There was a full house of wins for all eight of Team SA’s tennis players in action at the Region 5 Youth Games in Maseru on Monday, writes Gary Lemke.
Things couldn’t have gone much better for the strong contingent who make no bones about their ambitions at the competition in the Lesotho capital. There’s a notable sense of camaraderie in the squad, underlined by William Zulch’s 18th birthday a few days ago.
“We had a bit of a party on the bus because we were still travelling,” said the teenager, who eased into the last eight of the singles competition with a 6-3 6-1 win over his Zambian opponent. “I had a bye in the first round, but this was a good match for me to get into the rhythm of the tournament. I think I’m up against the 8th seed from Botswana on Tuesday, but I’m ready.”
Also signalling their intentions were Rohan Loubser, Daniel Wessels and ‘Prince’ Morule. “My real name is Yarona, but no one can pronounce it properly so just call me Prince. In Yarona the ‘r’ is rolled, but obviously it’s not in the name Prince, so that’s easiest all round,” he laughed.
Morule, who is the youngest player in the eight-person squad, rolled past his opponent 6-0 6-3, a score matched in victory by Wessels, while the power-serving Loubser prevailed 6-1 6-2.
All four girls also won their matches: Line Greyling and Kagiso Ledwaba didn’t drop a game in whitewashing their outclassed opponents from Zambia, Sarah Millard won 6-1 6-1 and the only player to drop a set was Makhosazana Stewart.
She pulled through at the end of an encounter in which the wind at the National Tennis Centre caused problems for both players, although after the first two sets had gone to tiebreakers, she pulled through in the decider to win the match 7-6 6-7 6-0.
Stewart had looked to be on the wrong side of an umpiring error when hitting a winner at 5-4 in the second set tiebreaker, although the umpire overruled and called the score 5-5 when it should have been match point for the South African.
However, ultimately no damage was done and when the players finally got in the bus for the trek back to their accommodation, they were all in good spirits. Perhaps Zulch, who recently finished writing his Matric at Paarl Boys’ High, also got another sing-song birthday celebration on the bus back.
So, now Team SA are looking at a handful of tennis medals this week. With eight singles players still in the draw, they also know that they are likely to come up against teammates as the competition thins out and the cream rises to the top.
Photo of Makhosazana Stewart by Roger Sedres