21 Jul 2024

Botswana National Tennis Team has missed a qualifying spot after losing two matches against Gabon at the Davis Cup Africa Group V event held in Gaborone.

In the first match, Mark Nawa won the first set 2-1 and third set 6-3, 6-0 while his opponent Rene Antchandie won second set 4-6.

Second match, the country was represented by Denzel Seetso who won the first set 6-4, while Herve Antchandie claimed second and third set 5-7, 3-6.

In the men’s double, Seetso and Batsomi Marobela lost 2-1 to Gabon, shutting the country’s dream of making it to the Davis Cup Group IV.

Team Botswana went to the playoffs after leading Pool C and after winning all their three matches against Lesotho, Madagascar and Libya.

The team’s captain, Petrus Molefe said despite not making it to Group IV, the future looked bright for the country.

“I was using a very young team, which was very hungry,” he said.

Molefe said they had good battles from day one until the end of the tournament adding that for them to make it to the playoffs, they had to go through tough teams in Africa.

“I think against Gabon, we didn’t have a good day, I think somewhere we got tense. Maybe we lost focus where it really mattered,” he said.

However, players said they learnt a lot from the Davis Cup.

Nawa said his take away from the tournament was that with matches, ‘it is not over until it is over.’

He said some of his matches were decided in the third set and other matches he won where he thought he had lost.

Despite not making it to the Davis Cup group IV, Nawa said they gave their all and would came back stronger in the next tournament.

Seetso said the Davis Cup reminded him of the things he already knew, like finishing the match when it was over.

Seetso, who at some point won the first set and in the second set was leading 5-0 saw his Gabonese opponent make a comeback to win the set 7-5, forcing the match to go to the deciding set, while Marobela who was only playing the doubles said he learnt how to deal with pressure.

He added that he had also learnt to trust himself and his teammates more.

Marobela said the competition was good, and they were wanted to win. He said they were very close but was confident that they would come back a better team.

Meanwhile, 15 countries competed for the Davis Cup Group IV slot and Gabon and Mauritius qualified for the two slots. ENDS