Emeka Nwandiko
Pape Diaby has a dream – that someday Africa will have a tennis academy that will produce some of the best players in the world.
In Meadowlands, Soweto, under the blazing midday sun, the general manager of the Confederation of African Tennis is coaching 75 pre-schoolers from the suburb.
As a labourer wearing the navy blue overalls of the Western Metropolitan Local Council cuts the tall grass that surrounds the six tennis courts at the Bapepi Recreation Centre, Diaby begins the process of identifying future stars by making them throw a ball from the service line to the other side of the net where he is standing.
Three groups soon emerge: the Alphas who have succeeded in clearing the net, the Bravos who just about clear the net and the remaining Charlies.
The groups will learn to play tennis according to their strengths. But it promises to be a protracted process. The children have to make do with plastic and wooden rackets that belong to a bygone era.
Diaby was an ardent fan of soccer until his conversion to tennis about 30 years ago. He learned to play in his native Senegal after a friend suggested he try the game. His reply at the time was curt: “I don’t want to play that bourgeois sport.”
But Diaby was surprised when his friend’s father – a tennis coach – decided to coach him after seeing that he had talent.
“Now I love the game,” says Diaby.
And it is with love and determination that he nurtures talent that will someday be a force to reckon with on international courts.
Despite his busy schedule of co-ordinating championship games that sees him jetting around the continent, Diaby manages to devote two hours every Wednesday to coach the next generation of players. “Being on a tennis court is priceless,” he says.
“Look at me. Look at what I’m doing,” he says to the Alphas as he stands, feet slightly apart, with a racket in his right hand.
The tiny tots struggle to hold their rackets and follow his movements: left foot forward, followed by a swish of the racket.
It is almost a year since Diaby began volunteering his services. And he is not happy with the results. He has lost a group of children who showed promise of becoming competent tennis players when they graduated to primary schools outside Meadowlands.
Diaby has no illusions that it will be easy to produce the next generation of stars. “Tennis is not a priority for parents. They will have to fork out R400 just for a racket and then they will have to spend R300 on shoes,” he warns.
But he remains undeterred in his quest to make the game accessible to all, despite the odds.
“It is difficult for people to sponsor a game where there is no [immediate] return,” says Diaby. But friends have donated 15 rackets and others have promised to spread the word on his plight.
As the cut grass awaits the next rains, Diaby hopes that it will soon be possible to have a full-time coach and more rackets so that his dream will be realised.