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By Oscar Pilipili
Kenya lawn tennis has never been the same since the exit of the generation of the great Paul Wekesa in the 1980s.
Wekesa was among the players who provided fans with some intriguing matches and his unmatched gain in Kenya was a second round at Wimbledon.
The absence of such personalities has denied our courts top action matches leading to a sharp drop in the standards of the sport.
Our players have little to offer in international tournaments and hardly go beyond regional events.
Main challenges
New KLTA chairman Peter Gichira. Photo: Jonah Onyango/Standard
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It is with this regard acting KLTA chairman Patrick Gichira has unveiled a blue print to revive the sport.
Gichira took over from Francis Mutuku who went into early retirement on personal reasons last month.
The new chairman concedes the standards of tennis are wanting and a lot has to be done to return it to international level.
"My vision is to ensure our tennis returns to international level where it was before," he told FeverPitch in an interview in Nairobi last Thursday.
Nurture talent
He plans, and with the participation of all stakeholders, to establish junior development programmes that would help identify and nurture talent.
"There are a lot of tennis facilities in clubs that are underlined to provide opportunities to the KLTA to spread the game," he says.
He appreciated the role played by private academies and individual coaches in the development of tennis but insists all must operate under the policy guidance by the KLTA.
"The success of the academies is the success of the KLTA but we should respect each others laws," he asserts.
Gichira said tennis dropped due to failure by authorities to build player base distributed among age groups.
"When the generation of Wekesa and Eno Polo exited the scene there was no structure for other players to come up to own level," he says.
Gichira is determined to revive a number of senior tournaments and national league as reflected in next year’s KLTA calendar of events.
Tough warning
These include regional open tournaments such as Rift Valley, Nyanza and Uasin Gishu Open.
"International Tennis Federation have committed to give Kenya a future tournament if we show management ability," he reveals.
The official is concerned over the inability of the KLTA secretariat to serve both stakeholders and players effectively.
"Our secretariat is under staffed and we need to identify what role the office should play and what equipment are required to improve its operations," he says.
The chairman also issued tough warning to coaches who intentionally refuse to enter their students in tournaments for own personal reasons as it has happened in the past.
"Those who identify talent should not be possessive by denying youngsters opportunity to compete in tournaments," he says.
"The players need to compete in as many tournaments to meet different challenges and to further develop their skills," he opines.
Gichira said he would vie for the same position during the KLTA Annual General Meeting in April.
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