Kenyan tennis ref encourages local players despite poor show at ITF tourney
By Charles.Thuku, May 10, 2023Despite all Kenyan players being eliminated in the boys’ and girls’ singles of the International Tennis Federation (ITF) World Tour at Parklands Sports Club, a top local referee has described it as a learning process.
Tournament referee Elly Madegwa says he believes the locals will gather a lot of positives in the event by brushing shoulders with some of the most experienced players around the world.
“Playing against the crème-de-la crème of the world will give Kenyans a platform to shrug off stage fright ahead of major international events. Kenyan tennis is still work in progress and by playing in such events, our players will gather invaluable international exposure,” he said.
He observed that it’s a big plus for the country in as far as identifying talent in the Davis Cup and Federation teams in the boys and girls categories respectively.
“Our players need to feature in as many as possible high profile events and this way, they will not only be in vantage position to secure world rankings points as well as indicating the county’s destiny in David and Federation Cups,” added Madwgwa.
Kenyan players, who comprise of six boys and the same number of girls, made a false start in the event that has attracted 24 countries with the bulk coming from India.
Apart from Raymond Oduor who saw off Amaan Walia of India 6-4, 6-1 to cruise through to the second round of the boys category, the rest found their Indian opponents quite a hard nut to crack.
Ayush Bhandari was the first casualty losing 6-1, 6-2 to Uganda’s Said Musa Kato 6-1, 6-2 followed by Dheer Rishit Shah who fell by the same margin to Aman Kothari of India.
In the girls’ category, Faith Urasa was beaten 6-0, 6-2 by Isheeta Midha.
Yesterday, Jan Dabrowski of Poland beat Hrisheek Vavilapally of India 6-4, 6-1 in a highly charged boys singles second round match.
Most second round matches were delayed due to a wet surface occasioned by late morning rains which pounded Nairobi.