Why Tanzania tennis players fail to advance

Dar es Salaam. The absence of a proper programme to develop further Tanzanian tennis players makes most of them fade from limelight after reaching 19 years-old, notes the national youth tennis team coach, Goodluck Shelemo.

Shelemo, who is also a product of the tennis grassroots development project and a coach at the Arusha Gymkhana Club, said most of the programmes conducted in Tanzania are ideal for Under-18 youths, a situation, he said, makes most of them fail to advance when aged over 19. Among the victims of that setback is Tumaini Martin, who once was Tanzania’s top seeded tennis player.

“The absence of a proper programme has affected many good players to the extent that they are no longer heard, despite having a stellar performance in and outside the country when they were aged below 18 ,” he pointed out. He said since there has been no proper training programme for young players aged above 18, most of them opt to quit the sport because they feel they will not go at par with their well-trained opponents aged over 18.

Also, one of the mentioned major obstacles is incompetent professionalism. Shelemo says when a player is aged over 18, that particular payer will need to financially benefit from the sport, and if not, parts ways with it. Shelemo, who played for the national youth team some years back, has suggested to the Tanzania Tennis Association (TTA) to start designing strategies for the youth aged above 18 so to groom further those who attended the grassroots level programme.

To make the sport more active in the country, he has also asked TTA to start preparing players for featuring in the world class Davis Cup tournament.