Tennis SA CEO: 'Kevin Anderson, Klasen and Harris had a great year'
Tennis South Africa CEO Richard Glover has made a review of the season behind us, speaking about the results of the players who competed under the national flag and some future plans. In his 2018 end of year letter to the SA tennis community, Glover said there are always some positive and negative opinions but also the entire organization gave its best to offer a chance for all the players to compete on a high level and travel abroad to enter the different junior and pro events. He also mentioned the growing interest in beach tennis and the plans for bigger investments in schools tennis, another major factor in bringing the youngsters into the sport.
In addition, South Africa will host a Grand A ITF Junior event in Cape Town in September, another huge step forward when we know they hosted no junior events above J3 category in 2018. Of course, he had to mention the leading singles and doubles players and great results they have achieved in 2018, with Kevin Anderson standing in the top-10 and Lloyd Harris just outside the top-100. Doubles veteran Raven Klaasen is world number 15 and the Federation will try to support them as much as possible in 2019 as well.
"I have no doubt everyone reading this will have an opinion (people in tennis being a very opinionated lot) – some will be positive, some will be negative, and some will be mixed.. such is life. But I think the collective performances of Kevin Anderson, Raven Klaasen and Lloyd Harris, in 2018, have clearly helped raise interest in tennis in South Africa.. and full credit must be given to these players for their achievements. I have recently concluded that TSA should never take credit for producing a WTA or ATP player. Ultimately this is down to the player, his/her family support network and coaching team.
This is very much work in progress, but some of our recent attempts to strengthen the local tennis system include bringing more international tournaments to South Africa. TSA was recently awarded a prestigious ITF Junior Grade A event for 2019 onwards. This is a massive coup for South Africa because there are currently only five Grade A events in the world – for example. The Orange Bowl in the USA is a Junior Grade A event. A date and venue announcement will be made early next year, but it is set for late September – following on from the Curro ITFs in Stellenbosch.
Special thanks must be given to our vice-president and president for securing us this event. Providing more financial support for our emerging players is something which has flown beneath the radar, but what has recently come into effect is the Growthpoint Thrive Fund. Thanks to the generous support of our headline sponsor, Growthpoint Properties, 12 junior high-performance black players (six boys and six girls) have started receiving some financial assistance. The first funding cycle runs from November 2018 to the end of June 2019. We need to create more sustainable opportunities for black and/or female coaches. Good news is that the BNP Paribas Coaches Mentorship programme, which launched in 2018, returns in 2019 and, thanks to an increased investment from BNP Paribas, will double in size in year two," Glover said.
from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/2CgPOgW
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