Cape Town - South Africa will host the ITF/CAT African Junior 18 & under Closed Championships for boys and girls at the University of Pretoria from February 10 to 16.
The event will comprise of individual competition from the followed by a team competition.
The tournament has attracted sixteen nations, namely Algeria, Benin, Botswana, Burundi, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Egypt, Kenya, Madagascar, Morocco, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Tunisia, Zimbabwe and hosts South Africa.
South Africa is represented by a rather strong contingent, which includes young dynamite Kholo Montsi, who recently broke into the top 12 of the ITF (International Tennis Federation) junior rankings.
The 17-year-old was part of Team South Africa in the inaugural ATP Cup in Brisbane, Australia earlier this year.
Joining Montsi will be Dylan Salton, Carl Roothman, Devin Badenhorst, Andres Scott and Mikaeel Woodman.
The girl’s team will comprise of South African number 1 Maretha Burger, former Gauteng North Junior ITF champion Delien Kleinhans and the country’s number 1 on the ITF Junior rankings Lara van der Merwe.
Isabella Weatherhead, Kelly Arends and Mbali Langa will also form part of the team.
The African championship has been a passing venture for some of the country’s finest talent that include ATP world number 72, Lloyd Harris, who won the doubles competition alongside Brandon Laubser, back in 2014.
TSA High Performance Manager Andre de Beer said the players are training well ahead of the championships which gets underway next week Monday and is expected to climax on Sunday.
He said that the youngsters are prepared to put up a spirited performance, “The youngsters have been working very hard ahead of the event and we have no doubt they will perform their best. This is indeed an opportunity for the country’s tennis family to watch and support our future stars here at home”.
- Tennis SA
