WINDHOEK – Fresh from her astonishing first place finish in a high profile International Junior Tennis Championship in Europe, Namibia’s young tennis sensation Raica Coelho is set to continue her scintillating form of late.

Raica, 13, was recently crowned Hamburg Junior Tennis champion in the under-14 age group in Hamburg, Germany.

She now lines up for the much-anticipated Trustco Junior Tennis tourney, which gets underway at the Central Tennis Courts (CTC), southern Windhoek, today. The 13-year-old Raica is the incumbent Namibian champion in the girls’ under-14 age group category.

The young tennis star has been on a rollercoaster ever since she made her bow in local tennis under the stewardship of tennis guru Warren Frewer, who has overseen her stunning rise to stardom that saw her tumbling national records. 

Granddaughter of local socialite and well known former astute football administrator Manuel Coelho, Raica boasts an astonishing résumé having represented her native land in several International Tennis Federation (ITF) tourneys in Mauritius, South Africa and Zimbabwe, with great aplomb.

She is currently ranked in the 100 bracket on the ITF Africa continental rankings. She stunned tennis followers when she swept her opponents aside to claim top honours in the B-Category of the annual Coastal Junior Tennis tourney in Swakopmund last year, to become the youngest player to walk away with top accolades in that particular category.  

The big serving Raica set tongues wagging when she teamed up with South African-based Namibian Linique Theron in the doubles. 

The pair came out unscathed from the battle of the giants in the A-Category of the same tournament – much to the chagrin of her more experienced opponents. 
Despite her fairly tender age, Raica is rated highly in the Khomas Ladies Tennis League, where she has been making rapid progress and certainly looks destined for the bigger stage.