TuksTennis junior players are going from strength to strength and have recently obtained top honours.

Two of the academy’s under-12 players are now counted among the top 15 in their age group in South Africa, and because of this, Carle Botha and Francois van Wyk were invited to compete in a major masters tournament in Stellenbosch.

The u.10 girls’ team of TuksTennis meanwhile won their masters tournament. Kobus Botha of TuksTennis told Rekord he was particularly excited about the talent of Karmen Schultz, one u.10 player in the starting phase. Although she is a beginner, she recently made it to the final of two Tennis Gauteng North tournaments.

Another product of TuksTennis, Tshegofatso Tsiang (14), recently won her age division at an international tournament in Mauritius.

Meanwhile, there is great excitement among some of the older juniors and their coach, Prince Madema. Four of these players are with Madema on their way to Kenya, where they will play in two International Tennis Federation tournaments. These tournaments will help them to possibly improve their position in the rankings.

Madema, who is also head coach at TuksTennis Academy, is particularly excited about the progress of one of his u.18 players, Mehluli Sibanda. This young player, who has already played Davis Cup games for Zimbabwe, is currently number 206 on the ITF rankings for his age group. Madema predicts that Sibanda will break onto the world stage soon and that he has the ability to become a top 50 senior player.