I was just listening to Radio OZ this morning and I just caught the end of an interview about tennis courts in Dili and how the expats kept a lot of these courts for their own exclusive use.

I think this gives the wrong impression.  It made it sound like Dili is full of exclusive private clubs for expat use.

As far as I know, there are 2 public courts just behind the university and another single public court buried in Bebonuk.  I don’t know of any other public courts.

There is a house near the port that has a court but it is no longer used as one and I will assume there are some other courts in disrepair.  None of the hotels or accommodation establishments have tennis courts (to my knowledge).  As far as exclusive use tennis courts, I only know of the US Embassy and the OZ Defence Force Cooperation program staff compound which have one each.  Both of these are long-term establishments and not available to expats at large either.

Now a plug for “Timor-Leste Kids Tennis”.  This is a program for children, aiming at giving them the opportunity to participate.  The 3-pronged approach is aimed at :

• Introducing ball skills
• Introducing mini-tennis
• Introducing (or re-establishing) tennis courts and clubs

This group is looking for new/used tennis balls, tennis racquets, sports shoes/socks, strings/grips and any other relevant equipment or training services.

If you wish to contribute, you can contact :

1. Armindo da Costa
   National Tennis Advisor, National Tennis Federation
   armindodacosta {at) yahoo (dot} com
2. Sarah Johnston
   Education and Training Consultant
   sarah (at} johnston-international {dot) com

Note : Within 5 minutes of that interview above, the ABC radio transmission ceased and suddenly it was BBC radio.  Transmission breaks are common but switching stations is a new one on me.