Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
U14 girls’ tennis team to represent SA in finals
THE South African Under-14 girls’ team will fly the African flag after their stunning qualification through to the International Tennis Federation (ITF) World Junior Tennis Finals in the Czech Republic, next month,
The team saw off Kenya, winning 3-0 in their final encounter at the African Junior Championships in Algeria last Saturday to seal a passage through to the world tournament later in the year, after finishing in second place to claim the second automatic qualifying spot behind Egypt.
However, their male counterparts in the same age group category missed out after narrowly losing 2-1 to winners, Egypt, which meant they finished second in a category where only the top team qualifies for the Czech Republic.
The ITF World Junior Tennis
Finals is the premier global event for U14 players, with this qualification bringing joy to the U14 girls team coach, Asnathi Sebati, who said:
“We were lucky to have a warm-up tournament before the African
Junior Championships and we knew that we had to beat one if not both of the North African teams in order to go through to the World Junior Finals.
“We had a plan and we stuck to it …even after going three-nil down to Egypt, the girls bounced back and knocked out Morocco to take second position to qualify.”
The finals will take place between August 5 and 10.
Meanwhile, the U16 girls and boys finished in fourth place in their respective AJC categories in Algeria on the final day of matches on Saturday. Final standings:
Boys’ U14: 1 Egypt, 2 SA, 3 Morocco, 4 Botswana, 5 Algeria
Girls’ U14: 1 Egypt, 2 SA,
3 Morocco, 4 Benin, 5 Kenya, 6. Algeria
Boys’ U16: 1 Egypt, 2 Morocco, 3 Tunisia, 4 S, 5 Algeria, 6 Kenya Girls’ U16: 1 Morocco, 2 Algeria, 3 Egypt, 4 SA, 5 Tunisia, 6 Kenya