SA wheelchair tennis fancy win

SITHOLE ON CUSP OF HISTORY

AFTER athletics and swimming lit up the scene on the opening day of competition at the Rio Paralympics yesterday, attention will now shift to wheelchair tennis where Team SA fancy their chances of making history.

And it is the usual suspects Lucas Sithole and Kgothatso “KG” Montjane who are expected to pull off the magic when all four SA players – including Evans Maripa and Leon Els – roll their wheels into the Olympic Tennis Centre in Rio this weekend.

First up, Sithole (quads singles) and Maripa (singles) will contest the first round of their respective events tomorrow. Montjane is set to compete on Sunday in the women’s singles opening round.

All three debuted at the London Games in 2012, while Els is a Paralympic novice. Sithole, 29, is bidding to become the first African player to win gold in Paralympic tennis.

Born in KwaZulu-Natal, he will be hoping to replicate his feat of three years ago when he became the first player from Africa to win a Grand Slam title at the 2013 US Open.

In the Brazilian city, the South Africans will be among the 100 hopefuls from 29 countries who will contest six medal events.

Meanwhile, Shireen Sapiro is favourite to get a medal when she launches her hunt in the 50m freestyle heats this afternoon (3pm SA time) hoping to make the final tonight (11.51pm). She is one of the four swimmers in her team who got a medal in London four years ago.

Other Team SA medal hopefuls to watch in the coming week are Zanele Situ in the javelin on Tuesday and in the discus throw next Saturday, and Jonathan Ntutu in the 100m (Tuesday) and 200m (on Friday).

Also, to look out for will be Hilton Langenhoven in the 200m, 400m and long jump, and Achmat Hassien in the 100m butterfly (Monday) and 100m freestyle (Tuesday) heats.