ETHEKWINI Tennis Association (ETA) which comprises of 27 affiliated clubs and those aiming at development of tennis in Durban and surrounding places, is making an impassioned plea to corporate and individual business people for sponsorship of this sport.
This is an attempt to resuscitate tennis by having more development programmes which will benefit every tennis loving player at youth level.
ETA has formed a development squad called Imfezi which will work hand in hand with Sports Elite High Performance Centre situated at Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban in order to hone the tennis players' skills.
There is no government sponsorship in tennis development, while municipalities only help the federation but not individuals, and ETA has had to look elsewhere.
This has prompted Dave Williams the vice president of ETA and his committee to employ a development officer, Emmanuel Ngema, who will oversee, manage and assist all the present development centres.
These are the attempts to circumvent the dwindling number of tennis clubs each and every year, yet the sport has become expensive and has contributed to the drought of development programmes.
Tennis once enjoyed a huge following in KwaZulu-Natal especially in Durban and had massive sponsorships in the late 1990s, but all that has dried up.
This development move started at the beginning of 2013 when ETA received a bequest from a tennis player with implicit instructions that this funding was to be utilised strictly towards developing tennis.
According to Williams, this funding enabled the growth of the development programme as more unemployed tennis adults were given Play and Stay coaching, which was followed by the opening of more development centres in poverty stricken areas.
In July this year, ETA entered eight children identified as having a passion and talent for the game into the annual Coca Cola Tennis SA ranked tournament.
They were given brand new raquets, refreshments and transport for the duration of the tournament.
A further seven children were identified and entered into the local coloured ball tournaments as a means to familiarise them with all aspects of a tournament when they were ready.
This sponsorship will help this association to extend their development programme even to the previously disadvantaged communities who love tennis but have no financial backing.
Early this year ETA development programme managed to register Siphephelo Bhulose from Mayville in the United World Games held in Austria. Bhulose is coached and mentored by Emmanuel Ngema at Westridge Park Tennis Stadium.
Anyone interested in supporting or sponsoring this development programme, should call eThekwini Tennis Association on 031 261 2527 from 8am to 1pm, Monday to Friday, or email: info@durbantennis.co.za
Visit: www.durbantennis.co.za.
