Kenya bags regional Tennis team title

The curtain call has come down on the ITF/CAT Eastern Africa Junior Championships at the Nairobi Club and with it, the trophy for the best team remains in Nairobi, having been won by an impressive Kenyan team.

The Championships and team sport in particular was a return to the proverbial good old days and the déjà vu of days gone by was close to the minds of anyone involved in the tennis fraternity over the last few decades. The noise levels on Centre Court at the Nairobi Club was up to decibels not heard here in years, the last occasion being the partisan crowd willing on Allan Cooper to lead the Kenyan Davis Cup team to a win against Monaco in what seems like decades ago.

The thought of playing not only for yourself but for a team, for your nation, the pressure levels are palpable and the atmosphere cannot be compared to any other on a tennis court or off it.

Levels of play are raised to unprecedented ones when a win or a loss for an individual player counts as points for a team and that was definitely seen here when Kenya’s Alicia Owegi, playing in her first ITF tournament carried the Kenyan Girls 12 and Under team to victory in difficult circumstances winning a last match which she had no business getting a set from, let alone winning in straight sets against a very strong opponent in Sudan’s Maysoon Adam.

Another one for the archives is a comeback from the dead, Lazarus like experience, that saw Dhruv Kavia and Kael Shah and by extension Kenya win the Boys 12 and Under Doubles. Against eventual 12 and Under Singles Champion Obssa Gemeda Olana of Ethiopia and a more than handy Kanuti Omary Alagwa (Tanzania) for a partner, the Kenyan pair seemed out of it from the onset, losing the first set easily before coming back to win a tight second set, 7-5.

In the final set match tie break the local boys seemed dead and buried when they went down 0-5 in the match tie break only for them to reel of five points in a row, tie it and go on to win it 11-9 leaving Dhruv Kavia an emotional mess. The young boy couldn’t believe he had just won such a match and the tears couldn’t be stopped.

These are the moments that remind everyone the beauty – and the cruelty – of the game that is tennis. Kael Shah would go on to lose to Olana in the Singles final but that Doubles win will linger long in the memory of the partners that got each other out of trouble that day on Court 7.

The highlights reel rolled on the final day when the 14 and Under Boys final got onto court as the final match of the day and if Centre Court had a roof, it would have been blown right off by the ruckus caused by the partisan Kenyan crowd and mostly those who hoped that Kenya would lose and by so doing give someone else a chance to carry the team title.

Ryan Randiek of Kenya would win the first set 6-3 before a roller coaster of a second set against Seychelles Damien Laporte saw Randiek surrender several match points in the second set tie break before losing it 13-11 to set up what seemed to be a teaser of a final set. Laporte was, however, totally spent and would go on to lose it without winning a single game to loud cheers of the home supporters and the chagrin of some very loud ‘haters’ sitting behind the baseline on Centre Court.

Sneha Kotecha looked to appease the home fans with a win in the Girls 14 and Under and was on her way to doing just that before coming unstuck against Aisha Niyonkuru of Burundi, the only country with a chance to beat Kenya to the overall crown. This, however, wasn’t meant to be as Niyonkuru came from behind to win in three sets before Niyonkuru’s team mate Sada Nahimana carried the Girls 16 and Under crown which was never really in doubt since Day One.

An anti climactic 16 and Under Boys final would shut out Burundi in the cold when a hobbling and visibly injured Abdoul Shakur Kabura (Burundi) retired hurt – his knee had given him problems for a few weeks – to hand victory to Albert Njogu of Kenya.

The atmosphere that descended on Court and the attitudes of the players during the duration of the Championships was nothing short of spectacular. Kids who barely said two words to each other were cheering themselves hoarse, shaking the fence on a good winner, anything they could to give their team-mate that extra edge.

It was an amazing spectacle to watch the camaraderie, the trademark daily prayer hurdle for the Kenyan team, these were just a few of the wonders of team tennis that Kenya and Nairobi wouldn’t mind hosting every so often.