TuksTennis wins Sun City Intervarsity Tournament
NTOKOZO ZONDO
TuksTennis took three teams to Sun City over the weekend of 12 to 15 April to compete in the annual Wilsons SA Universities Tournament. This tournament is aimed at preparation and introducing the universities to the competition they will be playing in the upcoming season and is a stepping stone to University Sports South Africa (USSA) Tournament, which will be taking place in December. The first team placed first and the second and third teams placed sixth and seventh respectively.
Kyla Yelverton, a first team player, discussed the significance of the club participating in this tournament, “a great tournament for the teams to prepare for USSA. It also helps the teams gauge their standards and performance against the other universities so as to know what to work on for USSA at the end of the year”.
TuksTennis’ first team has won the tournament for the second time in a while, with their last win being a decade ago. Yelverton reveals the details of this victory, “The first team won the tournament for the first time since 2009; this is the last tracked date of the tournament and it could in fact be the first time that Tuks had ever won the tournament. The second and third teams also performed very well. It is important to note that the second and third team played against first teams to end where they did”.
Yelverton explains the goals each team had going into the tournament, “The goal for the first team was to of course win the tournament, and for the other teams to do as well as possible. Overall, TuksTennis achieved these goals. The first team won the final against their long-known rival Kovsies 28.26.”
The club has begun training for the Gauteng North League which will begin in May and will assist in preparation for the highlight event of the season. With all these events during the season the club needs to acquire funds for away games for players to be able to compete, Yelverton discussed the funding initiatives in place for the club, “Funds are raised by means of social events and winning tournaments. More funding initiatives are on the way for USSA in December”.
Photo: Nkululeko Ngocobo.
