CAIRO - Egypt tennis juniors Hanna Mortagi and Habiba Lasheen have grabbed the girls' U-14 African doubles title, beating Moroccan duo Jetta and Zeinab in the final of the 35th African Tennis Championship. The Championship, for boys under 16 and girls under 14, was held in Cairo from April 10 to 14. Egyptian duo Mohamed Abul Qassem and Sharif Makhlouf, meanwhile, came second in the boys' U-14 final, losing to Ghana's Isaac and Marcel. Egypt's U-14 and U-16 for boys and girls booked eight seats in the semi-finals of the doubles competition of the African tournament, a fiercely fought competition involving 30 countries. The Egyptian Tennis Federation (ETF), established in 1920, joined the International Tennis Federation in 1923. Tennis is locally played in ten regions across the country: Cairo, Alexandria, Giza, Port Said, Assiut, el-Minya, Ismailiya, the East Delta, the Red Sea and 6th October City. There are around 5,025 players registered in the Egyptian Federation, representing 77 clubs all over the country. ETF holds training courses and programmes for players, coaches and referees, in order to improve and develop the game nationwide. Worldwide, there are hundreds of millions of people follow tennis as a spectator sport, especially the four Grand Slam tournaments, the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open.
