Tennis: Uganda to Host East Africa Junior Teams’ Championship For Second Consecutive Time
Uganda granted another opportunity to host East Africa Junior Teams’ competition.
This is the second time in a row, Uganda is hosting the East African (Zone IV) Junior Teams’ Competition for boys and for girls of 12 years and under and this edition will take place in Kampala – Uganda from the 11th to 17th October 2021.
While revealing this event to Media in a press briefing held at Lugogo on Friday afternoon, the Uganda Tennis Association Chairman, Cedric Babu asserted that they applied to host the championship again because it keeps their kids active and in this era of COVID-19, it limits their movements outside the country but the sport keeps on moving even in this period.
“This year we applied to confederation of Africa Tennis to host the 12 and under because we are looking for young talents and grassroot players who we can create player pathway for next eight to ten years. These are players we can push to where we need to have a strong team for Uganda.” Chairman revealed.
” Tennis as a sport, it’s easier to to maintain the SOPs because there is no physical interactions between coaches and players, but again we encourage people to maintain the SOPs and to go for vaccination before this event.”
The tournament which is going to work as a qualifying event for the Africa Junior Championship has attracted Seven Countries that have confirmed Participation; Tanzania, Seychelles, Sudan, Burundi, Kenya and Ethiopia and Uganda the hosts.
The Tournament is slated to take place between 11th and 17th October 2021 at Lugogo Tennis Complex.
Uganda are the Current Silver medalists for Girls Category and Bronze Medalists for the Boys’ Category after hosting the event in March 2020.
Coaches John Oduke and Edward Odocken will captain the Boys and Girls Team respectively as it was in the previous edition.
Abdul Latif Ssenyondwa, Owecknimungu Tony Blair, Ambrose Byaruhanga are the boys to represent team Uganda while Afoyorwoth Hilder, Stacy Namirembe and Latifah Kampi are the girls to lift the Black, Yellow Red Flag high in this tournament.
The program of the competition will be as following:
Monday 11th October 2021 Teams arrival
Tuesday 12th to Saturday 16th October 2021 Teams’ Competition
Sunday 17th October 2021 Teams departure.
Competition details;
The competition will be played on two Pools of 3 to 4 teams each on a Round Robin Format over 3 days.
• The Teams ranked 1st and 2nd of each pool will qualify to compete at the Play off Pool (4 Teams).
• Each qualified Team will compete in the play Off Pool with the 2 other Teams while considering the result recorded between the 2 teams that played previously as registered.
• At the end of the Play-Off Pool, the team ranked 1 st in the boys & the two (2) best teams ranked 1 st & 2nd in the girls will be qualified to participate at the Final Event of the AJTC for 12 years and under.
• The same format will be played between the Teams ranked 3rd & 4th to play for the 5th to the 8th position.
• Composition of Tie: Each tie consists of two (2) singles and one (1) doubles and shall be played consecutively on the same court. All matches have to be played.
• Match Format: Each singles match shall be the best of three tie-break sets. In Doubles,
• Order of Play: The order of play must be as follows: Number 2 Vs Number 2; followed by the Number 1 Vs Number 1; Followed by: the doubles match Method of determining places in the Round Robin: Each tie will consist of three matches, two singles and one doubles.
• East Africa will qualify One (1) team in the Boys and Two (2) Teams in the Girls to compete at the Final Event of the 12 & Under African Junior Teams’ Championships (AJTC – 12&U) that will take place in September 2020
Tournament Officials;
Tournament Director- Alvin Bagaya
Tournament Referee- Ronnie Oduor
Tournament Umpires-Anthony Abok, Charles Wanyama, David Lwanga Tyaba, Michael Ssebide , Charles Okurut, and Patrick Luyinda.