SA’s two future tennis stars
TWO rising junior tennis players have been included in the new Junior National Squads for 2018 and earmarked for high performance training camps by Tennis South Africa (TSA).
Following the Growthpoint Junior Masters in Potchefstroom recently, Durban’s Kaitlyn Ramduth and Imaad Lorgat of Cape Town were named in TSA’s girls under-12 and boys under-14 squads respectively.
Imaad, who trains at the Anthony Harris Tennis Academy in the Mother City, and Kaitlyn will benefit from centralised high performance initiatives and training camps, according to TSA.
TSA squads are not national teams, and the players performances will be reviewed in six months’ time, said the national governing body.
The pair were selected after TSA identified a shortlist of about 20-30 players per age group and gender. The shortlist was based on the players’ 2018 age group and their TSA ranking. TSA’s transformation policy was also taken into account.
Kaitlyn has already made strides locally, and earlier this year she competed in the 2017 Nations Cup in Italy. It was the second time she was selected to represent South Africa. Previously she participated in the Southern African Junior Teams Championship, where Team South Africa emerged champions after beating Botswana, Zimbabwe and Madagascar.
Kaitlyn, who is in Grade 5 at Maris Stella, started playing tennis when she was 5. Two years ago the Maria Sharapova fan was selected for the top 16 elite squad to compete in the Tennis South Africa Masters U12 tournament.
Lorgat recently finished runner-up in the boy’s under-12 Gold singles in the Western Province Mini Series 5 in Rondebosch and won the doubles in the Western Province Grand Prix in Cape Town.