Thite unstoppable in African Junior showpiece

 Lesotho’s junior tennis starlet Thebe Thite was simply the best at the ITF/CAT Southern African Junior Teams’ Competition which was held at Bulawayo Country Club in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe from March 18-22. Thite dominated the annual under-12 competition, winning all his games against competitors from South Africa, Angola, Malawi, Namibia, Botswana, Madagascar and Zimbabwe. Like the two previous editions of the competition, the Bulawayo event was open for boys and girls’ teams of three players each. Thite’s teammates in boys’ team were Katleho Makana and Langa Matloebe, while Lesotho’s girls team was made of ’Makhauta Mohanoe, Mahlohonolo Kotelo and Tlotliso Ntaote. According to Lesotho team’s coach, Bishop Mosebi, only boys’ team tried its best. He said the girls’ team were beaten white-wash.  “The tournament was a team competition and for a team to garner points its individual players must win their games. So in our side only Thite played well as he won all his games,” said Mosebi in an interview with the sport. “Makana won once against one player from Namibia while Matloebe did not compete in singles. In girls’ competition none of our players triumphed.” Mosebi said only Makana was not making his first appearance at the annual ITF junior tournament. “All of my players were making their first appearance in the tournament except Makana,” Mosebi said. He said their top priority was however not to win in girls’ competition but to expose their players to international events whom he said were all under the age of 10. Lesotho finished the boys’ competition lying on position six behind Botswana and Namibia on position seven and eight respectively. South Africa topped the boys’ leaderboard, followed by the hosts Zimbabwe on second position.  Madagascar, Malawi and Angolo finished on third, fourth and fifth position respectively. Even the girls’ competition was won by South Africa while Lesotho finished as the last team on the eight-team IFT tournament. Top two teams in boys’ and girls’ category have qualified for the final event of the competition to be held in Morocco in September this year.