Williams earns ITF white badge status

National female tennis player Roxanne Natifah Williams gained the International Tennis Federation (ITF) white badge, after she successfully completed the Level 2 certification recently at the ITF officiating school in Austin, Texas.{{more}}

This attainment makes Williams the first Vincentian with the highest tennis umpire’s badge.

The qualification means Williams can officiate at Wimbledon, US Open, and, among other, Rogers Cup.

In getting her badge, Williams said that the four-day intensive course entailed classroom sessions, including a written examination, as well as actually officiating and writing a proposal on how one will organise a tennis tournament.

Williams told SEARCHLIGHT that the experiences gained through officiating at regional ITF tournaments paved the way for her elevation to the white badge status.

“Going to the regional tournaments, seeing how they are run, entitled me to be a level one white badge … It also involved a lot of practice on the courts,” Williams said.

She said that prior to her travel to the United States last month, she stopped over in Trinidad and Tobago to fine tune her skills, with help from tennis officials in the twin-island republic.

Williams said, on her initiative, she sourced her own funding to get to the US.

“I must thank the National Olympic Committee, Sagicor Insurance and other individuals whom I asked personally through donation sheets for realizing this for me,” Williams said.

In assessing her recent accomplishment, Williams said: “It feels real good to know that I am the first Vincentian to achieve white badge and as a female it feels even better, as it is the men who normally who go after the badges.”

Williams is still active in the sport and last represented St Vincent and the Grenadines at the Commonwealth Games in India and the Central American and Caribbean Games in Puerto Rico in 2010.

Buoyed by her accomplishment, Williams is contemplating further upward mobility.

Williams is currently attached at the Division of Sports and Physical Education in the Ministry of Tourism, Sports and Culture. (RT)