Tennis team off to Harare

Botswana has sent nine players to represent the country at the Under-14 and U-16 ITF/CAT Zonal Championship in Harare. The Botswana Tennis Association (BTA) has picked a strong squad that has Naledi Raguin, Mark Nawa, Seabo Saleshando, Elsi Molefhe, Chelsea Changanyuka, Atlang Phatshwane, Ntungamili Raguin, Martin Seetso, and Talinda Sechele.

The tournament will run from Sunday to May 7 and will draw players from across Southern Africa. BTA recently hosted the J4 Gaborone 2022 Tennis Tournament, which saw players from countries such as Poland, Bulgaria,

Great Britain, South Africa, Belgium and Israel among others, participate.

Nawa and Denzel Seetso, who are both part of the travelling squad to Harare, performed well after reaching the quarterfinals of the J4 Gaborone tournament.

The games gave the players a great opportunity to prepare for the upcoming tournament in Harare where they expect good results. BTA president, Oaitse Thipe said the players are in good stead to perform well in Zimbabwe. “We want our teams, Under-16 boys to qualify for the Junior Davis Cup and the Junior Billy Jean Cup,” Thipe said. Good performances from the team in Harare will see the players qualify for the upcoming Africa Junior Championships in Tunisia.

In Tunisia, the players will be contesting for a spot to play in the Junior Davis Cup and the Junior Billy Jean Cup, which will be held in Europe at the end of the European summer. The team has been performing very well hence they expect good results in Zimbabwe. Ntungamili (Raguin) has been doing exceptionally well internationally after he won a tournament in France. Ntungamili (Raguin) came into the tournament with no ranking and finished inside the top 16 of all participants from Africa.

The highly-rated Seetso (Denzel) is up by 109 places on the ITF World Tour Juniors rankings and is now ranked 298.