Young tennis stars go from strength to strength | Western Cape Education Department
Young tennis stars go from strength to strength

Young tennis stars go from strength to strength

6 February 2020

Leigh van Zyl of Paarl Girls’ High represented South Africa at the Southern Africa Tennis Championships in Namibia where she won a silver medal in the individual competition and a gold medal in the team competition.

Leigh has also been selected as a ball girl at the “Match in Africa” between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal at Cape Town Stadium on Friday.

Leigh is one of several young Western Cape tennis players that are shining on the tennis courts.

Damien Nezar, a Grade 12 learner at York High School in George, cruised through to the semifinals of the International Tennis Federation (IFT) Grade 3 junior tennis tournament in Pretoria yesterday.

Nezar edged out Wissam Abderrahman of Tunisia 6-2 6-3 in 1 hour & 34 minutes.

Fellow South African, Carl Roothman of Paul Roos Gymnasium in Stellenbosch, put up a brave fight in his quarter-final match before losing against Elyes Marouani of Tunisia.
Roothman and Nezar have both been selected to compete at the Africa Junior Championships from 10 – 16 February 2020. This international event is part of the ITF Junior World Tennis Tour.

Roothman is a member of the Cape Winelands Sports Academy. Another member of the Cape Winelands Academy, Maretha Burger, will also compete at next week’s championships.

Carl and Leigh also represented South Africa at the Junior Davis Cup and Junior Fed Cup playoffs respectively in Algeria in June last year.