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Golden Rackets commence training camp in Morocco
Ghana’s tennis team has commenced training a day after arriving in Casablanca to prepare for the upcoming Davis Cup competition in Egypt.
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The Golden Rackets team is in the Moroccan city to intensify their preparations for their Davis Cup Euro-African Zone III encounter which commences on October 26 in Cairo.
The tennis team got the opportunity to travel for their external camp due to the benevolence of McDan Shipping Limited, who has made substantial investments in Ghana tennis in recent years.
It is, however, not clear if the Golden Rackets will get the chance to compete in the Davis Cup as the Sports Ministry is yet to provide funds for their trip to Cairo.
The Ghana Tennis Federation has presented a budget close to $50,000 to cater for the team’s preparations and participation in the tournament.
The budget is, however, yet to be approved by the Sports Ministry who claim they have exhausted their entire budgetary allocation for the year.
The Golden Rackets are currently training at the ITF/CAT High Performance Tennis Centre in Casablanca.
Ghana together Libya, Benin, Nigeria, Tunisia, Nambia, Mozambique, Egypt and Algeria will be placed in two pools for round – robin and a play-off of the two top teams from both pools to see which two countries gain promotion to Africa zone II.
Representing Ghana are the current TPG/GTF top four-ranked players, namely George Darko, Wisdom Na-Adjrago, Pascal Ziyab and Jeff bagerbaseh as captain and Henry Quansah as coach.
Ghana’s best Davis Cup performance was reaching Europe/Africa Zone Group I in 1990, and the Golden Rackets’ last appearance was in 2013 when the team tied for fifth place in the positional play-offs held in Egypt, after beating Nigeria 2-1.
The Davis Cup comes just on the heels of Ghana’s successful campaign at the 2015 All Africa Games in Congo-Brazzaville where George Darko and Wisdom Na-Adjrago won gold in the men’s doubles championship.