CAIRO - Egypt's national U14 tennis team for girls succeeded in qualifying for the World Cup next month after grabbing first place in the First African Junior Championship at the Smash Academy in Cairo last week. "We are pinning a lot of hope on our junior girls in the forthcoming event,” Israa el-Sanhouri, the President of the Egyptian Tennis Federation (ETF), told the Egyptian Mail. "This championship is very important for Egypt. The U14 tennis team for girls has qualified for the World Tennis U14 Cup for junior girls, to be held in August in the Czech Republic," el-Sanhouri said, adding that the ETF was pinning its hope on the juniors. "The competition among the sixteen countries will be fierce,” she added. "There was tough competition among participants of the First African Junior Championship in Cairo last week," she explained. The participating countries were Egypt, South Africa, Tunisia, Morocco, Zimbabwe, Congo, Mauritius, Algeria, Nigeria and Ghana, all members of the Confederation of African Tennis (CAT), a sports organisation that gathers 50 African countries. Technical coach Ali el-Sherbini chose the following participants: Sandra Sameh Samir, Sarah Ismail Mohamed, Hanaa Ahmed Murtaja and Habiba Ali Lachin. Egypt's U14 girls' team will participate in two important championships; the first being the African Tennis Championship in Tunisia this week. "The team will benefit and use it as a good preparation for the World Cup," el-Sanhouri said, adding that after the African Championship, the girls would participate in the Arab Tennis Championship for juniors, also in Tunisia. Meanwhile, the Egyptian Tennis Federation is considering to honour the girls' team that participated in the First African Championship. “The result was very good, particularly since they are so young and it was their first tournament,” Israa explained. Both Egypt and Morocco qualified for the U14 World Cup for girls, to be held this August in the Czech Republic. Egypt came first, Morocco second, Tunisia third and Zimbabwe fourth. The players who represented Egypt in this championship were Sandra Sameh Samir, Sarah Ismail and Hanaa Moragi. On Monday, meanwhile, the first round of Egypt 1 ITF Junior Tournament took place, with the participation of over 100 international players from more than 14 countries, including Russia, Cyprus, Morocco, America, Tunisia, Austria, Egypt, Croatia, Turkey, Libya, Jordan, Algeria, Georgia and Bahrain. Among the Egyptian players were Sharif Abou-Hebaga, Mohamed Zazoa, Mazen Osama, Abdul Rahman Bahiel Deen, Mohamed Kamal and Ahmed Abdel-Latif. Israa, the first woman in Egypt's history to lead a major sports federation, added that the main objective of this forthcoming championship was to show the world that Egypt was safe and stable. The Egyptian Tennis Federation, established in 1920, joined the International Tennis Federation in 1923. The ETF president said that tennis was played in ten regions across the country: Cairo, Giza, Alexandria, Port Said, Ismailia, Assiut, El-Minya, the Red Sea and 6th October City. "There are around 5,025 registered players in the Egyptian Federation, representing 77 clubs from all over the country," Israa said. There are millions of players worldwide, while hundreds of millions follow tennis as spectators, particularly the four Grand Slam tournaments (sometimes referred to as the 'majors'): the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open. The Egyptian national team for men started its games Monday in the Davis Cup Competitions that will continue until the 9th of this month at the Smash Tennis Academy, Cairo. The Davis Cup is the oldest and one of the most prestigious annual sports team events with 126 competing nations, offering each player the privilege to represent his country at this glamorous event. Last month, the ETF appointed Tamer el-Sawi as new technical director of the first national team, to coach the team in the Europe/Africa Zone Group III of the 2011 Davis Cup.
