Super seniors serve up tennis treat
Players will be doing their utmost to earn points to improve their rankings and thereby stand in line for selection to represent South Africa in the world championships next year.
A great treat lies in store for all tennis lovers this weekend when 75 highly-ranked seniors hit the courts on the South Coast from today (Thursday) culminating in the finals this Sunday.
Matches will be played at Uvongo Tennis Club and Umtentweni Tennis Club, starting at 8am each day, from July 4-7.
Both clubs have great facilities for hosting the inaugural Ugu National South Coast Seniors Tennis Tournament, which will be attracting many of the country's best players in each age group as this is one of 13 seniors points awarded tournaments in South Africa.
Some of the top locals players, those who have played at a world championship before, are Ralph Burls (Ramsgate), Martyn Nagtegaal (Leisure Bay), Gules Salottolo (Margate), Ian Ackerman (Shelly Beach), Raj Naganna (Umtentweni) and Zelda Smook (Shelly Beach).
“This is the inaugural national tournament for seniors in our area and we hope to grow it to the biggest seniors event in South Africa by next year,” said Ian Ackerman, president of Ugu Tennis Association.
Everyone is invited to come along and enjoy a feast of spectacular tennis seldom seen on the coast.
Players will be doing their utmost to earn points to improve their rankings and thereby stand in line for selection to represent South Africa in the world championships next year.
These are generally held in either Croatia, Spain, Portugal, Australia, USA or Germany.
There should be several nail-biting matches as the seniors in each age group battle it out to earn enough points for selection by Tennis South Africa for the world team and individual championship, to be held in the home town of Rafa Nadal, being the island of Mallorca, Spain, so come along and give them lots of support.
Tea and coffee will be served as well as light lunches and water and cool drinks will be available as well.
Besides the seniors tournament, the juniors will also be involved in a points awarded tournament in March 2020.
As these will be annual events (a great feather in Ugu Tennis Association's cap), sponsorship is desperately needed.
A main sponsorship of R10 000 per event is required to adequately run these tournaments and local businesses are invited to sponsor either both events or at least one of them.
Besides this main sponsorship, prizes are also required and it is hoped that many local businesses will be keen to provide such sponsorship.
Contact Ian Ackerman if you would like to be part of this journey with any kind of sponsorship.
Either email him at ianrackerman@yahoo.com or or phone 072 2977878.
