• South African tennis juniors dominate in zonal championships
Pretoria, South Africa - South Africa dominated the International Tennis Federation Southern African Junior Championships Zonal which ended at the University of Pretoria Sports Grounds on Saturday.
Of the thirteen titles up for grabs after the weeklong event, team South Africa won twelve titles. The only title South Africa failed to capture was the Boys under 14 doubles which was won by Mauritius beating South Africa in the final.
The hosts made a clean sweep in the singles winning the boys and girls titles in the under 12, 14 and 16 age groups.
The boys singles winners were Phillip Henning (FS) under 16, Carl Roothman (Bol) under 14 and Devon Badenhorst (GN) under 12. The girls singles winners were Kaylin Bouwer (EP) under 16, Delien Kleynhans (FS) under 14 and Gabriella Broadfoot (GN) under 12.
The eleven titles secured the hosts the overall team trophy.
Ten countries were represented at the Zonal Championships which included Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Madagascar, Mozambique, Mauritius, Namibia plus South Africa.
South Africa will now represent the Southern African Zone in the African Junior Championships to be played at the same venue from 8 – 18 March 2016.
“ This was one of our best performances in years at the zonal championships which indicates that junior tennis in South Africa is healthy and our youth development programmes are on track” said Gavin Crookes President and Acting CEO of TSA. “ We need as the controlling body of the game to capitalise on this result so that we can produce more top world ranked junior players which will help us develop future Kevin Anderson success stories. TSA have this as a priority and are working hard at giving the junior players of our country bigger opportunities” added Crookes.