BY GARY LEMKE in Maseru
Seven out of eight of Team SA’s tennis players are in medal contention in the singles competition at the Region 5 Youth Games in Maseru.
The only casualty out of the eight Team SA representatives was Kagiso Ledwaba, who found herself up against the No1 seed from Botswana and she went down 6-4 6-3. However, for the rest it was a day of success, which carried through to the doubles where two boys’ pairs and a girls’ pair also progressed.
In the boys, all four entrants have reached the semi-final stage, which means Team SA are guaranteed a clean sweep of the medals. However, who it will be is up for debate, because all four won in some style.
Yarona “Prince” Marule won his match 6-4 7-5, Daniel Wessels won 6-1 6-0, William Zulch won 6-2 6-1 and Rohan Loubser won 6-1 6-4. The semi-finals pit Marule up against Zulch, while Wessels takes on Loubser in a battle of the big hitters.
While Loubser mixed up his game well in winning, he used a lot of slices to force the play from his opponent, while he also sent big serves wide instead of down the middle, perhaps because his range finder wasn’t altogether plugged in, in terms of his distance.
Wessels seemed to hit winners at will, so this semi-final promises to be one of thunderbolts and lightning. Zulch, who turned 18 last week, might fancy his chances of getting past the 16-year-old Marule, but in such matches there are no losers. After all, everything is a win-win for Team SA.
That much was confirmed by coach Amos Magalula, who joked that he was going to “enjoy sitting back and eating popcorn” as he watches the four Team SA players fight it out for three medals.
“The preparation was good heading into these matches,” Magalula said. “Once we saw the draw we all sat down and had a good chat. I’m pleased to say the guys executed the plants to a ’t’. I’m very proud how they performed, amazing.”
The 34-year-old Magalula also identified a positive mindset as being important. “It’s important because you’re working with players and you feed them positive thoughts all the time. You can see that they stayed positive in all their matches. There was a good energy and intensity about their play. Everyone fought hard and everyone fought the right way.
“Although we’re still taking it one match at a time, the players are loving the fact that they’re all in the semis. That’s what we had wanted, we said, ‘let’s see each other in the last four’. They’ve done very well in this tournament. With me as coach I’m now leaning back and I can let them have fun and enjoy. All four boys are tough and their matches will be tough, both in the semis and the final. But, I’m excited. I’m going to get my popcorn, sit back and relax!”
The three women reaching the semi-finals were just as impressive. Perhaps the most eye-catching was Sarah Millard, who won her match 6-0 6-0, staying focused and hitting some good winners, including a number of inside-out forehands. Line Greyling also made short work of her rival, coming through 6-1 6-0, while Khosi Stewart dropped a set but fought back well to win 6-2 2-6 7-5 and also reach the semi-finals.
Photo: Sarah Millard by Roger Sedres