TENNIS: Jon Swift
IT is apposite, with the high-profile Champions Tournament taking the limelight this weekend at a venue which has caused the Sandton kugels to make a detour to the up- market shops around Sandton Square, to contrast this with the other end of the tennis spectrum and an event which happened last weekend.
Out at the Bapedi Hall complex, a venue that could be a million light years away from the boutiques and coffee shops of the northern suburbs, a handful of dedicated players fought out the Soweto Games tennis title.
At Sandton Square, the legends of the game play on one specially designed and purpose- laid court, beneath the latest of this country’s luxury hotels. At the hugely more modest Bapedi Hall, there is the advantage of eight courts. But, as in the Champions Tournament, only one was used.
The in-built differences in the two tournaments are apparent to even the most casual observer. But that must register as an example of the dichotomy of South African sport.
Both events carried the same sponsor. Both are equally important to the game for its very survival and future healthy growth.
Gordon Forbes, who heads the new-look South African Tennis Association, has rightly pointed to the inter-dependence of these two poles in the game.
”You have to have the big stars to attract the interest of the youngsters,” is the very sensible and logical way Forbes puts it. Quite so.
What Forbes did not say, but what is also equally evident, is that there has to be a generation of financial resources to support tournaments like the one which was part of the Soweto Games. There also have to be the big time tournaments to fund the development of the game which is so vital. Players like young Geoff Coetzee will doubtless continue to come through a system loaded against the underprivileged areas.
But then not everyone is going to do what the young man from the far reaches of the northern Cape did, and fashion himself a racquet out of a discarded crate and practise on his own. That takes a special type of dedication.
The more normal progression is the one which must be followed; engender the interest, draw the youngsters close, coach them and then help them progress into tournament play.
Interestingly enough, this is roughly parallel to the route Johan Kriek, second seed for the golden oldies tournament, followed. And he is still the only South African player with a Grand Slam title to his name.
And equally interesting is the fact that this route – as Forbes and the sponsors understand – begins at venues like Bapedi Hall.