New Development Plans In an attempt to boost the awareness and the number of people playing tennis in the province, the Vaal River Tennis Development social tournaments are aimed at the development and the promoting of township tennis around the country. For tennis to grow in South Africa the bulk of players has to come from the many township that house the African population. With the European population dwindling on an annual basis due to emigration, that population group now numbers less than 4 million out of a total population in South Africa of around 65 million. Even the Cape Coloured population, mainly in the Western Cape, has exceeded that figure. Simple maths shows you that the African population accounts for some 85% of the total , therefore that is the area that must be targeted for meaningful growth. Our Vosloorus kids have been to a few of these to “test the water” and see if there is any benefit to them attending although it is an essentially an adult programme, junior players have been invited. This decision we applaud as anything that allows our better juniors to mix and play with their peers, is welcome. At times there are coaching clinics run by the hosts as well as small tournaments and it is an opportunity for us to introduce some of our younger players. Six of our better juniors took part in the senior programme at the Vaal last weekend in a similar fashion when we hosted a similar event in Benoni. We have been invited to take part in the next event on 1 April as they will have a separate event for those better players. This is all part of their tennis education and we applaud the initiative started by the Vaal River Tennis and will endeavour to support these events moving forward.
