Tennis: 40 Young players undergo training at Winneba

The third edition of the National Junior Tennis Initiative Development Programme ended last Monday at the Winneba Sports College with 40 junior players exposed to the technicalities of the game to help them grow professionally.

The five-day International Tennis Federation (ITF) high performance training programme was organised by the Tennis Players Parents Association of Ghana (TEPPAG) in collaboration with the Ministry of Youth and Sports, the Ghana Tennis Federation and Natioanl Sports College at Winneba, and was also aimed at preparing the players for an ITF tourney to be staged in Togo and Nigeria later this year.

The players were drawn from about eight tennis academies in the country, including Aviation Social Center, Ashaiman, Adabraka, Obuasi, Accra and the Winneba Tennis Academies. 

The players, aged 10, 12 and 14 years, were trained in areas such as serve and vollier, return, baseline game, approaching the net, among others.

Speaking to the Graphic Sports, Coach Noah Bukari, the resource person and event trainer, said the purpose of the programme was to create a competitive environment for the development of the junior players.

“For the past five years, Ghana’s tennis has taken a downward trend so the only way we can find a lasting solution is through these development pathways where players are given the opportunity to experience the best technical, physical and complete tennis training. The GTF cannot do it a lone so it’s a good thing that TEPPAG has come on board to help find an immediate solution to this downward trend”, he contended.