ITF ranking tournament set for Mombasa

By Ernest Nunda

More than 80 players drawn from 30 nations are expected in Mombasa Wednesday and Thursday for the Mombasa International Tennis Federation (ITF) ranking tournament.

The event will run from Saturday to February 12 at the Mombasa Sports Club, according to the event’s supervisor Lawrence Karanja.

The event will then move to Nairobi for the second and third legs at Parklands Sports Club and Nairobi Club on February 14-19 and 22-27.

The Under-18 ITF Junior Circuit is hosted in over 150 countries each week and Mombasa has been sanctioned to host the first of the three legs in Kenya. The tournament comes back to Mombasa after seven years of absence.

Karanja said entry list continues to swell in the ITF ranking tournament where the players would be out to improve their rankings.

The qualifying round in the boys’ category begins on Saturday and is expected to run untill Monday with the main draw volleying off on Tuesday.

There would be 48 and 32 players in the boys’ and girls’ singles main draws respectively, while the boys’ and girls’ double main draws have 24 and 16 players.

In boys’ category, Ismael Changawa and Derrick Onyancha will lead the Kenyan players with Ibrahim Kibet having a wild card to the main draw.

South Africa’s Paul Dion, who is ranked 437 internationally, is the tournament’s top seed.

Other foreign players are David Hudgetts of Britain (509), Sherif Abohabaga of Egypt (578), Tuki Jacobs of Namibia (620), Christopher Heymon of Belgium (627) among others.

Other countries, which have entered players in the boys’ category, are Zimbabwe, Cyprus, Greek, Singapore, Sweden and Ireland among others.

In the girls’ category, Kenyan girl Nikita Dawda, who is ranked 647 globally, is the top seed as per the latest list of entries.

Other local girls in the event are Michelle Onyancha, who is set to represent the country in the African Junior Championships in Egypt in April.

Others are Shufaa Changawa, Katarina Karanja and Sonia Radia all of Mombasa, who have been given wild cards to the Main draw.

Meanwhile, Malaysia has pulled out of this week’s Fed Cup women’s team tennis event after failing to find any players good enough to compete, an official of the Southeast Asian nation’s tennis body said yesterday, adds Reuters.

The Lawn Tennis Association of Malaysia said they had reviewed some players but found none suitable to don the national colours during the tournament.