Tennis time. Time for Tennis World Tour. After the enormous difficulties of 2020, the rebirth of tennis activity in South Africa was marked by the maxi-tour organized by Federico Coppini and the Tennis World Foundation. With the first tournaments having been played in September 2020, the junior stages held on June 19th-20th were the first games of the winter season. And once again they were successful events, with the boys of the Tennis World Academy showing making their promises felt.

For example, in the Under-10 tournament, Alex Pieber, an academy student who was good at overtaking his peer Alec Koch, from Somerset West, won.

The real triumph, however, came in the Under-12 tournament. All four semi-finalists in the category train at the Coppini Federico academy. The four semi-finalists were Dawid Fourie, Giacomo Coppini, Luke Verwey and Ethan Pieber. In the end, the last player prevailed, but the results – however important – take a back seat when considered that the academy has had well-placed dominance.

However, Ethan Pieber deserves a closer look. One among the Class of 2010, he is achieving significant results despite the fact that he is still very young and in full growth. In addition to his technical skills, he’s really disciplined and has a competitive spirit. Also competing in the Under-14 tournament, he surrendered in the quarter-finals to the German Rupprath Mick, a player of the Class of 2008 who’s recently come to South Africa, and is currently living in Cape Town.

It was a fantastic game, with several quick and uncertain exchanges until the end. The German won with the score of 3-4, 4-1, 10-6. The patrons of the Van der Stel Tennis Club immediately understood that it was an early final. In fact, no one was surprised when Mick won the tournament by beating Dehan Van Deventer in the final, who’s also a very promising player.

The semi-final featuring Giacomo Coppini in the Under-12 category was also of note.

The Academy received great satisfaction in the tournament for the older children (the Under-16s), with the victory of Luca Granvogl (who trains part-time in Stellenbosch) in the final over Kim Sun Woo who, instead, is a 100% product of the work of Federico Coppini and his staff.

Earlier we wrote that the boys in the Under-12 category gave the academy the greatest satisfaction, but the same can be said for the girls of the Academy in the same age category.

Once again, Shiloh Daniels, now the “star” of the club, won. In recent months, Daniels has also performed well in the boys’ tournaments. In the final, the South African beat Nigerian Mazibuko Milani by the score of 4-2, 4-2. Not only do both train at the Tennis World Academy but they are also part of the Tennis World Foundation project, the one that is perhaps most dear to the “Tennis World” world. Among other things, Milani's father is a tennis teacher in Franschhoek, a town of 20,000 inhabitants 60 km away from Cape Town.

The Tennis World Tour will restart on the weekend of July 17th-18th, after sanctifying the Wimbledon break.

Then, the youngsters will return to the field again, to play tournaments across the three categories – Under-10, Under-12, and Under-16. It will be a great opportunity for those who failed to win in June to avenge their loss.

Meanwhile, the TWT travels swiftly towards the 500-player target. To date, 454 have played at least one game in the 58 tournaments that have already been played. And, more importantly, 36,286 Rand have been raised for the foundation's charitable mission.