The two boys who took title honours at the ITF/CAT African Junior Championships which ended on Tuesday at the Benoni Tennis Complex in Benoni are Pierre Malan and Carl Roothman both of the Western Cape. Fourth seeded Malan won the Boys under 16 title beating unseeded Soufiane el Mesbahi of Morocco 6-2 6-1 in the final. Fifth seeded Roothman upset third seeded Mhedi Benchekroun of Morocco 4-6 6-2 6-1 to capture the Boys under 14 title.
Roothman nearly made it a double when together with fellow countryman Connor Kruger reached the doubles final of the Boys under 14.
Top seeded Egyptians Youssef Sadek and Mohamed Eldin beat the third seeded South African’s 6-3 3-6 10-4 in a nail bighting encounter what was named match of the tournament.
The win by Malan of Cape Town and Roothman of Stellenbosch gave South Africa enough overall points to be named best performing country of the Championships out of the 26 nations represented.
“Our congratulations go to Pierre and Carl on their fantastic wins. What an honour it is for both to be crowned the best in their age-groups in Africa” said Richard Glover, CEO of Tennis South Africa (TSA).
“TSA are aiming through their high performance programme to promote and develop the future stars. The wins will not only give both boys a personal boost but will boost the efforts of the TSA programme launched recently” continued Glover.
Glover ended by congratulating team South Africa on winning the best performing nation title of the Championships saying that it was a combined team effort and each player and coach contributed to the teams overall success.