adminNgqwele Dube Sports Correspondent
FOR some sport runs in the family!
In Zimbabwe one cannot talk about soccer without mentioning the Ndlovu siblings, Madinda, the late Adam and Peter, who mesmerised their opponents on the field of play while in national team and Highlanders Footbal Club colours and drew large crowds to stadia across the country.
In tennis there were Black siblings Byron, Wayne and Cara, who left us spellbound with their exploits with the tennis racquet, raising the profile of the sport in this country.
The Mawisire family led by their father Zebediah, affectionately known as Zeb, can also claim their fair share of bragging rights in tennis circles for both Bulawayo and country.
After deciding to learn tennis and utilise tennis courts that were lying derelict at Mthimkhulu Primary School in Magwegwe West, Zebediah, a former boxer, encouraged his children to embrace the sport and they have gone on to make a name for themselves.
Following a timely decision to take up tennis coaching, the older Mawisire has gone on to mould his children into stars in the mould of Fadzai (26), Vimbai (25), Tafadzwa (29) and most recently Takudzwa (12).
The three older Mawisire siblings went on to secure scholarships and at one point were in the United States but could not turn professional due to financial constraints.
While the older siblings have acquitted themselves well in tennis, Zeb believes Takudzwa could emerge the best of the Mawisire siblings.
Takudzwa showed great composure and talent when she won the under-18 Tarry-Leigh DeSouza Memorial tournament last month.
Zeb, a respected coach in the country believes Takudzwa has the talent and skill to scale greater heights in the sport and achieve more than her sisters.
“The fact that she is already playing in the under-14s when she is only 12 speaks volumes about her talent and recently she managed to win a tournament in the under-18 category, a feat that was only achieved by Fadzai who played in the under-18s when she was 11 years old,” he said.
Mawisire, who is also the chairman of the Bulawayo Metropolitan Tennis Board, said another reason he felt Takudzwa could go further in her career was the fact that she only trained on Fridays and Saturdays; due to the school roster at Maranatha School, where she is doing Grade Seven, while her sisters had more days to practice in the courts when they were blossoming.
Takudzwa walked away as the Tarry-Leigh DeSouza champion after making light work of Nicole Chigwada 6-0, 6-1. In an earlier tournament, the Bulawayo Open, she had lost in the final to Thabisile Dube, a player who earlier beat her in the Dumiso Khumalo Memorial Tournament that was held in July.
Takudzwa says she looked up to her achievements and will try to emulate her sisters’ efforts in the courts, while bettering their achievements.
“I want to do better than my sisters but I am also learning from them,” she said.
Zeb said he had high hopes that Takudzwa was most likely to turn professional unlike her sisters who did not turn “pro” due to financial challenges.
“I think she (Takudzwa) has the advantage of being the last born and as a family we are likely to combine our efforts and assist her in her professional career. It is a heavy financial burden to be able to play professional tennis and with no corporate support you are unlikely to succeed unless you have an alternative source of funding,” he said.
Fadzai first burst into the local tennis scene in the late 90s and won a silver medal at the All-Africa Games in 2003 before getting an International Tennis Federation Scholarship. She later received another scholarship at Lindsey Wilson College in the United States, where she studied Sociology.
She managed to reach the semi-finals of the US National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics championships between 2006 and 2008. Fadzai also worked with the Southern Illinois University as a coach. After returning home last year Fadzai participated in various tournaments in Africa and she won the Ugandan Open and Mozambique Open while she fell in the Soweto Open.
Zeb said Tafadzwa was more inclined to books than tennis but managed to pull her socks up and received a scholarship that has seen her studying medicine in the United States while Vimbai completed her under graduate studies where she majored in accounting.
“I do not regret encouraging my children to take up tennis as they managed to attend university, which I would not have afforded. Turning professional requires large sums of money and even though Fadzai tried to play on the African circuit it was not easy but because of her love of the sport she is now coaching at the ITF Centre in Morocco.
“Vimbai completed her bachelor’s degree and she now wants to do a masters degree while Tafadzwa is still studying medicine while playing tennis,” he said.
Online Reporter