First Tournament of the year Despite the fact that spectators are still not allowed to attend tennis events, Gauteng East staged their first tournament of the year. We again supported this initiative with six players taking part and one of them experiencing tournament play for the first time. It was pleasing to see that the organizers put the players into a higher section than normal as they feel there has been sufficient improvement to their game and are ready for the sterner competition. Although this may have been somewhat daunting for them initially, they all seemed to cope well enough to justify them being in the higher group. This is a credit to the players themselves and the coach, Michael Lelosa. The young boy who was initiated into tournament play was a replacement in fact for another player who is still recovering from a broken arm. Wandile Tshabalala and Vusi Buthelezi finished 5th in the Federer section; Thando Xolo and Angel Nkosi 6th in the Halep section and Kgomotso Mabote and Kgomotso Santos 5th in the Nadal section. Thando and Angel were awarded the prize for the Best Dressed team in their section and following the event the organizers advised me that Angel is now ready to take part in TSA sanctioned tournaments which is good news. The organizers congratulated all the players on their sportsmanship. The next event of this kind is 2 May but before then some of the better players will be entered into the TSA tournament at the end of April. Pictures are of the group with coach Michael and the pair who were awarded the Best dressed prize.
