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ENTA TARGETS DAVIS CUP FOR JUNIORS

29/01/2020 03:56:00 BY THEMBA ZWANE

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MBABANE – The Eswatini National Tennis Association (ENTA) has the highest target in 2020.

The local tennis association will provide high intensity training for the local juniors who recently participated at a SADC Championship in Namibia. The reason for this high intense training is the fact that ENTA wants these juniors to qualify for the Davis Cup. The Davis Cup is the highest level of tennis competition in the world.

According to Wikipedia, the Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men’s tennis. It is run by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and Kosmos Holding and is contested annually between teams from competing countries in a knock-out format. It is described by the organisers as the ‘World Cup of Tennis’, and the winners are referred to as the World Champion team. The four juniors who partook at the Namibia invitational competition are Sakhile Hlophe, Thando Bhembe, Sakhizwe Malindzisa and Nonqaba Mkhaliphi. ENTA Secretary Nqaba Mkhaliphi said these juniors now competed at a high level of the sport and were SADC well-travelled players which he said was evidence that they were now competing at another level.

“We want to concentrate on these juniors and provide them with high intense training this year so that they may continue excelling,” said the secretary.
He added that the juniors had the best display ever for Eswatini when competing in Namibia and they realized that they (juniors) needed to compete at huge tournaments such as the Davis Cup.

For tennis players to qualify for the Davis Cup, the criterion used by the ITF is that they are ranked in top 100.
“We want them to take part in high profile matches so that they will be ranked and be eligible to play at the Davis Cup upon qualification,” said Mkhaliphi.
He said they had a three-year plan to help the juniors qualify for the Davis Cup, which means by the year 2023.

Otherwise, locally, Mkhaliphi disclosed that juniors were fresh from the holidays and the association will probably stage to tournament for both juniors and seniors in February after the executive and met and finalized logistics.