Africa-Press – Botswana. Four to compete at Billie Jean King Cup
Four Botswana women national tennis team players will compete in the 2024 Billie Jean King Cup Tennis Group III Tournament in Nairobi, Kenya from June 10 to 15.
Kelebogile Monnayoo, Chelsea Changanyuka will be joined by Ekua Refilwe Youri, who is based at the University of San Antonio in Texas and has been training in Barcelona since last week and Leungo Monnayoo, who is based in New Orleans at the Meridian Community College.
Chakanyuka, who will be competing in the tournament for the second time, said in an interview that she had prepared well and was hopeful that she would surpass last year’s performance.
In last year’s Billie Jean King Cup Tennis Group III Tournament tournament, Botswana finished in eighth position.
She said that they would be in Kenya some days before the commencement of the tournament would give them time to acclimatise.
“Our opponents are not a closed book.
I have seen them quite a lot before. So I think I know how to handle them,” she said.
Kelebogile Monnaayoo said they finished in eighth position last year as most of them were making their maiden appearance at the tournament adding that it was difficult to adapt to the court.
This time around, she said their intention was to leave an indelible mark.
The team’s captain, Ernest Seleke said Botswana would be participating in the tournament for the third time.
He said they wanted to improve their position as they failed to make it to the top four in the previous two editions.
“I think we will do better this time around. We currently have two of our players based outside the country and they have been actively playing with other universities,” he said.
Seleke said Chakanyuka had also been active as she featured in the J30s adding that Monnayoo’s presence would help the team achieve the ultimate goal of finishing in top four.
He said Monnayoo, who is also a junior coach, was planning on retiring from playing to focus on coaching only.
Other countries that will feature in the tournament are Burundi, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Morocco, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Tunisia, Uganda and Zimbabwe.
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