria tennis club this year.
The first two days were interrupted by rain but the sky cleared at the weekend at the tournament could continue.
A total of 120 players from 28 countries are scheduled to take to the hard courts to contest this year’s individual and team trophies in the u.14 and u.16 events.
Egypt – the winner of the all-important team trophy last year – 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 u.18 title at home and in Morocco.
Most of the players arrived at the weekend to acclimatise to the high altitude 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 Championship 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 bill 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 SA, the ITF offers big opportunities for the top performers in this tournament, as well as the finalists of the under-18 tournament which has already taken 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 Championship will be taking on a new format with an extensive round robin stage followed by play-offs. The event comes to an end with the finals on Friday 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.
