Matsulu tennis clinic bring this sport’s A game to local children

Previously regarded as a “white” sport, tennis is gaining popularity in townships with young people showing a great interest in it.

At the forefront is the Mpumalanga Tennis Association, which has been holding coaching clinics throughout the province, targeting mostly townships and rural areas.

Just this past weekend, this association hosted clinics at Matsulu, in which over 60 children participated.

The association’s PRO, Sabelo Mathebula, said the clinics were a big hit, which proved that young people are keen on taking on this particular sport. “There was a void, but things are changing now and we want to make sure that we close that gap and make tennis popular; not just for the black communities, but everyone across all racial lines,” said Mathebula.

“Last week we had a national coach, Patrick Tsunke, the head coach at the Arthur Ashe Tennis Centre in Soweto, deployed by Tennis South Africa (TSA). He came with his team of coaches. The programme in Matsulu gave us an opportunity to promote the national schools tournament, called the BNP Paribas RCS Rising Star Tennis, which is a great initiative by TSA to get schools involved in tennis,” he continued.

He said because of the current Covid-19 situation, only a few kids will be part of the tournament this year.

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“It is really embarrassing that in national schools tournaments our kids in township schools are just there to add numbers and are not competitive. We are slowly changing this. Other provinces will now have to respect Mpumalanga and expect great competition. Through our development programme, we are discovering great talent that requires all stakeholders to cooperate and provide meaningful support. It is about time we change the status quo,” said Mathebula.

He said they will create school tournaments and leagues this year as a platform to give the kids more match time, because it is only as they play that their standard will improve.

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“We want to urge our provincial government to support our programme, and they can start by engaging us whenever they have programmes or ideas, so that we can make input that will contribute to the growth of tennis.

We really need the support of circuit managers and school principals as we want to give school kids an opportunity to learn tennis. Using schools provides a good and more organised platform to run a programme successfully,” he concluded.