adminEllina Mhlanga, Harare Bureau
TENNIS Zimbabwe president Regis Bhunu believes the Davis Cup team has a fair chance of making it when they travel to Finland next year for the Europe/Africa Zone Group II tie.
Zimbabwe remained in Group II this year when they beat Moldova 5-0 in a relegation play-off at Harare Sports Club in July. They had in March lost to Bosnia-Herzegovina 1-4 at the same venue and needed that win against Moldova to maintain their spot in the Group after getting promotion from Africa Zone Group III last year.
The team was made up of captain Martin Dzuwa, Takanyi Garanganga, the Lock brothers – Benjamin and Courtney – and Mark Fynn.
And in the draw for 2016 conducted last week, Zimbabwe have were drawn against Finland for the first tie scheduled for March 4 to 6.
Finland are hosting the tie and will be the favourites going into this match as they are ranked number 55 while Zimbabwe are 65.
But Bhunu said they are hopeful their team will do well and believes playing in Finland will be good for the players as they will not be under any pressure.
“The draw is good. When we looked at Finland we have good chances. Their top player retired and the other guys who are there, they are within a range of over 200 in terms of ranking and the rest of the payers they are way out. We believe we can do something against these guys.
“It’s an away game but definitely I think they will take it in Finland. I don’t think we will have a problem going there. Our players most of the times they are outside the country and at some point during our matches here you could see that the players were under pressure because they were playing in front of the home crowd having spent most of their time away from home. We believe when we go out there, they will have a better form in terms of pressure and should be doing quite well,” said Bhunu.
The TZ president said they are going to engage their traditional sponsors to assist with the team’s preparations and the trip to Finland.
“We will be going out, we were waiting for the draw to come out. The whole of this year our sponsorship for Davis Cup was done by NetOne, so we will be approaching NetOne,” Bhunu said.
If Zimbabwe wins against Finland they will then take on either Georgia or Denmark in the second round in July. And if they manage to come out with another victory from that tie they will then go for the play-offs for promotion into Group I.
But if they lose the first tie they will then play in the relegation play-offs to remain in Group II.
Zimbabwe’s best performance in the Davis Cup was when they played in the World Group in the late 1990s when tennis legends Byron and Wayne Black were the backbone of the team that lost to Italy in the quarter-finals. They had defeated Australia 3-2 in the first round.
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