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Chair umpire makes tennis history for SA

Pretoria - The International Tennis Federation (ITF) and Tennis South Africa (TSA) have named their officials for the upcoming Davis Cup tie between South Africa and Estonia.

The tie is to be played at the Irene Country Club outside Pretoria from Friday, February 3 to Sunday, February 5.

The referee and ITF representative at the tie will be experienced umpire, Dr. Ashraf Hamouda of Qatar. The two chair umpires are Patrick Selepe from Soshanguve, Pretoria and Tebogo Maleka from Soweto, Johannesburg.

The chief of umpires will be Mpho Makhoba of Atteridgeville, Pretoria.

This will be the first David Cup tie Selepe will be officiating in. Selepe, who has a prosthetic leg, becomes the first official with a disability to be awarded the opportunity to work as a chair umpire in Davis Cup competition in the country.

Selepe is a regular official on the Southern Africa Futures circuits.

It will also be Maleka’s debut tie and a special one being on home soil. He started officiating in 2009.

Both officials are white badge officials obtaining their ITF qualifications in November 2015.

Dr. Hamouda, a silver badge ITF referee, will be making his first trip to South Africa. He is the officiating manager for the Qatar Tennis Federation and officiates at the ATP and WTA events in Qatar and Dubai as well as at the Wimbledon Championships. He also holds a chief of umpires gold badge.

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