Ethiopia Made it Top 2006th on the ITF’S Junior Rankings

In February 2023, the Ethiopian Tennis Federation (ETF) hosted the International Tennis Federation’s (ITF) J30 tournament which is the lowest grade. J500 is the highest; JGS is the Junior Grand Slam. According to ITF’S Development Officer for East Africa Thierry Ntwali, the Junior events will make a significant contribution to raising enthusiasm for the sport among Ethiopians and enable the Ethiopian

Tennis Federation to become a hub for regional and international tournaments. In the singles junior boys’ tournament, an Austria’s player named Thilo Behrmann took the first place; his ITF’S ranking was 695 as of February 27, 2023.The Ethiopian tennis national team singles players were eliminated in the second round. Dawit Sheleme’s ranking was 2006 as of February 27, 2023. And Dawit Fisha’s ranking was 2542 as of February 20, 2023.

Their ranks show Ethiopia’s tennis status is light years behind Austria’s and prove the ETF’S vision for tennis and its training program need a paradigm shift that has never been tried in the country’s Tennis history.

Instead of investing to teach tennis at colleges and building tennis courts on campuses, Ethiopia would be better off promoting the sport and building hard courts and practice concrete walls in low income neighborhoods, and let the children figure out how to strike a tennis ball. They will certainly help to make Ethiopia’s tennis great.

In Jull 2022 Ethiopia featured in Davis Cup for the first time in 20 years, finishing seventh in African Group IV event after losing to Senegal, Ghana and hosts Cameroon before beating Mauritius in the positional play-off.