The organisers of Selibe Phikwe Open tennis tournament are promising a better tournament after disruptions from Covid-19 pandemic. The Phikwe open is the first national tournament to be organised after two years of non sport activity.
The tournament will also work as preparations for the coming CAT tournament to be hosted in Gaborone. Tournament director, Brighton Keteng, said they are expecting more than 50 tennis players to converge ion Phikwe for the open championship. Keteng is expecting a tough competition more so that the tournament will be used to select players for the coming international tournaments.
“The tournament has three categories, the Primary School league, intellectual disability and Open normal tournament. We expecting more than 50 players to take part in the weekend event” said Keteng.
Two primary schools in Phikwe have collectively provided 28 players to compete in the primary school category. The two schools are Tebogo Primary school and Reuben Mbanga primary school.
Tournament director, Keteng, said the idea behind inviting primary schools is to bring back sport to young ones and also to recruit more kids into the sport. “The idea of primary schools is in line with the Botswana Tennis Association (BTA) junior programme of bring more kids into the sport of tennis.
“The winner between the two schools will be given a trophy while players will be given medals and certificates as a token of appreciation for their sterling performance” said Keteng.
The other objective is to gauge players’ performance and assist them with coaching so that they can be tactically and technically equipped with the right skills.
Leco Botswana has sponsored players with intellectual disability with tennis equipment worth P30 000. Keteng is appealing for more partners to come on board to help in resourcing the tournament and help grow the sport of tennis.
The tournament will be staged by Area 1 and Kopano tennis club from the 27th to the 29th 2022.
