Uganda men’s tennis team was on Monday flagged off for the Davis Cup (by Rakuten) Africa Group V scheduled for 21st June to 25th June 2023 at the Cercle de Kinshasa. The team was flagged off by Uganda Tennis Association (UTA) and National Council of Sports (NCS) officials at the Uganda Olympic Committee premises in Kampala.
Fresh from winning the Uganda National Tennis Championship over the weekend, local star Frank Tayebwa is one of the main players in Uganda’s four-player team. The other three are; Troy Zziwa, Trevor Kazibwe and Paul Ssekandi. Legendary Coach John Oduke is the Team Captain.
Oduke has been with the boys for a while now and has seen them grow in the game. He is upbeat that his charges will put up a good show in Kinshasa once the week-long event serves off.
“The players are very promising, they are well disciplined and when it comes to game planning they know what to do and of course I’ll be there to guide them and set up programs for them as far as matches are concerned,” Oduke said.
Oduke has told the players that they are privileged to play in the Davis Cup because a few players get a chance to play in it. He has urged the players to capitalize on the benefits of playing in the tournament for their own personal development.
Team Uganda’s members have been consistently training and competing on the local scene. Teenagers Troy Zziwa and Trevor Kazibwe were semifinalists at the weekend’s National Tennis Championship finale at Lugogo Tennis Complex where Frank Tayebwa emerged men’s winner. Paul Ssekandi has been a regular at Lugogo and was training on a daily basis. With this background, Oduke believes that his side will do well.
Meanwhile, UTA President, Mathias Nalyanya believes that competing at events like the Davis Cup helps improve the Uganda tennis brand. At the flag-off, the women’s team that returned from the Billie Jean King Cup (Group III Africa) that ended last week in Nairobi flanked the men’s team headed to Kinshasa today (Tuesday, 20th June). Nalyanya says that continuous engagement in both local and international events will propel the game to greater heights.
Meanwhile, at this year’s Davis Cup, Uganda will join Gabon, Congo RDC, Congo, Tanzania, Burundi, Mauritius, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Djibouti, Lesotho and Seychelles.
The format of play will be round-robin. There will be four groups of 3 teams (Pools A, B, C and D). The Groups will be determined in the Captain’s Meeting to be held on 21.06.2023.
The group stage will be played from Wednesday 21 June to Friday 23 June. The play-offs will be played on Saturday, June 24 and there will be two promotions and no relegation.
The winners of each pool will compete as follows for a qualification in Africa Group IV in 2023. A1 v D1 & B1 v C1. The other teams will compete to determine their ranking at the end of the event.
