Sweet revenge as Nawa clinches J30 Singles title
Calistus Kolantsho | Tuesday April 16, 2024 09:41
Nawa punched the air in celebration as the Minister of Youth, Sport, Culture and Gender (MYSC), Tumiso Rakgare watched on.
The win is a revenge for Nawa who has been struggling to pick a win against South African players in the same tournament. Last year, Jaca came to Gaborone to beat Nawa to the same title and last weekend, another South African, Guy Vorwerk walked away with a 6-3, 6-2 victory in the first round of the J30 World Tour Junior series.
This time around, Nawa stepped into the court with a unique game plan, which was to stop Jaca. It was not a walk in the park playing against a smart player who was able to control the momentum of the game. Nawa was able to put his best foot forward, committing his opponent with long serves.
The local star performed spectacularly to take the match to a game point, despite going into the match as an underdog being ranked 425.
The encounter represented one of the biggest moments of Nawa’s young career, a significant test of his ability to handle the nerves, pressure and a strategic opponent on a big occasion. Speaking to SportMonitor, Nawa said the victory feels great after missing out on the title many times before. “My confidence was at peak and I told myself that I am here to win. I am happy with my performance, the win and I want to continue working hard so that I have the same feeling.
I believe the win will improve my ranking. I dropped a bit after losing points in Namibia last year. I am currently ranked number 425 but I am looking forward to an improvement,” he said. Nawa said instructions from the coach were for him to exploit his opponent’s weaknesses. For his part, Jaca said he came into the tournament with a sore knee, and he had to compete in three setters matches. He said during the final against Nawa, his body was heavy and he could not play the way he wanted. “Mark played well, deserves it and worked hard. It was not the first time I played against Mark. This time around he was stronger than me.
I made a few errors; I could have served better, but I enjoyed the match,” Jaca said.
The Botswana Tennis Association (BTA) vice president-technical, Nonofo Othusitse, said the ITF J30 World Tour Junior tournament went according to plan despite not having sponsors. “We are happy with the performance of our players. We had eight girls and seven boys in the main draw, which is an achievement. In terms of the results, we had Nawa reaching the Singles final in the first week, we also had Seabo Saleshando reaching the boys doubles final. This week, Nawa reached the final in the second week and winning it,” Othusitse said.