{"id":46955,"date":"2024-04-15T17:12:52","date_gmt":"2024-04-15T17:12:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/nawa-reigns-supreme"},"modified":"2024-04-15T17:31:22","modified_gmt":"2024-04-15T17:31:22","slug":"nawa-reigns-supreme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/nawa-reigns-supreme","title":{"rendered":"NAWA REIGNS SUPREME"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Botswana. <\/strong><\/span>Local tennis sensation, Mark Nawa is the champion of the ITF J30 World Tour Juniors Championships after defeating South Africa\u2019s Siyabonga Jaca in the final.<\/b><\/p>\n

Nawa beat Jaca 7-5, 6-2 at the National Tennis Court on Saturday to become the second Motswana to win the men\u2019s World Tour Juniors singles after Botswana\u2019s decorated tennis player, Denzel Seetso.<\/p>\n

For Nawa, the win demonstrated that perseverance and patience could take one far.<\/p>\n

His unprecedented win was not only special to him but to the whole tennis community as he has featured in four J30 singles finals and lost.<\/p>\n

It was clear in the final match against Jaca, who had defeated him in the two previous encounters, that he was out for blood.<\/p>\n

It was not surprising that Jaca started the match fully aware that he was up against his regular prey.<\/p>\n

Lo and behold, Nawa turned things around and attacked like a wounded lion and eventually defeated his nemesis.<\/p>\n

Enroute to the final, Nawa had to dig deep to win his matches.<\/p>\n

His journey was not all rosy, as he had to go past tough opponents in the likes of Great Britain\u2019s Aston Joshua and brushed him aside with a 7-5, 7-6 win before proceeding to the quarterfinals, where he met South Africa\u2019s Akexander Hristov.<\/p>\n

Hristov proved to be hard nut to crack, but the determined and results-driven Nawa prevailed with a 6-2, 6-0 victory.<\/p>\n

His semi final match against Mpho Leshoele of Lesotho was a highly contested nail-biting encounter, which saw the local sensation losing the first set 4-6.<\/p>\n

Now, driven by the desire to win and to clear a dark cloud that has been hovering over him for long, Nawa had to win the last two sets 6-2, 6-3 to book a berth in the final.<\/p>\n

Nawa said in a post-match interview that he was mentally and physically prepared for the final match hence he came out on top.<\/p>\n

He said his confidence, which was at its peak helped him to claim the title, which eluded him for long.<\/p>\n

He said he was charged up and ready to win other tournaments.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am really proud with my performance this week, and I hope I can carry it into future tournaments,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Jaca, said his knee injury coupled with body feeling heavy contributed to his loss as he could not move as he had wanted.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut to be honest, Mark played very well.<\/p>\n

He worked very hard and he was stronger than me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In the ladies singles final, South Africa\u2019s Celina Joseph defeated Koronayashe Rugara of United States of America 6-3, 6-1.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Botswana<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Botswana. Local tennis sensation, Mark Nawa is the champion of the ITF J30 World Tour Juniors Championships after defeating South Africa\u2019s Siyabonga Jaca in the final. Nawa beat Jaca 7-5, 6-2 at the National Tennis Court on Saturday to become the second Motswana to win the men\u2019s World Tour Juniors singles after Botswana\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":46954,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,17],"tags":[233,237,234],"class_list":["post-46955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-sport","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-botswana","tag-botswana"],"yoast_head":"\nNAWA REIGNS SUPREME - Botswana<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Local tennis sensation, Mark Nawa is the champion of the ITF J30 World Tour Juniors Championships after defeating Sou ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/nawa-reigns-supreme\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"NAWA REIGNS SUPREME\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Local tennis sensation, Mark Nawa is the champion of the ITF J30 World Tour Juniors Championships after defeating Sou ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/nawa-reigns-supreme\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Botswana\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-04-15T17:12:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-04-15T17:31:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/botswana\/sites\/38\/2024\/04\/sm_1713189330.864406.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1620\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1124\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/nawa-reigns-supreme#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/nawa-reigns-supreme\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"NAWA REIGNS SUPREME\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-04-15T17:12:52+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-04-15T17:31:22+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/nawa-reigns-supreme\"},\"wordCount\":455,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/nawa-reigns-supreme#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/botswana\/sites\/38\/2024\/04\/sm_1713189330.864406.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Botswana\",\"Botswana\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/nawa-reigns-supreme#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/nawa-reigns-supreme\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/nawa-reigns-supreme\",\"name\":\"NAWA REIGNS SUPREME - 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