Cara conducts course

top female player, Cara Black when she conducts a coaching clinic at Harare Sports Club this morning.
The one-day clinic is targeting Under-10 and Under-14 tennis players. Tennis Zimbabwe official, Cliff Nhokwara, said the association will be promoting the play and stay project for the Under-10 which is a new International Tennis Federation programme for juniors.
“We are going to have a promotion for the Under-10 players, play and stay programme, introduced by the ITF during the clinic. This is a promotion where we are saying one doesn’t have to start tennis when they are old but have to start playing at a tender age.
“It is a new ITF project and from next year we will be having tournaments for the Under-10 players using soft tennis balls,” said Nhokwara.
Nhokwara said players will be split into two groups with the Under-10s expected to get into the court first.
“We are going to have the first session for the Under-10 and then the Under14. They will be separated into two groups of 30 players each so that it becomes easier to handle them.
“However, the tournament remains open to other players. We will not deny anybody under the age of 18 the chance to play with Cara,” added Nhokwara.
Nhokwara said they are hoping to have another clinic before Cara leaves the country.
“She (Cara) will be going on a holiday and hopefully if she has no other commitments when she comes back we might have another clinic between 18 and 19 April,” said Nhokwara.
Meanwhile, TZ is expected to embark on a national development programme that will see the association reviving and introducing tennis provincial tournaments in inactive provinces.
“We are trying to encourage all provinces to run tournaments and these tournaments will be open to everyone in Zimbabwe. I am supposed to go to Masvingo at the end of April to restructure their board and focus on their action plan, come up with a five-year plan which includes going back to Primary schools. We want all the provinces to be active in hosting junior tournaments,” said Nhokwara.