The International Club SA (IC SA) once again played host to the African qualifying leg of the IC Rod Laver Worldwide Junior Challenge competition for under 16 players. Four teams, IC SA, a Tennis SA team from their development hubs, Madagascar and Namibia took part with the teams consisted of two boys and two girls.
The event was played at Gauteng East Tennis Association in Benoni over three days this past weekend on a round robin basis with Madagascar and the IC SA team going into the final day unbeaten and playing each other. The girl’s singles was split one all, but IC SA went ahead by winning the two boys singles. On paper this looks easy, but the quality of tennis was by far the best seen at previous worldwide challenges here in South Africa. Matches that went to three sets could easily have gone the other way, but IC SA determination and doggedness, to say nothing of “home-town advantage,” ensured that the girls doubles clinched their victory and a trip to California in November 2023 for the world finals.
The two most pleasing aspect of the event was one, the IC SA hosted a clinic on the Saturday morning for children invited from townships on the East Rand. 34 children attended along with 5 coaches. It underlines the interest in the game in the area that so many children ranging from 8-12 came along to participate with one young slip of a girl aged 10 from Kwa Thema the star of the morning.
Secondly, we applaud the outstanding performance of the Tennis SA development team. Three years ago, when the last qualifying event was staged, it was the first time such a team had taken part. The improvement in the playing standard by this years team underlines that tremendous amount of hard work the coaches at the various TSA centres / hubs are doing. Their play showed that over the past three years, there has been a vast improvement in the quality of players coming through those hubs which culminated in their convincing win over Namibia on the last day. As is traditional during the IC events, awards are always presented to one boy and one girl who displayed the true spirit of the IC and also shows exemplary sportsmanship. This year the awards were to Madagascar’s Rasendra Miotisoa who was award the girls medal and Tennis SA Development player, Eric Matjiame the boys medalist.
FINAL DAYS RESULTS.
- IC SA beat Madagascar 4 -1
- TSA Development beat Namibia 6 - 0
