Tracy Ampah the Tarkwa Goldfields Tennis Academy player from Ghana was invited by Tennis South Africa to participate in two tournaments GC Wilson Marks Park Grand Prix which took place in Johannesburg from 19th April to 22nd April 2019 and GrowthPoint Atteridgeville Mini which took place from April 26 to April 28th 2019.

Playing under a temperature of 9 degrees for the first time, Tracy met the highly skilled and crafty Karina Pont in the first match whom she defeated 2:1 on a 10:5 tie break after the first and second sets had ended 4-6,6-4 respectively.

As the sun came up, the Lone Ranger flying the flag of Ghana became energetic. “At a point, I was down by a set to Karina Pont then all of a sudden my uncle raised the Ghana flag and I don’t know where the energy came from but I managed to turn the event around.

Tracy then met Alexander Nemeth whom she defeated in two straight sets. In her third match, she lost to the number six seed Allegra Van der Walt 5-7,4-6.

In the doubles event, a makeshift team of Tracy and Lisa of South Africa progressed to the semifinal having beaten their various opponents in two straight sets in the three matches preceding the semifinal.

Tracy then pitched camp with the Kinetic Tennis Club where the coaches complimented the efforts of her Ghanaian coach Richard Achagawe by taking her through some of the tough drills needed for a competition.

Learning from the experiences of the first tournament and having gotten used to the weather, Tracy Ampah entered the GrowthPoint Atteridgeville tournament with a lot of enthusiasm.

It was therefore not surprising when she defeated her first opponent in two straight sets 6-16-1. She was then paired against the number 4 seed Mienke Engelbrecht and again Tracy dispatched her in two straight sets of 6-2,6-1

In the Semi final she met the number two seed, Abigail Wheeler. This was certainly a tough match as the little prodigy from Ghana had to dig deep to out-perform her opponent in two straight sets of 6-4,6-1.

The stage was then set for a titanic final against the number one seed Marise Van Rooyen. The few Ghanaians gathered were in high spirits in anticipation of Gold but Marise had other ideas.

The more experienced and physically built Marise Van Rooyen defeated Tracy in two straights 6-2,6-1. leaving Tracy with the second place trophy.

In an interview with ghanatennis.org Tracy expressed her appreciation to Tennis South Africa for the opportunity, her coach Richard Achagawe, teachers of Umat Basic School, Engineers and Planners and Tarkwa Tennis Club members, for funding the trip and appealed to corporate Ghana for sponsorship for herself and all the up and coming Ghanaian tennis stars to enable them to compete in many tournaments ahead of the ITF team event in Morroco scheduled in September.

According to her, the South Africans have better facilities and many talented players, if we can have the opportunity to train with them we can lift the ITF team event.