TSHWANE, March 29, 2022 (Tennis South Africa Press Release)
Some of South Africa’s most promising young players will have an opportunity to gain valuable experience this week after being drawn against world-class opponents for the main draw of the Tuks International ITF World Tennis Tour W60 tournament which gets underway in Tshwane on Tuesday.
The tournament’s top seed, World No. 152 Tessah Andrianjafitrimo of France, will be confident of progressing beyond the opening round after receiving a favourable draw, as expected, on Monday.
Adrianjafitrimo, who competed at the French Open as a teenager in 2016 and 2017, will face a qualifier for a place in the second round.
The tournament’s No. 2 seed, experienced Russian player Valeria Savinykh, will have a tougher time of it in round one.
Savinykh, a former top 100 player who is currently ranked No 188, has been drawn against 17-year-old British prospect Matilda Mutavdzic, who will be eager to make a statement against her 31-year-old opponent.
The South Africans in the draw will also have to be at their best, with all four wild card entries needing to punch above their weight against a line-up which includes 13 players (in a field of 32) who are ranked among the top 300 in the world.
South Africa’s top-ranked player, 19-year-old Zoe Kruger, is up against four-time Grand Slam doubles champion Timea Babos of Hungary.
The other three South African players will face equally tough challenges, with 16-year-old Isabella Kruger drawn against former World No. 29 Urszula Radwanska of Poland, while 20-year-old Relebogile Sereo faces Carole Monnet of France, and 16-year-old Tayla Wilmot will need to find a way past Russian player Ekaterina Reyngold to earn a spot in the second round.
The Tuks International, an ITF World Tennis Tour event to be held over five rounds at the University of Pretoria, offers a prize purse of $60 000 (R880 000).
Semi-finals and finals of the event will be broadcast LIVE on SABC Sport on DTT Channel 4, Openview 124 and Livestream on Tennis SA YouTube channel on Saturday, 2 April and Sunday, 3 April, respectively.
