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 in an attempt to resuscitate tennis by having more development programmes which will benefit tennis players 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 player’s skills.
Since there is no government sponsorship in tennis development and municipalities only help federations rather than individuals, ETA had to look elsewhere. This prompted Dave Williams, 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 in an attempt 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,” said Williams.
This development movement started at the beginning of 2013 when ETA received a bequest from a tennis player with implicit instructions that the funding 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 8 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 7 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 are ready.
This sponsorship will help the association extend its development programme to previously disadvantaged communities who love tennis but have no financial backing.
Anyone interested in supporting or sponsoring this development programme can contact eThekwini Tennis Association at 031 261 2527 from 8am to 1pm from Monday to Friday or email: info@durbantennis.co.za.
