Teenage tennis sensation Emmly George secures kit sponsorship

AT just the age of nine, Emmly Lebogang George is no ordinary youngster because she has achieved way more than her agemates in tennis.

The youngster, a Grade Four pupil at Dominican Convent already has a collection of 75 medals and three trophies from 2017 when started competing. Of those accolades, 55 of them are for finishing in first place. Emmly started playing tennis at five and has been competing from the age of six. She has put up her skills to the test in Zimbabwe, Botswana and South Africa.

Last year alone, Emmly won four Under-10 tournaments against some of the best in that age group in Mzansi. She was the Under-10 champion twice in Pretoria and same number in Cape Town.

Competing in tennis comes at a great cost, the equipment is not cheap and there are a lot of expenses when she travels for competitions. Her family, which resides in Bulawayo’s high density suburb of Nkulumane has had to sacrifice to send her to competitions outside the country.

This year, she was meant to compete in Georgia, Belgium, France, Netherlands, Spain and to Australia but all those trips were cancelled because of Covid-19. Because of the expenses involved, her family reached out to well-wishers to chip in and support Emmly’s dream of being an international tennis superstar.

One of the responses came from Imbizo Meat Products who have bought her a full range of training and playing equipment. Her father and coach, Mkhululi George,a former tennis player used to coach children of the company’s directors. Imbizo Meat Products bought seven sets of tennis playing uniforms, three racquets, one backpack, one tennis bag, three pairs of shoes, four sets of strings and two cans of balls.

“We managed to secure the Imbizo Meat Products sponsorship through profiling Emmly, they saw one of the profiles through social media and they made contact with us. Coincidentally I also coached the kids for one of the directors. They said they were very much interested in supporting this young talent after seeing the profile and how she had performed,’’ George said.

Tamuka Mujuru, the Imbizo Meat Products operations manager said they want to ensure that Emmly is not hampered by a lack of resources in her quest to become a professional tennis player.

“We have always been family friends, when they expressed the few difficulties they were facing, it was without a question that a child so talented must not be hindered by economical constraints. We are providing her with that she needs when she goes out to South Africa for her tournaments,’’ Mujuru said.

The father expressed his gratefulness to the support from Imbizo Meat Products. However, since only kit is covered, he appealed for more support to cater for her travelling costs when she goes outside the country to compete.

“I feel great, its greatly appreciated, tennis is a very expensive sport, when you look at the situation in our country, no one can give you anything.”

Emakhandeni Tennis Club chairman, Witness Jiyane said they were pleased with Emmly’s success in the sport. Jiyane feels that since Emmly is from the western suburbs, her exploits can inspire a lot of youngsters to take up the sport.

“As a club we are so delighted about Emmly’s achievement she deserves the support because of her talent we are happy to see a kid from the other side of town dominating the sport which is viewed as elite. Her success will encourage other kids from the “ghetto” to follow suit,’’ he said.

Emmly has American teenager Coco Gauff and Swiss maestro Roger Federer as her heroes in tennis. — @Mdawini_29