Youngsters seek to steal show at Africa meet

What you need to know:

Two players will represent the country in the annual competition, which has attracted 120 players from 28 countries across the continent.

Dar es Salaam. Tanzania tennis players will be looking to sparkle at this year’s Africa Junior Championship, which roars into life on Sunday in Pretoria, South Africa.

Two players will represent the country in the annual competition, which has attracted 120 players from 28 countries across the continent.

“We have prepared the team adequately and we hope to win gold medals for the country,” the national tennis team coach, Nichoraus Jonas, told The Citizen yesterday.

Jonas believes that this is yet another chance for the youngsters to get exposed to an international tennis atmosphere, exuding confidence that they have all it takes to grab the gold medals at stake.

He said players qualified through their respective zones which he named as Central Africa, West Africa, Southern Africa, Northern Africa and East Africa.

The coach said Tanzania will field two players in the championship. He named them as Esther Nakulanga and Kanuti Alangwa. The duo left for South Africa yesterday.

Speaking with The Citizen before their departure, Alagwa said; “I have been training here since last month and everything is going according to my plan.”

“It is my hope that I will do Tanzanians proud, come March 26. I want to set a benchmark for others to follow.”

For her part, Esther Nakulanga assured local tennis fans that nothing will stop her from stealing a show at the Pretoria tournament.

“Our performance in previous editions has not been that good but we are up to the challenge,” she said confidently.

“We have faced most of the players before and our coaches have helped us rectify the mistakes we made last year,” Nakulanga said on phone from Arusha.

This year’s championship will take a new format of round robins followed by play-off draws.