International Junior Championships of South Africa and 23rd ITF African Junior Championships

The International Junior Championships of South Africa starts on 11 April at the Wanderers Club, Johannesburg. This event acts as a warm-up to the African Junior Championships, which starts on 17 April at the Groenkloof Tennis Centre in Pretoria. The event being held in Pretoria is a major fixture on the junior tennis calendar co-ordinated by the ITF and is one of the most prestigious sports competitions in Africa. The African Junior Championships that was first held in 1977 between four nations has grown dramatically with more than 170 players representing 26 nations this year. An ITF team of 15 players will also compete in the event. These players were selected on the basis of two regional qualifying events, one taking place in Ghana in December 1999 for the West African nations and the other in South Africa in January 2000 for the Southern and East African nations. A number of participants in recent years have taken advantage of the experience that the competition offers and have gone on to become world class players. Familiar names include Younes El Aynaoui, Karim Alami and Hicham Arazi of Morocco, Byron Black, Wayne Black and Cara Black of Zimbabwe, Dally Randriantefy of Madagascar and Westley Whitehouse of South Africa. This year, the event will be attended by ITF President, Mr Francesco Ricci Bitti who will not only see at first hand African tennis in action, but will also be attending the Confederation of African Tennis’s Annual General Meeting which is being held during the event. For further information, please contact: Alun James, ITF Head of Communications, Tel: 44 20 8878 6464 Fax: 44 20 8878 7799 http://www.itftennis.com