All Africa Games a top priority, says coach Wachira as preps for ITF intensify

Kenya women’s tennis team head coach Peter Wachira has decided to put his focus on the All Africa Games  scheduled for next month in Morocco rather than the women’s International Tennis Federation (ITF) World Tour which will come before the AAG early next month at the Nairobi Club.

Kenya will be hosting the Tennis World Tour after 10 years wait with 22 countries having confirmed participation for the tourney scheduled to run from  August 5 -18.

According to the head coach, the women’s tour will just help them sharpen their skills for the Africa Games.

The women’s team has already started training ahead of the event with players such as Faith Nyabera, Angela Okutoyi, Rosehilda Asumwa, Judy Nkatha and Alicia Owegi expected to debut.

Apart from Kenya, other countries expected at the event are South Africa, Congo and Gabon while Ukraine, Poland, France, Russia, Netherlands, Romania, and Great Britain are the European countries that have already confirmed participation.

According to Tennis Kenya President James Kenani, the participating teams will arrive in Kenya on July 30.

The president assured that the tourney, set to make a return to Kenya after a 10-year wait is one of the f steps the federation is putting in place to lift the standards of the game.

“As a federation we are very happy to host this event after 10 years and we believe that this activity will help expose our local players as they compete against international world class players. This should act as one of the key activities that will help in development of professional players who can compete anywhere in the world,” said Kenani.

He went on: “We are still poor in terms of play and since we have not been having such international competitions in the country, it is not easy to get our players exposed.”

Kenya will also be hosting the men’s Tennis Davis Cup which is expected to begin in September and will see players such as Ismail Changawa, Ibrahim Kibet, Kevin Cheruiyot and Sheil Kotecha who are in Spain training under Spanish coaches’ return to represent their home country.