Maurice Kambukwe
With strict health and hygiene measures in place, the Namibia Tennis Association (NTA), in conjunction with Sanlam Namibia, will this weekend host the much-anticipated T05 Sanlam Junior Tennis Tournament.
This weekend’s tournament, which officially starts today and runs until tomorrow, was initially scheduled for the coastal town of Swakopmund but the NTA had to change the competition’s venue from Swakopmund to Windhoek due to the strict Covid-19 lockdown measures in the Erongo region.
As for this weekend’s action, fierce competition can be expected when the country’s top tennis young stars take to the courts at the Central Tennis Courts (CTC), DTS, SKW and Police Tennis Court in the capital.
According to NTA’s chairperson of the junior tennis committee Santie van der Walt, all participants will be exposed to strict measures during the tournament and one such measure is that players are not allowed to shake hands or share equipment, towels, water bottles and refreshments.
The sanitising and washing of hands will strictly be monitored and face masks will also be made available at different courts.
“Everyone is ready; we have over 100 entries, which I think is a massive number, compared to the previous entries from previous tournaments. Everyone is excited and, for the first time, we’ll also have mini tennis where we will see the U/8 taking part in this weekend’s competition, which I think is a good thing going. We have also migrated to a new integrated platform called SportyHQ; it is a digitalised integrated platform that integrates all things – from draws, rankings and scheduling of players – which is making lives easier and more professional,” she said.
– mkambukwe@nepc.com.na